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The Pleasures of a
Woman
(1972)
Today begins a long
series of caps and
clips of the
grind-house feature,
The Pleasures of a
Woman. The
screenplay for this
movie was written on
a cocktail napkin;
not the outline, the
whole damn
screenplay. Three
gals and a guy
people the universe
of Pleasures and
although all three
gals are beautifully
built and fully
nekkid, the movie is
so very boring.
There are many sins
I will forgive so
long as scenes are
filmed to bring out
the beauty in its
actresses but this
one seems to have
filmed with the
opposite intention.
So I grabbed some
frames and stuck
them together, with
none of the feeble
attempts at artistry
I usually
make. I guess
the clips and the
collages speak for
themselves.
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Hable
Con Ella
(2002)
Johnny's
comments:
Hable
con Ella is a 2002 drama
where Marco (Darío
Grandinetti) sees a female
bullfighter Lydia González
(Rosario Flores) on the
television and decides to
do an interview with her.
When he meets her, she
asks him to get her out of
a tricky situation and
take her home, but at her
house she encounters a
snake and decides to spend
the night elsewhere. After
this Marco and Lydia begin
a relationship which comes
to a sudden halt when she
is violently gored by a
bull and goes into a coma.
Marco visits her in
hospital constantly and
meets male nurse Benigno
(Javier Cámara) and they
strike up a friendship.
Benigno introduces Marco
to his favourite comatose
patient Alicia (Leonor
Watling), who Benigno
strangely knew before
being a patient as he had
become obsessed with
watching her dance at the
studio across from his
window. One day, Benigno
tells Marco that he would
like to marry Alicia, even
though she is comatose.
Marco sternly warns him,
but at the same time
Alicia stops mensuration
and an investigation
concludes that she is
pregnant and Benigno is
the likely culprit. He is
jailed and Marco, who has
come home from an overseas
trip to the news that
Lydia has died, visits
Begnino in jail and he
wants to know what
happened to Alicia, who
has left the hospital.
Bizarre, even by
Almodóvar's standard, but
actually quite touching
drama that more about two
men that have become
unlikely friends and the
quite horrifying behaviour
one of them exhibits.
Funnily enough, I've
confused this movie with
the similar Lucía y el
Sexo (Sex and Lucia), both
out at a similar time as
well and with a similar
cast and I also completely
forgot about the
bullfighter part of the
story which isn't a major
focus anyway. It's an
interesting tale in a time
when Almodóvar became more
serious, but still has his
left field flourishes and
is definitely an odd, but
affecting movie.
Leonor
Watling film
clips (collage below)
Paz
Vega film
clip (sample below)
Elena
Anaya film
clip (sample below)
Carne
Tremula
(1997)
Johnny's
comments:
Carne
Trémula (Live Flesh)
is a 1997
drama/thriller about
Victor (Liberto Rabal)
who has just gotten
out of jail after
apparently
accidentally shooting
police officer David
(Javier Bardem) after
he responds with his
partner Sancho (José
Sancho) to a call from
a neighbour of Elena
(Francesca Neri) about
another gun shot that
happen during a
struggle. While in
prison, he has gotten
a degree in education
as well as other
improvement and heads
back to his childhood
home, now in
disrepair, with the
150,000 pesetas his
mother (Penélope Cruz
in a flashback)
bequeathed to him. At
the cemetery where he
visits his mother's
grave, he sees another
funeral and spots
Elena, who is there
for her father's
funeral and makes his
presence known and she
is shocked by this.
Also at the cemetery,
Victor meets the much
older Clara (Ángela
Molina) and they take
a liking to one
another and they begin
an affair. Clara also
happens to be the wife
of Sancho. Elena tells
her husband, David,
who is wheelchair
bound because of the
shooting that she saw
him and David makes it
known to Victor that
he is not to contact
Elena again. But
Victor and Elena are
fated to be together,
no matter what David
says and the seeds are
sown when Victor takes
a volunteer job at the
children's shelter
where Elena works.
Probably the closest
Almodóvar has ever
gotten to a thriller,
possibly because it's
based on a Ruth
Rendell mystery (I'm
wondering how much
though as the movie
feels very much an
Almodóvar tale). But,
Live Flesh is not much
of a mystery and is
more about a group of
people whose fates
have drawn them
together. I really
like this movie.
There's a lot stirring
in the story and it
has a few little
touches which work
well like the whole
bus thing which takes
up a surprising amount
of the runtime also
it's possibly his
sexiest tale
particularly with one
of Almodóvar's trope
of a man making a
woman fall for him. I
definitely think it's
one of his more
underrated movies.
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