Almodóvar is a master of Spanish cinema, his works focus on human emotions and complex relationships. He likes to use an eerie, complex and even postmodern film language with bright colors and highly dramatic music. This makes it difficult to define the type of his films, and it is really difficult to say clearly, which determines the uniqueness of Almodovar.
I watched his first movie in 2007, called "Bad Education", with the same-sex theme. After watching it, I felt inexplicable despair. His movies are the kind of movies that you think are good, but you don't know where they are. It seems that the plot of the whole movie is disorganized, but the temperament it reveals is like a gathering of clouds, and it rains slowly in my heart.
"Talk to Her" is the pinnacle of classic Almodovar movies.
"Talk to Her" is split in structure: the film begins, the curtain is drawn, and the two male protagonists, Mark and Benino, meet in the musical "Café Mueller". Mark is moved by the performance in the play. weeping. Benino glanced at him, and in a meaningful moment, the fates of these two men began to intertwine.
Benino is a hospital nurse who takes care of a beautiful girl named Alicia, who is in a vegetative state. Benino took care of her meticulously, telling her what he saw and heard every day, and the background music was a Spanish opera aria like a sacred music. At this time, we felt that Benino was not only treating Aricia as a patient, but we still have no way of knowing what it was.
Then comes Mark, a writer who sees an interview with female bullfighter Lydia on TV, prompting him to go to the bullring to watch Lydia perform. In this section, Lydia's bullfighting scene is slow-motion, the scene action, music and costumes are beautiful, we are instantly impressed by Lydia's heroic appearance, and so is Mark. Mark met Lydia during the interview, and the two gradually became acquainted, and the relationship became ambiguous, but Lydia had just experienced the pain of broken love, and the relationship between the two seemed to be absent.
Mark likes to cry, watching musicals, helping Lydia catch a snake, and then hearing the singer sing and cry. He cried because he remembered a deep memory of the past, which reflected Mark's character very concentratedly, fragile and sensitive. At this time, Mark seemed to be a woman, while Lydia was more like a man. Delia's brain damage caused by an accident during a bullfight also became a vegetative state and was admitted to the hospital where Benino was. Mark and Benino officially met.
This is the first chapter of the movie: Mark and Lydia.
In the hospital, Benino told Mark about his origins with Aricia. We finally know that Benigno has always had a love for Arisia, and that love is pure, beautiful, forbearance, and tenderness. He took care of Arisia for four years, and he enjoyed his solitude with Arisia for four years.
Benigno knew that Aricia liked to watch dance plays and silent films, so he watched it for Aricia and then told her about it. It was not until after watching a silent film called "Shrinking Lover" that Benigno's emotions and expressions changed when he was telling the story. He thoughtfully said to Aricia: They are forever united. Afterwards, there is a shot of two drops of blood merging in the camera, if there is any reference.
Mark then recalled watching the wedding with Lydia. At the wedding, Mark, who has always been vulnerable, did not cry, but Lydia cried. Mark said, I didn't cry because I didn't think of my ex-girlfriend, while Lydia was hesitant to say anything. At this time, Mark has fallen deeply in love with Lydia. But later, when he found Lydia's ex-boyfriend in the hospital, Mark suddenly realized that in fact, Lydia had someone else in mind.
This is the second chapter of the movie: Benino and Aricia.
Mark and Benino pushed Lydia and Alicia, who were both in a vegetative state, to the balcony of the hospital, and the two men forged a deep friendship ever since. But the sad Mark decided to leave Spain. Before leaving, Benino told Mark that he was going to marry Aricia. Because they got along better than most couples during these four years, Mark was shocked by the deviant thinking and warned Benino not to do it again. After Mark left, Arisia had a problem and her period was delayed. After investigation, it was Benino who "raped" her. Benino was imprisoned. Eight months later, Mark, who was in a foreign country, learned the news of Lydia's death, as well as the news of Benino's imprisonment, and rushed back to Spain. Knowing the reason for the incident, Mark was in a mixed mood. He understood what Benino did but didn't know what to do. The two men had a conversation in front of the prison window and put their hands together to say goodbye, completing the perfect expression of men's friendship.
Mark rents Benino's room and learns that Benino's child died, but he accidentally finds Aricia recovering at the window. He wanted to tell Benino the two news, but was stopped by his lawyer. Then Benino couldn't bear to see his beloved Aricia, so he wrote a letter to Mark, and Enron swallowed the medicine and passed away.
Benigno passed away, Aricia recovered, and at the end of the film, Alicia and Mark met, Alicia fell in love at first sight, and Mark was preoccupied. In the dance academy, Mark looked back at Aricia, and the movie was subtitled: Mark and Aricia.
Then, the movie ended.
This is "Talk to Her". Its core has nothing to do with plots and stories. Its core is to fully express the tangled, complex and hidden emotions between people and between people through a slightly legendary artistic technique. After the film transcends strange stories and complex plots, it jumps to the level of profound themes and timeless connotations. The name of the classic is well deserved. Human feelings are very complex, and it is very difficult to express them artistically and spread them out in the picture to form a depositional atmosphere and infect the audience. And "Tell Her" did it perfectly, which is why the academy highly praised it. The film won the Best Original Screenplay Award at the Oscars in 2002, and Almodovar was nominated for Best Director, but lost that year. Another classic "The Pianist".
Almodovar's films have many things in common, such as his obsessive obsession with observing the world of women. And "Talk to Her" has two male protagonists, but these two male protagonists have their own characteristics of female characters: gentle and considerate, pure and beautiful, and let these two male protagonists use "women's heart" to appreciate love and love Injury, loneliness and melancholy. Benino's emotional world is close to sanctification. His feelings for Alicia are pure and beautiful, and they are incomprehensible to outsiders. Even if it is "rape", he is holding me and wants to merge with you. This kind of noble. Boundary completed. His love made him miserable, and it also kept him happy. He chose to leave, which was the only way he could take.
Compared to Bernino's slightly legendary and unattainable emotional world, Mark's is more secular. He spent ten years forgetting his girlfriend and fell deeply in love with Lydia, but finally realized that Lydia still belongs to her ex. We can understand Mark's loneliness and melancholy, and this emotion will be accompanied by sensitivity and fragility. His. As Haizi has a poem: There are no clouds in a thousand miles, just like my eternal sorrow.
Loving and being loved are both happiness. May we organize our feelings and travel lightly, just as the song sings: just keep silent and teach people to forget.
By the way, I would like to recommend the episode Cucurrucucu Paloma in the movie. It is very beautiful to stop and listen to it.
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