Uncle Scoopy's Fun House

Kika

(1993)

Johnny's comments:

Kika is a 1993 comedy told by Kika (Verónica Forqué, Almodóvar's most underrated actress), a bubbly make-up artist who one day is called into a TV show to do the make-up for American writer Nicholas (Peter Coyote). He likes her job so much that later, Kika is asked by Nicholas to do the make-up on his dead son Ramón (Àlex Casanovas), who is actually not dead. Kika dazzles both father and son and she moves in with the son who lives below his father in an apartment block. Meanwhile, tabloid journalist/presenter Andrea Caracortada aka Scarface (Victoria Abril) attempts to get Nicholas to write some scripts for her show but she really wants to know more about the death of his wife 3 years previous by apparent suicide. All is not well in the household and someone is spying on the house and it becomes clear that all is not well in the household and Andrea Scarface will do anything to get that scoop. That's when the bodies start piling up.

Just when you think he might be becoming sensible, Almodóvar makes the absolutely ludicrous Kika and throws that out the window. Honestly, Kika feels like a misstep, sure, there's plenty of laughs and Verónica Forqué is an absolute whirlwind of bubbly fun as Kika, but saying this movie is over-the-top is being generous. There's the comical rape scene which goes on and on and on and is incredibly dicey, but I'm not going to say that I didn't get a few laughs out of the whole scene, hell it's so ridiculously funny, but... There's Ramón's death spells, one ended by Kika using a lamp to revive him. Pretty much everything Andrea Scarface does is ridiculous. Then there's the obvious dubbing of Peter Coyote with a line that he doesn't speak Spanish well, oh except for the entire movie... Get the feeling this movie caused the change in direction that Almodóvar takes with pretty much every movie up until I'm So Excited being straight dramas, which probably wasn't a bad thing because there's some great, more mature stories after Kika.

Bibi Andersen 1080hd film clips (Part 1, Part 2)
Just in passing, Bibi is a transsexual, born a man. I don't know any of the details.

(samples below)

Anabel Alonso 1080hd film clip (sample below)

Veronica Forque 1080hd film clip (collages below)

Tacones Lejanos

(1991)

Johnny's comments:

Tacones Lejanos (High Heels) is a 1991 drama where Rebeca (Victoria Abril), a well-known newsreader, welcomes her famous singer mother Becky del Páramo (Marisa Paredes) back into town for her latest series of concerts. But things are very different. Rebeca has married Manuel (Féodor Atkine) who used to be the partner of Becky, much to her chagrin. The three go to a nightclub where they see Rebeca's friend, drag queen Lethal (Miguel Bosé) perform and this makes everyone uncomfortable, so much so that not long after, Manuel is found murdered. After denying any involvement, Rebeca confesses on the live broadcast and is arrested by local judge Juez Domínguez (also Miguel Bosé) and is sent to remand although Dominguez is not completely convinced of her guilt and manages to get her out of prison after telling her mother that she didn't kill him. So, who really did kill Manuel and what is the drag queen/judge's angle.

Almodóvar mostly made cheeky comedies up until High Heels which is practically a straight drama with a cheeky moment or two. It's a great story between a mother and daughter who are very distant from one another and are forced into one last try at finding a connection. The murder mystery is almost irrelevant and the double and triple life living judge almost a misstep if not for it being surprisingly underplayed. It works extremely well because the two leads are given a great story to get a hold of and they both grab it with both hands.

Victoria Abril film clip (collages below)

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