THE ROOM NEXT DOOR** - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Day 11

The anticipation of iconic writer-director Almodovar's first ever English language film starring two exceptional talented actresses in Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore was high. I am sad to report that while the film is handsomely produced and surface-glossy, it lacks any real depth. And without any crunchiness in the writing the actresses have little to do but be .... nice.  The result is a rather vanilla, unbrave film that skirts over the profound issue that it is tackling.

The film is based on a Spanish book and I wonder if the source material has more conflict within it.  In Almodovar's version all the big questions have been decided and all debate is shut down.  Tilda Swinton plays a war correspondent called Martha who has incurable cancer and decides to commit suicide.  She procures a tablet on the dark web and asks her friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to be in the room next door when she dies. That's it. That's the plot. (Although it's padded out with unnecessary flashbacks to her ex-partner's death). 

The decision has been made and Martha will not allow Ingrid to try and persuade her out of it.  And we are not going to see any of the unpleasantness and pain of actually killing yourself in this way. Don't get me wrong - I am in favour of euthanasia - but this film situates it in a beautifully designed house with a beautiful woman in a beautiful outfit lying on a deckchair in a beautiful garden with elegant pink snow failing. I find that rather disingenuous.

The real problem with this highly stylised depiction of the friendship and the decision is that there is no conflict and no depth to the conversations between the two friends, other than maybe a discussion about career vs motherhood that never really convinced me. Compare and contrast with Swinton's own discourse on this subject in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN.  People have praised the performance - heck this film won the Golden Lion at Venice - but I really struggled to see what the fuss about.

I would suggest that if you are actually interested in this topic that you watch documentarian Ondi Timoner's desperately moving film LAST FLIGHT HOME.

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR has a running time of 110 minutes. It played Venice, Toronto and London 2024. It goes on release in the UK on October 25th and in the USA on December 20th.

PAIN AND GLORY

Pedro Almodovar returns to our screens with a beautifully acted, deeply personal film about a director on the verge of a nervous breakdown. His avatar is Antonio Banderas - living in an apartment that exactly matches Almodovar's own clashes of bright colours and crazy patterns - wearing a frizzy spiky hairstyle that matches Almodovar's own.  In this most meta of texts, the director is struggling with psychological and physical pain. He is struggling to cope with the death of his mother, and suffering from tinnitus, chronic back pain, and god knows what else.  Foolishly, he decides to self-medicate with heroin, peddled by an old actor that he infamously fell out with over an early film.  When that film plays in retrospective, and the director runs scared from a Q&A this gives us one of the funniest and darkest scenes of the film.  Anyways, the heroin and the melancholy lead to flashbacks to the director's childhood - one of poverty and precocity.  He is pulled out of that poverty by an indomitable but bigoted mother (Penelope Cruz), and feels the first pangs of lust for the builder he teaches to read and write.  The final act twist takes this memory too far for my liking, but I love the idea that old love can force a reckoning, and an awakening.  In the director's case, he cleans himself up when he meets an old lover, who in turns contacts him when the old actor speaks a monologue inspired by their affair. It's telling that the director wants the play to be anonymous, but meeting the lover forces him to take ownership of his past. From then, reconciliation can begin.

The film is full of love, longing and sadness.  There are laughs, but far fewer than in a typical Almodovar movie.  The mother is not judged harshly - rather there's a lot of love and gratitude between her and her son. It's just that her religion cannot truly cope with her son's gay existence. They live in a kind of mutual lie, speaking openly but also not. Julieta Serrano, playing the mother in old age, gives the most wonderful performance of the film, second only to that of Banderas himself. It's a quiet performance. There's so much pain and fear and regret in a single sigh or look. And yet also the capacity for absurdist gonzo humour when called for. And finally, real joy. He is rightly being nominated for awards and it's a tragedy he's not winning them for a performance that's so moving, and so nuanced.

