The Beatles 8 days a week

OMG, I just checked out of interest and my perfect condition 1964 Beatles Calendar is on sale on ebay for £92.99 ! I have had mine since '64, when I was 18 and a total Beatle nut. I was living in Ireland till then and I was told I was the first Beatle look-alike in North Kerry! - as per below. I even got my friend Mike to send me over a pair of those Beatle Chelsea Boots.

I also have, also from 1964 - when I was 18 and new in London - a Beatles headscarf, with images and facsimile autographs of The Fabs on it. Maybe thats worth a bit now too - there is a sold out one on ebay. The calendar has those great shots by Robert Freeman, who shot their early album covers, and the images seem unique to this calendar. I am open to offers .... 

The Beatles are now back again in Ron Howard's documentary on their touring years, EIGHT DAYS A WEEK, we will have to go and see it, a lot of that footage, particularly their American tours, will be new to me, as I did not watch television back then, in my London bedsit. Sniff .... thats why much as we loved A HARD DAY'S NIGHT it was utterly fabulous to go and see them on the big screen in colour in HELP! in 1965 - I sat through it twice at the Odeon Harlesden in North London, in those days of continuous performances. 

Now for EIGHT DAYS A WEEK ...  as they said on morning television here earlier, 52 years later and we are still talking about and listening to The Beatles. Good to see Paul and Ringo on the blue carpet at last night's premiere but we know they are 74 and 76, they don't need to dye their hair and beard. We have moved beyond "When I'm 64"!

Hunk de jour: Guy

Another person we like: Guy Madison - quite a lot about him on various sites. Here is his first role of a few minutes in the 1944 wartime drama SINCE YOU WENT AWAY. He was a real marine then, and had a career once he returned to Hollywood after the war.

I don't know SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, John Cromwell's film seems essentially of that era now, like CASABLANCA or MEET ME IN ST LOUIS. I have had to order it, for that great cast: Colbert, Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead, Nazimova, and er, Shirley Temple. Guy made quite an impression here as the young marine. 

Below: with Judy Garland, at a premiere, and with Judy again a decade or so later.

Guy (1922-1996) had a respectable career, gravitating towards westerns - one of the first films I saw, when aged 8, was his 1954's THE COMMAND - like Dale Robertson, also big in westerns then, Guy was ideal out west or in cavalry uniform. as in THE LAST FRONTIER.
He also had a long-runnng western series THE ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOK. He is also good with Jean Simmons in the 1956 drama HILDA CRANE (review at Simmons label) and I like FIVE AGAINST THE HOUSE (also with gay Kerwin Matthews), and like Jeffrey Hunter, Tab Hunter, Robert Wagner, Tony Perkins etc he was a leading man of the 1950s, before the new crop arrived: Troy Donahue, Fabian, young Warren Beatty, Redford, etc. 
Like a lot of others he then did several costumers in Europe, as did his pal Rory Calhoun (who did a good one: Leone's THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES in 1961).  One of Guy's SLAVE OF ROME in 1961, is on YouTube, where he co-stars with Rosanna (HELEN OF TROY) Podesta:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiPJoCrbtQA

There are lots of pictures actually of Guy and Rory (1922-1999; mainly a B-movie actor (left), best known now for those two Monroe films at Fox: RIVER OF NO RETURN where Mitchum is the lead, and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE where he is teamed with Betty Grable), and with Susan Hayward in the musical sudser WITH  SONG IN MY HEART, 1952, which we like a lot. 

The boys went fishing a lot (and really caught fish, unlike BBM), both were clients of the notorious agent Henry Willson (Below with the boys). Guy was married for some years to the fragile actress Gail Russell, whom we like a lot, and he had 4 children by his second marriage. Rory was married to actress Lita Baron (usually a tough cookie in westerns), but like Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, and Tab and Tony Perkins, their friendship endured during their marriages.

