Summer re-views: Pedro's Bad Education

Pedro Almodovar's latest JULIETA is getting good reviews, after the underwhelming I'M SO EXCITED a few years ago. So we are having another look at one of his most complex, exhilirating works, BAD EDUCATION, from 2004. I was also stunned by THE SKIN I LIVE IN (see review, Almodovar label) and of course we love ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, LAW OF DESIRE, VOLVER etc. Spain's greatest film-maker scores again .... London's BFI is also having a current retrospective on him. This is my 2013 review of BAD EDUCATION:

Pedro Almodovar takes a look at his own adolescence as well as confronting the issue of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church in this stylish thriller, which was chosen to open the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. 
In 1980s Madrid two young men, filmmaker Enrique and aspiring actor Ignacio, now calling himself Angel, open up dark secrets as they revisit their earlier years together at a Catholic school. As they try to uncover the truth about themselves, each other and the diverse characters in their story, they realise that things and people are not as they first seem ...
Well, that's what the dvd blurb says, though it mixes up the two leads' characters, but then it is a very confusing narrative .... Gael Garcia Bernal is at different times Ignacio/Angel, his brother Juan and Ignacio's alter ego the sensational drag queen Zahara - who does that sizzling musical tribute to Spanish star Sara Montiel, and also gets it on with another Enrique - a hilarious and sexy scene where she/he is aided and abetted by his ditzy pal Paquito. Then the first version we see of Father Manolo is soon replaced by another .... and then there is another Ignacio - confused? you could be, but one can hardly spell out the plot in more detail without giving too much away.

I had not seen BAD EDUCATION since 2004 and it played like I was seeing it for the first time, mesmerised by the crazy plot's twists and turns. It looks marvellous too of course, very Spanish in design, lots of vivid reds, with some stunning setpieces: the whole Zahara sequence, the two boys hiding from Fr Manolo - which played brilliantly in the cinema; someone falling face first into a typewriter ... Gael Garcia Bernal is stunning here, and joins those great performers in Almodovar movies: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Rossy de Palma, Marisa Paredes and Penelope Cruz.  
The marvellous script consists of three stories which have been interwoven in a brilliant way. Story one: film director Enrique (Fele Martinez) is being paid a visit by a long lost friend. who has written a script about their schooldays and the priest who abused them. This is the story we see as the director imagines it, with the two boys and the drag queen Zahara and her Enrique. 
Then the reality is the third story when everything becomes clear, a story of blackmail and murder. In all, a dazzling experience and one to revisit more than once ... the notes at the end which tell us what happens to the characters says "Enrique Goded is still making films with the same passion". The same applies obviously to Almodovar. The dvd 'deleted scenes' for once are interesting too, continuing what happens when Pequito (Javier Camara) and Zahara's pick-up Enrique (Alberto Ferreira) go to the school with the police, after Zahara unwisely confronted the priests ...

"Riveting, Unique and Unforgettable" - it sure is!

I did a round-up of horror/fantasy/trash movies earlier this month (like Schrader's CAT PEOPLE for my own 'October Horror Challenge' (see Horror label), like they do over at IMDB's Classic Film Board,), so for the last day of the month and Holloween, I finally took down Pedro Almodovar's recent and highly-praised THE SKIN I LIVE IN from 2012 which, much as I love Pedro, I seemed in no hurry to watch - and boy is this an October treat! It is another unique, fascinating movie - just as I had recovered from Wes Anderson's magical GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (below).

I somehow imagined this would be a riff on Franju's 1959's EYES WITHOUT A FACE, but that is just the starting point! The blurb says:

Released to rapturous reviews: "Stunning" (The Guardian), "Astounding" (The Observer), Pedro Almodovar's contemporary classic sees him reunited with Antonio Banderas in this sumptuous and spell-binding tale of obsession and beauty.

Haunted by past tragedies, a brilliant plastic surgeon sets out to create the perfect synthetic skin and to do so he needs the perfect living guinea pig. It is their wildly volatile, surreal and sensual relationship that fashions this "ravishing must-see movie with a must-keep-secret twist".

It looks marvellous of course, and (like Pedro's BAD EDUCATION) contains a dizzying story on many levels, with a jaw-dropping twist one does not entirely see coming .... The surgeon loses his beloved wife Gal in burning car accident, their daughter Norma gets raped at a party when she and the rapist (Jan Cornet as Vincente) are both high on pills, this drives her to suicide as her father plots revenge. Then there is his housekeeper Marilla (Marisa Paredes, from ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) and the secret of her two sons - 
one of whom Zeca, dressed like a tiger, intrudes and causes havoc ..... not least on Vera (Elena Anaya), the woman kept prisoner who wears that synthetic skin, but who is she really .... ? Pedro structures the film so we go back and forth between the various disasters, each time getting nearer to the truth. You will certainly not be bored at this one ! It is all intoxicating cinema, particularly with the tiger Zeca on the rampage ! I can't say no more about the plot ...