As for the film, I thought it clever and moving.  At its most meta moments it's quite audacious. But it suffers, as does 8 1/2 which clearly inspired it, for being a kind of portmanteau of memories and key moments and obviously symmetric confrontations.  It doesn't feel organic. It's not meant too. But that did make it feel a bit disjointed to me, and sometimes brought me out of my emotional response to the film.

PAIN AND GLORY is rated R and has a running time of 118 minutes. It played Cannes, Toronto and Telluride 2019 and is now available to rent and own.

George Ghon comments on THE SKIN I LIVE IN

Art keeps you free.

George Ghon, fashion writer, stylist, editor of ALPHA magazine, and cinephile, comments on THE SKIN I LIVE IN.......

Pedro Almodóvar’s THE SKIN I LIVE IN is a multi-faceted film, an experiment that combines the tradition of Greek drama with a modern, slightly surreal medical thriller. The central character, a brilliant Antonio Banderas as Robert Ledgard, is the contemporary equivalent to a doomed ancient king. He attempts to transcend his own human powers, plays god, and is bitterly punished for his hubris. He is an enormously talented surgeon that has pushed the boundaries in transplantology, scion of a wealthy family, and yet, his life is not a happy game. He tried to save his wife after she burned in a car crash, on the run with her lover. He tried to save his daughter, after the fragile girl got abused and raped in the scenic setting of a lush garden party. Both those women, for whom he had so much affection, took their own lives and found a sudden, unexpected death when jumping out through an open window. These bitter experiences, as well as his talent and money, make for an ambivalent character. On one hand brutal and powerful, but at the same time sensitive and almost loveable in his passion.

He finds his victim and, like Pygmalion, uses his skill to shape it into his perfect partner. In Ovid’s metamorphoses Venus grants the sculptor’s wish and the ivory statue becomes alive. In the Spanish town of Toledo, set in the year 2012, the surgeon also hopes for divine intervention. From the wall of his staircase lurks an oversized Venus d’Urbino, the renaissance painting originally conceived by Titian. It can (re-) ignite love and passion in its spectators, but it has also been seen as marriage picture, as object that was deliberately made to affirm and save the relationship of a couple. 

None other than recreating his lost love is Robert’s aim. But he reverts to dubious practises in order to achieve his goal, and fails miserably in the end. During the opening shots, we can see a beautiful, slightly androgynous girl practising Yoga in a locked room (Elena Anaya as Vera). Guarding her perfect body in a tightly fitted suit, she is completely shut off from the outside world. The only solace she can find, except from physical workout, is engaging with the art of Louise Bourgeois, which she learns through books coming up in a little elevator. She tears apart swatches of fabric and re-uses them to form little sculptures. 

First this seems unusual, but not utterly bizarre. Yet. The real story we only learn later in the film. It then becomes clear that Vera is searching for a new identity and delves into sculpture to overcome an existential angst that results from traumatic surgery. She is Robert’s chosen one, the one he experiments on and tries to find love for. By and by, she comes to terms with her fate and accepts the lover’s role, before finally encountering a reawakening reminder of her past. 

This movie deals with the big themes of classic tragedy, with love, loss, and redemption. Shot in beautiful locations and executed with superb cinematography, it is a feast for aesthetes. But the picture goes deeper than just touching the beautiful surface of things. It deals with the skin of bodies, but also affects the lives beneath it. There is a lot to consider about this new Almodóvar, no matter that the story might have its flaws. 

THE SKIN I LIVE IN played Cannes 2011 and was released in August in France, Ireland and the UK. It was released earlier this month in Spain, and is released today in the Czech Republic and Hungary. It played Toronto 2011 next week and opens in Russia and Poland. It opens on September 23rd in Argentina and Italy. It opens in Brazil and the US on October 14th and in Germany on October 20th. It opens in Hong Kong and Sweden on December 2nd.

BROKEN EMBRACES / LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS - damp squib

If BROKEN EMBRACES weren't by Almodovar, would it still be as highly praised by critics? I have great respect for Almodovar - I loved his crazy, transgressive early comedies and melodramas - TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN; WOMEN ON THE EDGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, and respected inestimably his more recent, mature, dramas - BAD EDUCATION, VOLVER. To my mind, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER and TALK TO HER are masterpieces. By contrast, BROKEN EMBRACES was unengaging, and sometimes, unforgivably, dull.