Guy and Rory both did an intriguing-sounding 1949 western: MASSACRE RIVER. One to check out?  He seems a bit clunky jitterbugging though ... More Guy at label. 

Looking at MASSACRE RIVER now the chemistry between the boys is startling, with all that horseplay and fooling around, as Rory's trousers fall down and they grapple in the hot tub. The rest of it is standard 1940s horse opera. Guy had a good run in cavalry uniform, as here and THE COMMAND in 1954 (which I saw when I was 8, one of the first films I saw), THE LAST FRONTIER in '56, and others. 

People We Like: Lauren

No, not that one, the other one: Lauren Hutton in AMERICAN GIGOLO.

We have covered Paul Schrader's 1980 hit AMERICAN GIGOLO quite a bit here, see label, usually focusing on Richard Gere, this is the role, as gigolo Julian Kaye, which established him after DAYS OF HEAVEN and YANKS. The film for me ushers in the glamour and glitz of the Eighties, with that Moroder soundtrack. But the more I see it the more I am fascinated by Lauren Hutton as the senator's wife, she is the still centre of the film and is marvellously watchable, and how she wears clothes, being a top fashion model of course (she was on the cover of VOGUE 25 times). Her character though is so sympathetic compared to the others on view here and the climax is so affecting when she gives Julian the alibi he needs to get off that fixed murder rap. 

Lauren, in her seventies now, is as fascinating to look at as Joni Mitchell - they both have that blonde, Nordic look. She is also effective in Alan Rudolph's WELCOME TO L.A. and THE GAMBLER with James Caan, and Altman's A WEDDING, as well as assorted tv series like NIP/TUCK and FALCON CREST.  She has notched up 57 movie credits and has turned producer. Like that other fashion model turned actress, Marisa Berenson, it is always a pleasure to see Lauren. 

Joni is back!

How nice to check Joni Mitchell's site and see that she is back and out and about again after that fall and illness last year. Here she is a month ago, in August, at a concert in L.A. with Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. So pleased to see her well again. 

Lots on Joni at label. 

Hockney's bigger book

We got a lot of David Hockney's books over the years, starting with that 1978 nice Thames & Hudson retrospective on his career to then (right), followed by his books on paper pools, collages, sketches, his dogs and all those various exhibitions, as his art moved from London to Paris and Europe and on to America and back to the North of England in recent years, as per other posts on him, see label, plus of course that A BIGGER SPLASH film in 1974.. Now 79 Hockney is painting and smoking as much as ever - there will be a huge new exhibition at the Tate in London next year, after the one that just finished here Now we have an even bigger book:

Taschen are bringing out A BIGGER BOOK, and this IS  a coffee table tome, in fact it could be a coffee table, if you have £1,750 for the price, but it does comes with its own stand. It is 500 pages, large size, weighing 70lbs ... covering 60 years of David's ever-changing art from his Bradford art-student days to now, and it is signed by Hockney, could he have signed all 10,000 copies? 

Good interview with him too in this week's "Sunday Times", by Lynn Barber. He is going to paint on for as long as he can, but he does have a good team of 9 to help him: 3 assistants, and other staff (housekeeper, gardener, those off-site running his office and archive). 
A BIGGER BOOK follows his 2012 Royal Academy exhibition, A Bigger Picture, in which the artist produced large images with the aid of an iPad. It unveils at Frankfurt's Book Fair in October, with Hockney present to introduce the new tome. 

RIP: Clubbing

That seems a spectacular own goal by the London licencing authorities - just as London becomes an all-night city (well, at weekends anyway for now) by the introduction of all-night underground trains they go and close the main London club for clubbers and night owls, so its RIP to renowned superclub Fabric, following all those other clubs and music venues that have closed here in the last decade or so.