After the misfire of I'M SO EXCITED which nobody liked, its great to see Almodovar firing on all cylinders. I now must to back to VOLVER and BROKEN EMBRACES, and maybe those terrific earlier ones like LAW OF DESIRE and WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN and the endlessly fascinating ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER and BAD EDUCATION and his others.. 

Pedro is so excited, Francois is in the house, and where is the paperboy ?

A roundup of 3 recent treats:

DANS LE MAISON (IN THE HOUSE), 2012: Starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Fabrice Luchini. and from acclaimed director Francois Ozon, IN THE HOUSE is an unforgettable, blackly comic thriller. A sixteen year old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class, and writes about it in essays for his teacher - "to be continued". Faced with his gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, and finds himself strangely compelled as the boy becomes more dangerously involved with his classmate's attractive but bored mother. However, as the line between reality and fiction become blurred, the boy's intrustion unleashes a series of uncontrollable events.

Thats the blurb in a nutshell, giving a flavour of this unusal comedy - as we start to be unsure of what is real or imagined. I had to stop the film about half way through and could not wait to get back to it later. What was about to happen next? Is Claude going to make a move on Esther, his pal Rapha's mother (Elizabeth Seigner), or maybe even the father? (they shower after sport) and then the son kisses him, as the duplicitious Claude (excellent Ernst Umhauer) pretends to be his only best friend. Does he in fact want to supplant the son and have them as his new family with him at the centre? - 
or is this another take on Pasolini's THEOREM as Germain the teacher speculates. We know Claude's own mother walked out on him and his ailing father some time ago, so naturally he wants this new family to be his - he has been watching them and their house for a long time, wondering how to get in to it. But how is is all going to end? - the teacher's wife (KST) is worried she is going to lose her Art Gallery job (the art on show is amusing too...), as do the ideal family coping with their Chinese clients ..... will the son realise what is going on between Claude and his mother? Will the teacher go too far in blurring teacher-pupil boundaries? Does Claude actually want Germain (the teacher) himself?- then he calls on Germain's wife, who is also making changes ...

This is all absolutely fascinating and plays out nicely. Do see the final moments, a neat nod to Hitch's REAR WINDOW with all those apartments and different things going on in them as our two protagonists - teacher and pupil - watch and speculate ... don't miss the son who comes in and shoots his parents!  I loved Ozon's last, the deliriously comic POTICHE (it was fun seeing it again too recently, I enjoyed its '70s parodies a lot more), this one is another change of pace after those intense dramas like TIME TO LEAVE or UNDER THE SAND. (see Ozon/French labels). Fabrice Luchini (Mr Nasty in POTICHE) scores again here too. It is all simply delicious.  Good extras too and deleted scenes. 

Pedro's new one I'M SO EXCITED has not attracted such good notices and did not hang around. It is a rather leaden farce, with some amusing moments though. We have to allow Almodovar the occasional misfire, there is a lot to amuse though in this satire on Spain's economic crisis as we take to the skies ...

The action takes place above the clouds as the pilots of a stricken airliner battle to make it to Mexico City. In the face of danger the crew decide to forget their own personal problems and await their fate with a smile. They devote themselves body and soul to the task of making the flight as enjoyable as possible for the passengers - in first class at any rate. The ones back in steerage are sedated and drugged and have no say in what is going on (a comment perhaps on the Spanish economic situation) . Life in the clouds is as complicated as it is at ground level, and for the same reasons: sex and death. 

A few familiar faces here: Banderas and Cruz at the start, and Cecilia Roth from ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER and Javier Camara from BAD EDUCATION as one of the camp (very) air stewards. It is a sendup of the AIPPORT and AIRPLANE type of movies set in Almodovar's particular universe where anything goes. The plane is in trouble, and in true Almodovar fashion, everyone tries to bare their soul, find some relief, and enjoy themselves - even the pilots - bring on the drink and drugs. It may be just a silly comedy - but hey, enjoy it, even if it falls rather flat in the middle - at over 80 minutes it is mercifully not too long. More serious Almodovar soon, as I go back to THE SKIN I LIVE IN ! 