To be sure, BROKEN EMBRACES is as technically accomplished and well-acted as anything that Almodovar has ever done. And it contains all those classic Almodovar thematic concerns and audacious tricks. Within five minutes of opening, a blind screen-writer called Harry Caine (Lluis Homar) has picked up a pretty young girl and joyously fucked her on his couch. It's classic Almodovar - with a cheeky shot of a foot over a sofa replacing the typical Hollywood soft focus sex scene. Ten minutes later your into another classic Almodovar scene, as people come and go from Caine's flat, ringing the doorbell, like a British theatrical farce. Chief among them is Caine's production manager, Judit (Blanca Portillo), from the time when he was a sighted directer called Mateo Blanco. Evidently, she still carries a torch for him. Thirty minutes in and we get our mandatory Almodovar drugs scene, as Judit's son Diego (Tamar Novas) OD's. There's also the standard vengeful, creepy homosexual, in the shape of Ruben Ochandiano's Ray X.

But what does all this speak to? Certainly, there's no real reason to spend time with an OD'ing Diego. It's all a framing device for the heart of the story, which takes place in 1992 and is told in flashback by Mateo/Harry to Diego. Back then, Mateo had an affair with Lena, the leading lady in a movie rather similar to WOMEN ON THE EDGE. She (Penelope Cruz) was a failed actress, prostitute, and mistress of a rich, old industrialist called Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez). The story is about how the jealousy of Martel is abetted by his voyeuristic son and Judit, with tragic consequences.

That's it. I was amazed by how, well, THIN, the story really was. And how unengaged I was by it. Despite some energetic sex scenes, there is precious little sexual tension between Penelope Cruz' character and either of her lovers, and despite the fact that she was evidently a vulnerable and wronged women, for some reason I didn't feel any sympathy with her. The only character that really worked for me on a raw, gut level, was Blanca Portillo's jealous ex-lover Judit - the only really stand-out performance.

To be sure, Almodovar weaves a lot of intellectually interesting material around the hollow centre of the film. And for hardened cineastes this may be enough to sustain interest. The allusions to his own back catalogue, as well as other Hollywood and European classics and clever. The examination of double identity - Mateo Blanco/Harry Caine - Lena/Severine - the movie-within the movie - the taped tristes/the protagonist dubbing it - are all slippery, clever, and daring.

But as much as I appreciated all this on an intellectual level, my over-riding impression was still of a film that was below par for Almodovar, if not still well above the standard of your typical Hollywood fare.

BROKEN EMBRACES played Cannes 2009 and opened earlier this year in Spain, Belgium, France, Israel, Russia, Germany and Austria. It is currently on release in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands and opens next weekend in the UK. It is released in September in the Czech Republic, Norway, Croatia, Portugal, Brazil, Hungary and the Ukraine. It is released in October in Argentina, Italy,, Greece, Estonia and Mexico. It is released in the US in late November and in Australia in December.

TO DIE IN SAN HILARIO/MORIR EN SAN HILARIO - formulaic & sappy

TO DIE IN SAN HILARIO is a warm-hearted but formulaic movie from Spanish writer/director Laura Mañá. The movie is set in a sepia-tinted version of World War Two-ish Argentina, where gangsters where pin-stripe suits, fedoras and two-tone shoes and trains still run on steam. One particular gangster is on the run from the law with a bag of stolen cash and ends up in a village so inconsequential that it's not even on the map. The villagers - who exist merely to provide elaborate funerals - mistake the man for a bohemian artist who is about to die and begin planning his funeral. Of course, this being a feel-good romance come comedy, the gangster goes through a redemption and brings joy to the villagers in the process. Altogether now: aaah!