I had not been to Fabric - having more or less retired from clubbing a decade or so ago, but knew and frequented others, both gay and straight, then, in London and Brighton: The End, Crash, Action, Substation in Brixton and Soho (those clubs run by Wayne Shires and Patrick Lilley), Club Colosseum, Turnmills etc. all gone now too, as well as havens like The Shadow Lounge and  Madame JoJo's in Soho. The Astoria (G-A-Y and Falconburg Court) have been demolished for the new Crossrail line, At least we still have Heaven (G-A-Y).

Soho in fact is in danger of being swept away by gentrification too. The Yard, a super gay venue, with an open courtyard and outdoor area, right in Wardour Street, has just successfully fought off another round of developers wanting to close the open space and build more luxury flats. The Royal Vauxhall Tavern (see below) at least got listed status to keep it as an entertainment and musical venue. Over the past decade over 40% of London's club;s and live music venues have closed, leaving the city a quieter and less exciting place. We do not all want to trek out to the O2 for some over-priced concert. So who is next?

Of course it is beyond tragic that two clubbers at Fabric either bought or got drugs there and fatally overdosed. It makes me realise how lucky I was in my clubbing days - but some people will always take drugs in clubs, or take them before they go in, despite all the management can do to keep the venue clean, but closing the clubs is not the answer, it only makes it all go underground and less regulated.

Nightclubbing is a large slice of London's economy and like all major cities needs its clubs and music venues.  How soon perhaps before another block of expensive flats rises on this prime real estate building?  London needs its iconic clubs like Fabric and the rest, especially if it is going to be an all-night city.
The London gay scene is constantly evolving but its astonishing to realise that a lot of the venues I knew over the last 20 years or so are no longer here: Crews, Brief Encounter, Bromptons, The Colherne, The Copacabana, The Black Cap, The Market Tavern, The London Apprentice, Escape, Barcode, Crash, 79CXR, The Queen's Head pub off the Kings Road in Chelsea (I lived near it in the '70s), etc as the 'scene' moved from Earls Court and the West End to Vauxhall and on to East London .... 

La La Land, Tom & Isabelle at LFF ,,,

Another year, another bulky LFF (London Film Festival) brochure arrives for the October feast of new films, as another award season gets underway.

The Venice Film Festival is also in full swing, and initial reports on some of the films whet one's appetite. I particularly want to see LA LA LAND, David Chazelle's follow-up to WHIPLASH which is an out-and-out musical, a hymn to Hollywood and stardom and those who strive there. Ryan Gosling at his most appealing plays a jazz musician hoping to open his own club. Emma Stone is an aspiring actress but working as a barista. They get together and inspire each other to achieve their dreams, they sing and dance. The stunning opening sequence apparantly of mass happiness breaking out on a jammed freeway is eye-popping. Bring it on. Maybe a new hymn to Hollywood and music a la Scorsese's NEW YORK NEW YORK?  

Tom Ford, after the problematic version of Isherwood's A SINGLE MAN in 2009 (see Tom Ford label), also has a well received new film, that should generate a lot of interest: NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, showing the disintegration of crime victim Jake Gyllenhaal in rural Texas. Amy Adams and Michael Sheen also star. The Ford got the grand jury prize at Venice and LA LA LAND's Emma Stone best actress.

There are also two new Isabelle Huppert films, ELLE by maestro Paul Verhoeven, a rape revenge drama, and SOUVENIR. Ms Huppert keeps busy, there is also a new one just opened in London, THINGS TO COME, which my pal Martin liked a lot. 

We will have to go through the LFF listings in more detail for more items to look forward to. 

Fun out west with Anne, Jeff, Rory, Randolph & Angela

I have not seen the 1942 western THE SPOILERS - but it should be fun, with John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich and Randolph Scott heading this western set in Alaska in those gold-rush days. It was remade though in 1955, with a more 50s cast: Jeff Chandler, Anne Baxter and Rory Calhoun, with some grizzled veterans like Wallace Ford and John McIntyre. 

Like Wayne's 1960 comedy western by Henry Hathaway NORTH TO ALASKA we are back in those muddy streets of Nome, Alaska, where everyone is looking for gold or trying to get their hands on others' claims. 

