Talk to Her (2002)
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
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What critics compared Talk to Her to
Was it "Talk to Her" that had a fantasy sequence where someone crawls out of a wardrobe-sized vagina?
In others, such as the rather creepy Talk To Her and his latest, The Skin I Live In, women are comatose or mentally ill constructs to be sewn, screwed, sedated or silenced.
Anaya ("Talk to Her") has to do little more than bask in the camera's appreciative gaze, which she holds effortlessly.
That there’s something creepy at the heart of “Skin” should surprise no one who’s seen Almodóvar’s “Matador” or “Talk to Her” or “Bad Education” or “Live Flesh,” which is also based on a novel and which, I think, this new film most resembles.
The Skin I Live In, the new Pedro Almodóvar film, is no masterpiece and he's made a few, including the transcendent All About My Mother and Talk to Her but it's unmistakably Almodóvarian, for it touches on many motifs the 62-year-old auteur has pursued over an exemplary career now deep into its fourth decade.
His best and most feverish film since 2002’s “Talk to Her,” it’s a wild mix of horror, surrealism, melodrama and transgressive sexuality – and it reunites him with his great discovery, Antonio Banderas.
The girlfriend-in-a-coma theme is a familiar one, but unlike Pedro Almodóvar’s rhapsodic dramatic comedy Talk to Her , the medical crisis here is harrowing.
But what sets "Pain and Glory" apart from much of the "Talk to Her" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" director's previous efforts, especially those made in the past 20 years, is a pervasive reining in of those impulses.
Edgar Vivar ("Bandidas") recalls "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane's" Victor Mature as the severely obese Balaban, the ghost consultant who brings in Aurora (Geraldine Chaplin, "Nashville," "Talk to Her"), a seer who connects with a place's past.
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Like Talk To Her, it doesn’t completely satisfy when it comes time to resolve its intrigue.
Allen revels in Barcelona, photographing (cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe, "Talk to Her," "The Sea Inside") all the relevant points of interest, paying special attention to the architecture of Antoni Gaudí.
As he often has done in the past decade, Allen gave his cinematographer (Javier Aguirresarobe, who shot "Talk to Her") plenty of leeway, and Aguirresarobe delivers stunning vistas of Barcelona, golden close-ups of the attractive cast and lush splashes of pink flowers.
His cinematographer this time is Javier Aguirresarobe, best known for The Others , Talk to Her and The Sea Inside .
Allen appears in perfect concert with the Spanish locations, graciously revealing the beauty of the land through the master shooting of cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (“Talk to Her,” “The Sea Inside”), filling the frame with golden Euro delights.
Plus, the cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe (of Talk to Her and The Sea Inside ) is actually well-thought out and significant, unheard of in a Woody Allen film; looking somewhat like a sun-washed Almodóvar film, the palette is full of colors muted into shades of gold and yellow.
Ignoring his father's advice to stay inside during the full moon, Lawrence sets out to a gypsy camp and consults with Maleva (Geraldine Chaplin, "Talk to Her," "The Orphanage") on the meaning of a gold medallion worn by his brother.
After telling stories of men in his last few films ("Bad Education," "Talk to Her"), Almodóvar here revels in the world of women, returning to the territory of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "All About My Mother."
The title Volver translates as Coming Backâthat is "back from the dead"â in Pedro Almodovar's ("Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"/"Live Flesh"/"All About My Mother"/"Talk to Her") 16th feature, which proves to be one of his more mature but less impudent works.
The Spanish writer/director has focused on women or transsexual men in most of his best films, from "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" to "Talk to Her."
Although not on par with the Spanish director's best movies (which include Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,Live Flesh, All About My Mother, and Talk to Her), Volver represents a return to form after the disappointment that was Bad Education.
Sometimes Almodóvar's titles alone - "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and the Oscar-winning films "All About My Mother" and "Talk To Her" - reflect his particular perspective.