THE PAPERBOY.  Directed by Oscar nominee Lee Daniels, THE PAPERBOY  is the story of two brothers: Ward (McConaughey) a successful reporter, and Jack (Efron) a college dropout. Ward returns to his hometown to investigate the case of a wrongly convicted, but deeply unsavoury, man - who has been sentenced to death for murdering a sheriff. As the brothers dig deeper, it becomes clear that they are on a journey filled with lust and betrayal. THE PAPERBOY features an extraordindary performance from Nicole Kidman as the convict's wayward fiancee, and it also stars John Cusack, David Oyelowo and Macy Gray as the lovable maid Anita - yes, that Macy Gray who was a singing sensation a decade or so ago (I nearly wore out her first cd). 

So, a colourful ramble with some unsavoury characters through a Deep South swamp trash landscape - rather like KILLER JOE? Matthew McConaughey, on a roll after MAGIC MIKE and JOE (both reviewed at 2000s label), scores again here and Zac Efron is maturing nicely (I hadn't actually seen him in anything before) - and they get him down to his underwear frequently. Kidman - I had not wanted to see any of her recent films for ages - is terrific here, as the story is told by Macy. Ward has his own secret life too, as we discover when Jack has to rescue him from a pickup that has turned nasty ... It is good lurid fun with the cast challenging themselves in some staggering sequences - Zac shedding his boy next door image, Nicole pushing the limits .... The backwoods swamp milieu is fascinating too, as we get to that grisly ending. Daniels' THE BUTLER should be interesting too ...

Rita/Gilda + Stamp, York, new Pedro & Ozon ...

The BFI (British Film Institute) next turn their attention to '40s Love Goddess Rita Hayworth (1918-1887), with again, a paltry selection of her films, just 10 and the most obvious titles one could imagine ... I love Hawks' ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, followed by ANGELS OVER BROADWAY, BLOOD AND SAND, YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH, YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER, COVER GIRL, GILDA, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI and just 2 from the '50s: PAL JOEY and SEPARATE TABLES.

Perhaps her '50s output was variable (SALOME, MISS SADIE THOMPSON etc) - compared to her contemporary Lana Turner - and she certainly did nothing much of value during the '60s and later (I endured some of her later ones a while back: I BASTARDI, and THE ROVER and ROAD TO SALINA, where she was certainly diminished).  

Back in her heyday it was of course a different story. She is perfect with Astaire, being a great dancer herself. She is terrific too in PAL JOEY, with her younger rival Kim Novak and as Sinatra sings "The Lady Is  A Tramp" to her....

I particularly liked the older Rita and Gary Cooper, two once beautiful people, showing their frailties in Rossen's THEY CAME TO CORDURA in 1959 ....
We will always though have GILDA .... one to re-view soon. Film historian and archivist John Kobal caught her perfectly in his labour of love "The Time The Place And The Woman".

Those 2 '60s boys we liked: The BFI's Terence Stamp season is now underway, as per my post on that recently (Stamp label).

Michael York has been in the news too, having confirmed he is indeed suffering from a rare blood disease, hence his recent unwell appearances on that dvd interview, and the recent CABARET reunion - as per York label. But despite the illness, which has seen York undergo a stem-cell transplant, he remains positive about his future.“I know this can be deadly, but I never gave up. I am thrilled at this reprieve and want to do as much as I can to make it better.”  We wish him a speedy recovery.

Good news for European movie fans ... the new Almodovar I'M SO EXCITED opens here this week (and seems to be his first out-and-out comedy since 1988's WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (another must re-see soon...), though it does poke fun at Spain's current economic problems, those dancing camp air stewards seem hilarious in the trailer, it is of course set on an airplane. Pedro was great value on the UK Graham Norton show last week .... early reviews though have been negative - seems the movie "is disappointing only in the way bad movies by great directors are"..and not as bitter as his previous SKIN I LIVE IN or BROKEN EMBRACES but for his 19th feature I think Pedro is entitled to have fun and let his hair down .... a good camp tonic is just what we need !

while Francois Ozon's (below) current IN THE HOUSE is currently still playing and doing good business.We are looking forward to these ...

Next up: back to those 60s dramas: 2 more Brando's: Chaplin's comedy A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG with Loren, and Huston's REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE with Taylor and Harris; and 2 Simone Signorets: Kramer's SHIP OF FOOLS and Lumet's THE DEADLY AFFAIR. We also have Lumet's last film: BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, which passed us by completely ...+ Almodovar's THE SKIN I LIVE IN.