Anne is vamping in high style, and some eye-popping costumes, as saloon owner Cherry Malotte, the guys are merely adequate around her scheming minx, Cue lots of fighting in the mud, and much amusement as Jeff and Rory demolish the saloon bar during their extended fight at the climax. She seems to be having as much fun as she does in her next, Cecil's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Below: the 1942 trio.

A lot of Randolph Scott's westerns are being aired here just now too, usually those lean Budd Boetticher revenge dramas with Randolph as a man alone seeking those who did him wrong, as in BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, COMMANCE STATION, THE TALL T, SIX MEN FROM NOW etc 
One I had not seen before is A LAWLESS STREET from 1955 - usual story, he is the weary Sheriff of a lawless town, who wants to hand in his badge. The interest in this run of the mill one is that Angela L|ansbury plays his ex-wife who returns to town as a singer and dancer and does a rather risque musical number. Rest assured Randolph and Angela ride off in a wagon once he has dished out justice to the lawbreakers .... a pleasant timewaster then, as indeed is THE SPOILERS, I imagine Marlene and Wayne would be fun too, with Randy too of course. 

White Hunter Black Heart, 1990

A thinly fictionalized account of a legendary movie director, whose desire to hunt down an elephant turns into a grim situation with his movie crew in Africa.

The blurb states: "For a film of "excitement, wit and intelligence" (Rex Reed) the hunt ends here. As both star and director of WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART, Clint Eastwood plays one of his most colourful roles and crafts one of the most acclaimed movies of his 45-year career.

He plays John Wilson, a brilliant driven film director (loosely based on legendary John Huston) determined to turn his new project in Africa into personal adventure hunting a wild elephant. Jeff Fahey, Marisa Berenson and George Dzundza co-star in this rugged, robust movie from the novel by co-screenwriter Peter Viertel, who accompanied Huston to Africa in 1950 to work on THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Filmed on location in Zimbabwe and London, WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART is a bold trek into the heart of adventure". 

Well they would say that I suppose, but there is no "loosely based" about it. Clint's character is meant to be Huston, and the film they are making is THE AFRICAN QUEEN, with Marisa Berenson a convincing Hepburn character (Bogie and Bacall - also on the location - are not as developed here). 

We were discussing THE AFRICAN QUEEN over at IMDB, which got me interested in this, which I had missed at the time, as indeed I had most of Eastwood's films, I just do not find him or his films interesting (apart from the early stuff like PLAY MISTY FOR ME or DIRTY HARRY). Viertel was a fascinating guy too, writer and Hollywood marverick, who married Deborah Kerr, and knew Huston, Hemingway etc. well, as per his fascinating memoir. (His mother Salka was an intimate of Garbo's). There is a strong British contingent here, with Timothy Spall, Alun Armstrong and Richard Warwick, and Fahey is a pleasing presence. Eastwood gets Huston's speech patterns and mannerisms off pat, so its a fascinating look at movie-making, but really anyone not familar with THE AFRICAN QUEEN or who these people were, would be totally at sea. The climax with the elephants is well handled too. Having seen Berenson recently on the stage, see label, it was interesting to see her again here and she too (like Blanchett) sketches a passable Kate. Hepburn's slim  memoir of making the film is a fascinating read too with great photographs. 
Huston returned to Africa in 1957 for another elephant saga, THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN, about saving elephants, not shooting them. 

Woody's films ranked !

I am indebted to that enterprising movie magazine LITTLE WHITE LIES, as they have ranked all Woody Allen's 46 films, with interesting comments on them, just as his new one CAFE SOCIETY is getting better than usual reviews here (My pal Martin "loved, loved, loved it".). The link is here:   Enjoy!

http://lwlies.com/articles/the-films-of-woody-allen-ranked/

I couldn't top that, Woody (is it really 51 years since he was chasing Romy Schneider in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT?, our favourite 1965 cult movie .... ) has been variable over the years, with some movies I love (ok, the mainly early funny and mid-period ones) and some I just had no interest in seeing. 