There is much to inspire initial interest in TO DIE IN SAN HILARIO. We are in the sort of territory usually inhabited by Almodovar - eccentric people preserving old rituals of village life. Just think how VOLVER opens with a scene of women polishing graves. The Almodovarian note is also struck by casting Lluís Homar as the gangster - he also played Sr. Berenguer in BAD EDUCATION. However as TO DIE IN SAN HILARIO grinds through its formulaic machinations all interest wanes. The director entirely fails to press home the advantage of this unusual setting. Finally, the film is entirely disposable, and certainly not worth going out of your way to see.

TO DIE IN SAN HILARIO/MORIR EN SAN HILARIO was released in Argentina, Spain, Canada and Brazil in 2005. It is currently on very limited release in the UK and opens in the Netherlands today. It is also available on Region 1 DVD.

VOLVER - the genius of Almodovar

Ah the delight of having a new Pedro Almodovar movie to watch! Let me make no apology - Almodovar is by far my favourite contemporary film-maker and for many people, the fact that this movie carries his name is enough to ensure that they make the trip to the cinema. But how can I convince others to shell out that ten squid?

Almodovar is a Spanish director who grew up in La Mancha with his indomitable mother. As a result his movies delight in the colours, language, music, costume and food of Spain. But more than being great exemplars of Spanish culture, Almodovar's movies are full of life in all its glory. By which I mean that you are as likely to see a transexual or drug addict as a provincial grand-mother. All are treated with equal warmth and, unlike more preachy cinema, never need to be explained or made an issue of. Almodovar's films also feature strong female characters, and focus on the relationships between women. (BAD EDUCATION being the exception to this rule.) Men are often predators although even then they can be treated with empathy and sometimes sympathy. This means that unlike conventional cinema, these films are full of eccentric characters and deliver great opportunities for actresses to give impressive performances that combine humour and tragedy. Anything can happen in an Almodovar film but it is always grounded in authentic emotion.

VOLVER, which means "coming back" in Spanish, combines all those wonderful, familiar Almodovar traits. The film is set half in Madrid and half in a provincial town in La Mancha. The cast is almost entirely female and features a "coming back" to Almodovar for Penelope Cruz (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER), Lola Duenas (TALK TO HER) and Carmen Maura (WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN). Penelope Cruz makes a triumphant and award-winning return to Spanish-language cinema, playing Raimunda. She is a feisty, curvaceous house-wife living in the crappier part of Madrid with her teenage daughter Paula and her unemployed sleazy husband Paco. Famously, Penelope wears a fake arse and a push-up bra for the role, allowing Almodovar to cheekily photograph her cleavage from above. Almodovar explained that this was not because Penelope had an unattractive arse or was too thin - but that to him a really fat arse represented optimism and passion for life. You've just got to love this guy! Raimunda has a quieter, aptly titled sister, Sole (Lola Duenas.) Sole is alone - separated from her husband and feeling the loss of her mother, whose ghost (Carmen Maura) returns with Sole to Madrid. Add to this supernatural plot, sexual violence, murder and a lot of really really good food, and you get your typically brilliant Almodovar movie.

For me VOLVER is about the importance of family and friends and helping each other out of those lonely times. Most of all it is about that instinct for survival that gets us through the worst of times. Not ground-breaking for sure, but delivered with so much good-humour and genuine pathos that it is deeply affecting. In particular, Penelope Cruz delivers an oustanding performance. Raimunda is at once self-reliant and no-nonsense but at other times incredibly vulnerable.

What more can I say? VOLVER combines the darker subject matter of recent films such as BAD EDUCATION with the technicolour out-landish-ness of movies such as TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN. It is a funny, moving, beautifully acted and photographed movie about eccentric people and events but very real emotions. It deserves all the praise it has received and then some. Go see it!

VOLVER played at Cannes 2006 where it won prizes for its script and female cast. It has already been on release in Spain, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Israel, Hungary, Germany, Estonia and Russia. VOLVER opens in the Netherlands and UK on August 25th, Finland on September 1st; Hungary and Portugal on September 7th and Poland and Sweden on September 29th. The movies opens in Argentina on October 2th and in the US (NYC & LA) on November 3rd. It rolls into Japan on 11th November 2006.