R.I.P.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927-2013), aged 85. I wrote about her just last week after watching A ROOM WITH A VIEW again (below) - surprisingly, the scriptwriter for most of those Merchant-Ivory films was not Indian at all, but a German Jew, a lot of whose family perished in the war. After her marriage to an Indian she settled in India before moving to America. She won Booker Prize for her novel HEAT AND DUST, which she also scripted for Merchant-Ivory (with Jhabvala, right), who approached her in 1960 to make a film of her novel THE HOUSEHOLDER, which started that rewarding partnership, resulting in Oscars for her scripts of the E.M.Foster films ROOM and HOWARD'S END; others included THE GURU, THE EUROPEANS, THE BOSTONIANS, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY. She did not though script MAURICE.

Milo O'Shea (1926-2013), aged 86, veteran Irish actor and funny man. Last year a lot of musical talent departed - it may be comedians this year (having already lost Richard Briers, Richard Griffiths, Frank Thornton). Milo was an all-round theatre man, popular in films too:  Duran Duran in BARBARELLA, the friar in Zeffirelli's ROMEO & JULIET, THE VERDICT, ULYSSES, LOOT (right, with Richard Attenborough and Lee Remick, one to revisit ..), and in tv in THE WEST WING, CHEERS, and that great BBC series ME MAMMY, scripted by his friend Hugh Leonard, with the great Anna Manahan - how we loved that in 1969-71, but seems impossible to see now. He did STAIRCASE on stage opposite Eli Wallach, in a long career on stage in Dublin, London and New York.

Roger Ebert (1942-2013), aged 70, became the first American film critic to win a Pulitzer prize, having turned reviewing into a branch of showbusiness when he and Gene Siskel launched their influential film review show on tv in Chicago in 1975; by the early 1980s it was attracting a weekly audience of three and a half millions viewers. The “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” from Ebert and Siskel, was delivered to the camera in the manner of ancient Roman emperors deciding the fate of gladiators. A double “thumbs up” was considered a much sought-after seal of approval by the Hollywood studios. Their shows did not appear here in the UK though  (we were lumbered with the BBC's middle-of-the-road movie pundit, Barry Norman).  I like Ebert's book THE GREAT MOVIES. At least his reviews, like those of Pauline Kael's, are preserved in their books.

Sara (Sarita) Montiel (1928-2013) - terrific in Anthony Mann's SERENADE, (he was one of her husbands)  perhaps the best of the Mario Lanza films, a delirious 1956 Warners melodrama with that lush colour and great compositions and Sarita (as she was then) certainly stood out ... its from a 40s James M Cain novel where the Joan Fontaine character is a man! (review at Fontaine label) Almodovar plays tribute to Montiel in his BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar label). Montiel was also in VERA CRUZ and RUN OF THE ARROW as well as remaining a huge star in Spain, perhaps a more flamboyant Jane Russell type ...

Annette Funicello (1942-20132) - "Theres a Muscle Beach Party in Heaven". I never saw Funicello in anything, we did not have the Disney Musketeers when I was growing up in Ireland, but we knew all about Annette and Frankie Avalon and those Beach Party movies .... sadly, she had been unwell for some time with M.S. 

and just in, news of the death of Margaret Thatcher, aged 87 after being unwell for some years. Whatever one felt about her and her policies (such as the infamous Section 28 or that bonkers poll tax) she was indeed a towering, colorful figure in British politics, perhaps the only Prime Minister since Churchill (or Blair) to have stood out so much or to have made such a difference, unlike today's lot.  As The Huffington Post succintly put it:

"Love her or loathe her, one thing's beyond dispute: Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain. The Iron Lady who ruled for 11 remarkable years imposed her will on a fractious, rundown nation _ breaking the unions, triumphing in a far-off war, and selling off state industries at a record pace. She left behind a leaner government and more prosperous nation by the time a mutiny ousted her from No. 10 Downing Street.

For admirers, Thatcher was a savior who rescued Britain from ruin and laid the groundwork for an extraordinary economic renaissance. For critics, she was a heartless tyrant who ushered in an era of greed that kicked the weak out onto the streets and let the rich become filthy rich.

"Let us not kid ourselves, she was a very divisive figure," said Bernard Ingham, Thatcher's press secretary for her entire term. "She was a real toughie. She was a patriot with a great love for this country, and she raised the standing of Britain abroad."

Thatcher was the first _ and still only _ female prime minister in Britain's history. But she often found feminists tiresome and was not above using her handbag as a prop to underline her swagger and power. A grocer's daughter, she rose to the top of Britain's snobbish hierarchy the hard way, and envisioned a classless society that rewarded hard work and determination."
She certainly symbolised the '80s in all its dated aspects now. I expect there will be wall to wall coverage  .... 