My top 10 Woodys would be:      (but check the link and read all about them all). 

• ANNIE HALL
• MANHATTAN
• INTERIORS
• STARDUST MEMORIES
• HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
• CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS
• MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
• EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU
• ANOTHER WOMAN
• RADIO DAYS
• BROADWAY DANNY ROSE
• THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO
• LOVE AND DEATH

I dashed to BLUE JASMINE which seemed his best in years, it was only after we realised the flaws in the script, but it was marvellously done, especially by Cate Blanchett. His London movie YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER worked for us too. 1972's EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX amused at the time - Woody as the Fool, Gene Wilder and the sheep - but that extended sperm sequence may jar now, with that anti-gay jibe (Are there any gays in the Woody universe, apart from Meryl Streep as the lesbian ex-wife in MANHATTAN?) 
Reviews of some of these at Woody label. Lets hope he, in his 80s,  can keep turning out a movie a year for a while longer yet ...  

Ingmar - a round dozen

My friend Mike in San Francisco (my oldest pal, we were penfriends when we were 17 - what people did before the internet and Facebook) and I have been ruminating on Ingmar Bergman films. Hard to believe now but when I was first in London, aged 18 in 1964, we went to a screening of Bergman's THE SILENCE, an arthouse hit then (which we followed by going to see the routine THE CHALK GARDEN). 

It seems inpossible now that teenagers would go and see a sombre black and white Swedish film with sub-titles, but back then arthouse movies were part of the general movie scene, with several crossover hits and every reasonable size city had one or two for the trendy folk to go to. (There was a more exotic or erotic arthouse cinemas for those looking for something more explicit than what the local Odeon or ABC served up..."the dirty mac brigade").  Of course there were less distractions then, just 2 television channels here in the UK, in black and white; no internet or cellphones. Mike was saying his students would not even watch an old Greta Garbo movie now. 
Of course THE SEVENTH SEAL was stunning on a first view, we had seen nothing like it, as it later became an arthouse cliche, and his lovely film of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE is still a perfect opera film. 

Anyway to Bergman, a list of my favourites:

• THE SEVENTH SEAL
• SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
• WILD STRAWBERRIES
• THE MAGICIAN
• THE SILENCE
• PERSONA
• CRIES AND WHISPERS
• AUTUMN SONATA
• THE MAGIC FLUTE
• FANNY & ALEXANDER

Theres also the early SUMMER WITH MONIKA, and THE VIRGIN SPRING, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WINTER LIGHT and those unsparing Liv Ullmann dramas FACE TO FACE and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. I have not seen the 1964 comedy NOW ABOUT THESE WOMEN, or the later THE SERPENT’S EGG.

Bergman (1918-2007) directed a total of 67 films, and died on the same day as Michelangelo Antonioni – which was quite a surprise for us in 2007, but the movies go on and continue to resonate with us. 
We were also fascinated by his troupe of actresses: Thulin, Lindblom, Ullmann, Bibi and Harriet Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck ... and Ingrid having a late career swansong with that SONATA. 
I went twice to his 1970 London theatre production of HEDDA GABLER - a very intense staging with actors in black on a red stage (rather like CRIES & WHISPERS) - with Maggie Smith (right) giving one of her best stage performances. 
I have written more on some of these at Bergman label, but must return to them and review some more over the winter months. (Above, the two Bergmans on AUTUMN SONATA). 

Nina puts a spell on you ...

My pal Martin has been raving (and raving) about that new Nina Simone (1933-2003) documentary WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? so its got me compiling some favourite Nina tracks - we have liked her since the 1960s, I first had an EP (ask your grand-dad) of hers circa 1965, with those great tracks "I Put A Spell On You" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and I think "I Loves You Porgy". I loved that early live album of hers NINA AT TOWN HALL, and of course now there are endless compilations. 

