Matador

1986

Johnny's comments:

Matador is a 1986 drama where aspiring bullfighter Ángel (Antonio Banderas) takes the advice of his mentor Diego Montez (Nacho Martínez) and finds a woman in the same way that he fights a bull. HIs first 'victim' is neighbour and Diego's lover Eva (Eva Cobo), but the attempted rape goes badly ending more in embarrassment for both. The next day, Ángel confesses to a detective (Eusebio Poncela) of the rape, but when Eva is contacted to complete the complaint, she declines preferring to move on. But Ángel hasn't finished there and confesses to a bunch of related rape/murders although the detective is not convinced of his guilt. A renowned lawyer María Cardenal (Assumpta Serna) takes his case, but Ángel gets the distinct feeling he has seen her before. During investigations, María meets Diego and sparks fly immediately and both become increasingly obsessed with each other the deeper the case gets. Meanwhile, the detective continues his doubt of the timid Ángel being capable of these crimes and enlists sympathetic psychiatrist Julia (Carmen Maura) to help prove otherwise and focus his investigations on Diego as the possible killer. But why has Ángel have intimate knowledge of these crimes and what is his connection to María and/or Diego?

Totally forgot about this early Almodóvar movie until I was looking for other movies of his and realised I'd never actually seen Matador and boy this one is real shock to the senses. It opens with Diego masturbating to a cheap looking Jess Franco type movie then María killing a bloke during sex and finishing herself off as she lays there dead. Then there's the attempted rape. Matador really goes all out early and this is a rare mix of sex and violence for an Almodóvar movie. While there's still touches of humour throughout the movie (my favourite being the showdown ending thwarted by an eclipse!), this is the darkest film he ever made and I gotta say that this definitely surprised me, but in a good way. Definitely one strange beast of a movie.

Assumpta Serna film clip (collages below)

Eva Cobo film clip (collage below)

unidentified film clip (sample below)