Almodovar: Bad Education / All About My Mother

In the early 60s, two boys - Ignacio and Enrique - discover love, movies and fear in a Christian school. Father Manolo, the school principal and Literature teacher, both witnesses and takes part in these discoveries. The three characters come against one another twice again, in the late 70s and in 1980. These meetings are set to change the life and death of some of them.

Pedro Almodovar takes a look at his own adolescence as well as confronting the issue of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church in this stylish thriller, which was chosen to open the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. In 1980s Madrid two young men, filmmaker Enrique and aspiring actor Ignacio, now calling himself Angel, open up dark secrets as they revisit their earlier years together at a Catholic school. As they try to uncover the truth about themselves, each other and the diverse characters in their story, they realise that things and people are not as they first seem ...  Well, that's what the dvd blurb says, though it mixes up the two leads' characters, but then it is a very confusing narrative .... Gael Garcia Bernal is at different times Ignacio/Angel, his brother Juan and Ignacio's alter ego the sensational drag queen Zahara - who does that sizzling musical tribute to Spanish star Sara Montiel, and also gets it on with another Enrique - a hilarious and sexy scene where she/he is aided and abetted by his ditzy pal Paquito. Then the first version we see of Father Manolo is soon replaced by another .... and then there is another Ignacio - confused? you could be, but one can hardly spell out the plot in more detail without giving too much away.

We had been meaning to get around to Almodovar and his dazzling stylish movies here at the Projector. I have 10 of them here in front of me. He first came to my attention with WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN in the late 80s, and it was great to go back and discover LAW OF DESIRE. These were ground-breaking, vivid, stylish movies. ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER was another huge hit, followed by BAD EDUCATION and TALK TO HER. A box set of 5 also includes LIVE FLESH and TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN. I also have his last 3: VOLVER, another success, BROKEN EMBRACES and his last one THE SKIN I LIVE IN - expect reports on these before too long. Today though lets go back to the complexities of BAD EDUCATION (LA MALA EDUCACION) and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (TODO SOBRE MI MADRE).  We shall be looking forward to his new one: I'M SO EXCITED ...

I had not seen BAD EDUCATION since 2004 and it played like I was seeing it for the first time, mesmerised by the crazy plot's twists and turns. It looks marvellous too of course, very Spanish in design, lots of vivid reds, with some stunning setpieces: the whole Zahara sequence, the two boys hiding from Fr Manolo - which played brilliantly in the cinema; someone falling face first into a typewriter ... Gael Garcia Bernal is stunning here, and joins those great performers in Almodovar movies: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Rossy de Palma, Marisa Paredes and Penelope Cruz.  The marvellous script consists of three stories which have been interwoven in a brilliant way. Story one: film director Enrique (Fele Martinez) is being paid a visit by a long lost friend. who has written a script about their schooldays and the priest who abused them. This is the story we see as the director imagines it, with the two boys and the drag queen Zahara and her Enrique. Then the reality is the third story when everything becomes clear, a story of blackmail and murder. In all, a dazzling experience and one to revisit more than once ... the notes at the end which tell us what happens to the characters says "Enrique Goded is still making films with the same passion". The same applies obviously to Almodovar. The dvd 'deleted scenes' for once are interesting too, continuing what happens when Pequito (Javier Camara) and Zahara's pick-up Enrique (Alberto Ferreira) go to the school with the police, after Zahara unwisely confronted the priests ...

ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, 1999, is another brilliant one, maybe Pedro's ALL ABOUT EVE, dediced to mothers everywhere (including Bette Davis and Romy Schneider).  This too is marvellously engrossing and entertaining, a deep drama, portraying the female universe with strength and realism, and explaining the importance of a mother.

A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, a wild yet caring transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, but instead finds out she is pregnant by Lola. Manuela becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired, by helping Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover. However, Agrado soon takes over when Manuela must care for Hermana Rosa's risky pregnancy. With echos of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship. 

The whole cast is sublime here, particularly Cecilia Roth as the mourning mother, and Penelope Cruz (who would be so sensational in VOLVER) as the nun infected with HIV, and Marisa Paredes as the actress with her own problems, the story is deeply affecting and it remains a key movie of the '90s. Almodovar, like Fassbinder before him, is a director who certainly puts his gay universe on film, like Francois Ozon and sometimes Andre Techine. Perhaps only Polanski can create such a private universe (along with Antonioni and Fellini, and Douglas Sirk back in the '50s). Reading some of the many reviews for ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER over at IMDB show what a brilliant and loved film it is.

More Almodovar before too long -  I want to go back to the early ones and see his last, and |I simply must get on with those Chabrol and Melville titles...