Author: Marcia Pally (Film Comment)
Translator: csh
The translation was first published in "Iris"
"The Woman on the Edge of Breakdown" (1988) is a formulaic film. It is like using canned food to hold emotions, just like Andy Warhol uses canned soup to hold food-it is a Camp style Satirical works, in every "collapse", we can see a woman crying in a melodramatic situation, it ridicules every kind of TV soap opera, and even involves detergent ads. The plot of the whole story is a perfect network of clichés, and the film is also full of posters of classic movies and old movies. In this year, it easily stole the limelight from Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988). The women in Pedro's films are all the rage. They seem to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, screaming and pushing each other amidst stupid excitement. As Noel Coward muttered: This movie is refreshing.
Almodovar's humor is ironic. He jokingly called the "last temptation" "the last show off." When asked about the award he wanted to win, he replied: "If ("The Woman on the Edge") gets the highest award, then the Minister of Culture may It will be banned." In the end it won the best screenplay award. This film has not suffered worldwide criticism, and the bureaucrats may have ignored Almodovar. His seven feature films so far are all anti-civilian. They refute all kinds of dogma: religion, feminism, fascism, gay liberalism, etc. They are like the queen played by Betty Davis, and they take stupid people from Evicted from the bar. Political ideas are too rude, rigid in words, and orderly, so they cannot explain our enthusiasm. Almodovar is afraid of government and church oppression, and Franco and Opus de (right-wing Catholics who are very popular in Spain and Italy), but he is also afraid of thinking about issues based solely on gender roles and social norms. Of course, there are also those "good faith" radicals who overthrow the above two. As he told the audience in Venice: "The important thing is to know who your enemy is."
At the New York Film Festival, he complained to a woman about his political contradictions. He used a more special way to express this: "I don't like any radicals, and I don't like the phone. Passionate. It has its own irrational rules, just like indifference. It can push people to the lofty shore, or dangerous extremes. Society is obsessed with controlling passion because it is unbalanced. But for individuals, this is undoubtedly It is the only motivation that gives meaning to life."
Almodovar focuses on the gorgeous drama of studio films and TV melodramas, in which he can freely express desire, betrayal, and forgiveness. He will use that Camp style to reorganize these plots and turn them into a carnival party. There are psychedelic settings on the party and grand dreams on stage. Everyone is dressed up to show themselves. Carnage. His characters-nuns, rascals, fighters, abandoned women, innocent young men-all carry a certain irony. Their emotions are very typical, and the way these emotions are presented in the movie is also very light and ironic. Almodovar's choreography in the film is as exquisite as Mark Morris did in the art of dance. Almodovar used the ironic attitude bred in gay slums—such as Jewish humor—as a wise way to escape social hatred, and used this way of perception to recognize the entire world.
"Camp lets you observe the human situation in a satirical manner," Almodovar said. "It is much more interesting to take Camp out of the homosexual context and use it to talk about anything, but if To do this, you have to show how much you love it and how much you enjoy it, otherwise you will look like you are making fun of it. In Camp’s world, you will sympathize with others’ lack of power Such as the pain in those sentimental songs. This kind of pain is vulgar, and you will realize it, but this awareness is only about irony, not criticism. If you use Camp like an intellectual, you will always It cannot be taken away from the original context. If you want to use it in the outside world, you must praise it, you must create a Camp carnival. Anyway, this is a feeling. You either have it or you don't."
Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Luis Bunuel can be regarded as Almodovar's mentors-he calls them his "Holy Trinity." They are not known for their Camp color, but they taught him how to reconcile the opposing sides and how to create absurd juxtapositions. These effects are always ironic. Hitchcock promoted the images of "high art" to a wide audience, and made "unbelievable things believable." Wilder turned the painful, realistic story into a comedy. Among the three, Bunuel is the closest to Camp, especially his works from the Mexican period. He turned extremely bad scripts and actors into complicated condiments in moving movies. Almodovar also pointed out that he injected dreams and surrealistic fantasy into everyday scenes, "he didn't even change the effect of lighting."
He said privately, "When you start to fantasize about becoming a director, you fantasize about actors, not directors. The consciousness of directors will only appear later. My dream is Betty Davis-I like it. The intensity of her character, her autonomy—or Catherine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. Contemporary actors can’t give me this impression. They are part of the studio system, which is important for those jobs. The people in it are terrible, but it has created some actors who have extraordinary abilities and can surpass their lives."
"The "race" of actors has now changed, and this change has even occurred on the physical level. Actors have become like normal people, but normal people cannot be Rita Hayworth. In a movie like "Matador" In a allegorical and fantasy work, I wanted some great actors as the base of the whole film. I should have chosen the young Ava Gardner as the heroine."
"In a situation where my emotions have become extreme, I want to be a woman," Almodovar explained the cause of "The Woman on the Edge of Breakdown" (what else is new?) "So I thought of Jean. Cocteau’s short story "The Voice of Mankind", it only tells the story of a woman waiting by the phone. So I started to write, and my own life was integrated into this story. I remember one day, I too Sitting by the phone, waiting for someone to call, always ready to rush out of the house."
Reporter: So, why set the protagonist to be a woman? Is this also a Camp-style homosexual complex?
“It’s not because I’m gay. I’m just more curious about women. I always eavesdrop on their conversations on the bus or subway. I’m becoming an expert in this area. Bergman (a “deeply rooted” heterosexual) ) Also knows how to talk to women and how to show them. In dramatic themes, women have to be more spontaneous and surprising, and my spontaneity is easier to express through them. "No other Spanish male director has mentioned this "female universe," Almodova said, "Actually, there are only two female directors in Spain. This is also a country with great actresses, not male actors. . Men are too inflexible, they are destined to be locked in that Spanish masculinity.”
Reporter: So, your interest in women lies not in your sexual orientation, but in your "spontaneity"?
"Yes... well." Almodovar was often excited, or showed childlike excitement, but this was the first time I saw him blush. "We can find many vicious women in movies. They have a certain masculinity in them. But my female character is not a man pretending to be a woman. I only did such a thing once in the film Matador. The relationship between lovers is like a bullfight, and she is a matador. If a woman wants to be masculine just because of her own will, then she needs a strong will to do this.”
Reporter: But the masculinity in Matador is so strong.
"I hope so. There is a kind of despair in her imitating men, that is the kind of despair that stems from the social environment, and she wants to be masculine in vain. She lives in this masculinity. Medium." In "A Woman on the Edge of Breakdown", when the heroine feels desperate, she is much closer to the general feminine temperament. "Men don’t know how to leave women. So when they really want to leave them, they still say that they love them. This kind of hypocrisy makes women feel frustrated and confused. In a relationship, women are better than women. Men are more resilient, and they endure much greater pain. But when they must be separated, women face this separation. They have more common sense than men, and men are more lazy. In Spain, there are 80 % Of divorce applications are filed by women.
Reporter: Why?
"You can also think about it. I think this is because women are more pragmatic. This is a common phenomenon, but the dishonesty of men to women is particularly prominent in Spain. This is a trait inherited from Latin lovers. . A man can never say what a woman doesn’t like, so they will lie.”
Reporter: Is there any difference for gay couples?
"I feel that in gay relationships, they will not play the roles of men and women. Sometimes gay people are more sincere to each other because there is nothing to unite them apart from feelings-there is no contractual relationship. , Without a family, there is usually less financial dependence. But you know, nothing can be generalized."
"In any case, separation is sad for anyone, because it forces you to start a new life, and we are all so fragile and so weak. When you think you are going to drive yourself crazy, you don’t There are some intermediate nodes, but... let's just wait and see the changes."
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