We also got her late sixties stuff like "Ain't Got No, I Got Life" when she was wooing the hippie HAIR crowd, but I really preferred her recordings from a decade earlier. We saw one of her last concerts too, one of the most bizarre I have been to, where she stomped on, played some, ignored the audience, and then stomped off, complete with plastic carrier bag. A difficult life and a difficult woman, obviously, with lots of demons, but she when was on form she was dynamic - that voice ... and that piano playing too (like Aretha Franklin, also able to play with soul). Here's a top dozen Nina's, and seek out the documentary:

• I Put A Spell On You
• Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
• Be My Husband
• Sinnerman
• Fine and Mellow
• The Other Woman
• Seeline Woman
• Four Women
• My Baby Just Cares For Me
• Feeling Good
• Wild Is The Wind
• I Want More and More and Then Some 

Poldark (and handsome) returns ....

We have had to wait 16 months for the second series of POLDARK on the  BBC, Sunday nights will be more tolerable now, as we return to those wild Cornish land and seascapes as our smouldering hero (Aidan Turner) rides his trusty steed and copes with all that drama, topless down the tin mines, or comforting his wife Demelza (or Grizelda, as a friend insists on calling her), and there are some new interesting characters too. Good too to see that veteran character actress Caroline Blakison as the old granny shufflng her tarot cards .... 10 episodes, so better order in some more gin & tonics. (see Poldark label for review of first series.). Aidan is one of these actors who certainly can wear those period costumes.

We will have to check out that horror series BEING HUMAN, looks quite intriguing - with pre-POLDARK Aidan with Russell Tovey ...

Last summer re-view: La Isla Del Sol

As summer ebbs away here and autumn sets in, our final summer re-view is, appropriately, ISLAND IN THE SUN (or as my Spanish dvd calls it LA ISLA DEL SOL), that sun-drenched trashfest/engrossing drama from 20th Century Fox in 1957, with fascinating casting and it all looks gorgeous, as per my earlier review.  To recap:

ISLAND IN THE SUN. “Scandal, political intrigue and inter-racial romance on a steamy Caribbean island” – well, that’s what the blurb says, and continues: “Its 1957 on the tropical island of Santa Mara (so no, its not Jamaica) where a charismatic new black leader threatens to unseat British rule.” The result though is an engrossing two hours as several plotlines converge around the leading players. Joan Fontaine has a chaste romance with Harry Belafonte (despite the posed still above they do not touch in the film) Which Cannot Be, so they have to give each other up, but it gives her a chance to wear some nice summer outfits and halter tops, with white gloves of course. 
Joan Collins also gets to wear some nifty outfits as she romances a stolid Stephen Boyd (an English lord !); James Mason gets into a murderous rage over his wife’s relationship with Michael Rennie; Dorothy Dandridge (CARMEN JONES) is lovely but rather wasted, and Diana Wynyard is good support, along with John Williams as the police chief tracking down the murderer. 

It was a best-selling novel by Alec Waugh  (a brother of Evelyn) and Darryl F Zanuck produces and gives it that 20th Century Fox plush Cinemascope look mixing in contract players like Boyd, Collins, Patricia Owens, with the more established stars, so another 20th Century Fox literary potboiler like their PEYTON PLACE, THE SUN ALSO RISES, THE WAYWARD BUS, SANCTUARY, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN. The island here could be a mix of Barbados and Grenada and is a set-designer’s dream. The title song is one of the first pop hits I remember ... A star-studded entertaining chunk of trash then from director Robert Rossen, for a damp afternoon, and so very 1957. 
PS on Fontaine & Belafonte - it caused a furore in America in the '60s when Petula Clark touched him when they were singing on one of her tv shows .... so imagine the fuss in 1957 ! Poor Joan received hate mail! On location, it was the other Joan - La Collins - who got to first base with Harry.

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 ...