Almodovar's films are always so extreme, and his tastes are always biased towards the sexual themes of men and women, those sensitive and taboo stories, look at "Tie Me Tie Me" a long time ago, a female star loves The last god-like man who kidnapped her has the taste of SM no matter what. However, Almodovar has never been taboo, and is still willing to work hard on such topics. The new work "Bad Education" is aimed at same-sex love, equally bold and unscrupulous.
I have seen a lot of reports about this film in advance, so I have a general image in my mind, thinking that it is about criticizing the violation of children by the church school and tearing off the hypocritical mask of the church. If it is just such a theme, this movie is really no breakthrough for Almodovar, because there are too many movies on the same theme, it is unnecessary to list them all. But when I finished watching the whole film, I thought how could Almodovar be so simple, criticized? Far more than that, those reports are nothing but nonsense. Only after watching this film will you understand what the director wants to say.
Many introductions to the film "Bad Education" mentioned that it was adapted by Almodovar based on his own experience, with the label of autobiography, but I thought that this film was actually based on Almodovar's childhood memories. The opportunity evolved, but the content of the story may not be completely related to his real life. I think he has been constantly exploring in the inner world of women before, but this time he finally focused on the heart and sexuality of men, which can be regarded as a change. Naturally, there are things that he has been brewing for a long time and wants to fully express.
So let's take a look at what "Bad Education" is trying to say, and what is its theme? I thought that the critical nature of this work was not obvious at all, but more revolved around the analysis of human nature. In fact, there is no real good person in the film. It is difficult to tell right from wrong. You can see that every character in the film seems to be imperfect, and their ugly side is particularly obvious. If Father Morrow is a villain, he still remains vicious even in the end because of the sexual assault of his children that ruined his life. So if Ignacio, who is the victim, deserves sympathy, his subsequent actions will not be seen in the light of the day, and his brother Juan's behavior and motives are even more shameless and contemptible. He murdered himself for his own benefit. brother, and embezzled his name for his own success. And the director Enrique, as a relative outsider, is not so disgusting compared to them, but also has impure motives in some actions, and still knows that Juan is not Ignacio on the premise Take the opportunity to sleep with him.
After Almodovar exposed the ugliness of each character in the film, he did not give a traditional result of good retribution and evil retribution at the end. It also showed that he is a master director. What is extraordinary, this film is not a commercial work that caters to the audience's taste after all. Profit-seeking life motives and the annihilation of human nature are endless in this real world, and no one can be called innocent. The attitude of scrutiny is the main purpose of the film, and what should be done to save or make up for it cannot be found in the film. I can say that after watching this film, I only have a slightly heavy feeling. Most of us can only see the back side of things and cannot understand the back side. When we know the back side, what can we do, despair?
"Bad Education" is a work about homosexuality, and the description of sex is quite explicit, not as obscure as Chinese movies, in fact, it will arouse some audience's disgust, but these are precisely one of Almodóvar's works. trait. In "Bad Education", bizarre social phenomena such as transgender people, homosexuality, and pedophilia fill the entire film, and every character in the film seems to have no sexual orientation in the normal world. All of this shows another extreme trait of Almodovar. When he switched from a female theme to a male theme, he completely turned a movie into a purely male movie, and the only important female character in the film is also one who has not yet Completely transgender Ignacio, the rest are all gay men.
The film treats same-sex love as normal, looks at it all with a very peaceful eye, and believes that same-sex love is no different than opposite-sex love. Of course, I thought it contained the personal views of director Almodovar, but in today's world, it may be inevitable to abandon the strange vision. Same-sex sex scenes appear endlessly in the film, some of them are really revealing, which may make some viewers feel a little disgusted, but it seems that this is a trend of European directors recently. Performance is never evasive. And bold erotic shop videos have always been Almodovar's style.
Although Almodovar's films are not commercial films to please the public, his films have always been very good at the box office. Look at his past works: 1987's Woman on the Brink, 1989's Bind Me, Bind Me, and 1991's High Heels are some of the biggest-grossing Spanish films of all time. It's not just because of artistic appeal. More importantly, his work is also very good at telling stories while maintaining his own personal style. In his films, Almodovar pays great attention to the depiction of dramatic conflicts and characters, and there are a lot of commercial factors such as murder, rape, kidnapping, religion, etc. that stimulate the audience. For example, "Bad Education" starts with the reunion of the two protagonists, which seems to be very ordinary, and then starts with Enrique's reading of the novel, and tells the story of his youth. The audience's beginning is gradually introduced into a misunderstanding, an illusion It comes naturally, thinking that the story of the novel is true. When Enrique visits Ignacio's hometown, we discover that this Ignacio turned out to be a fake, but his younger brother Juan. The truth seems to be picked apart, and the audience's understanding actually follows Enrique's perspective.
Then with the development of the film, you suddenly realize that your original understanding of the truth was all wrong, because the appearance of Father Morrow overturned all your original understanding, and another story emerged from his mouth. Layer upon layer, the virtual and the real, want to cover up. In the same way, with the emergence of each truth, the depth of the film is also constantly strengthened. Originally, I thought that the critical theme of the film had disappeared, and it was replaced by a deeper exposure of human nature, which was no longer limited to small-scale excavation, but became a broader manifestation of human ugliness.
The plot structure and suspenseful puzzle settings of "Bad Education" are comparable to almost any suspenseful movie. For example, director David Fincher is also very good at the suspenseful settings of the film, but he is not the same in artistic mining. compared to Almodovar. And Almodovar's works can far surpass those drama films that only test their intelligence in terms of artistic achievements. This is why Almodovar's works can have good box office achievements, but they can also win word of mouth main reason. It is indeed rare to see a director who can combine artistic and commercial so perfectly.
The voice of the young Ignacio in the film is really beautiful, like the sound of nature, and Father Morrow's adaptation of several Hollywood songs is also unique. This boy's voice reminds me of the voice of the lead boy in another movie "Spring in the Cattle Class", which is clear and flawless. I don't know why European directors like children's voices, maybe this can add a lot to the film. Of course, all of this is just an embellishment of the film, and all the stories are still heavy and depressing. Almodovar always likes to tell some very heavy stories, and often leaves too many failures behind the stories, it is difficult for you to find them. Have some hope. When I watched "Madeline Fallen Girls" before, I felt heavy and oppressed by the church's destruction of girls, but after all, this is only a story of the past, and it still allows us to see the light of the new world in the end. But "Bad Education" is different. Its story seems to say that such a story is always happening, but we can't see it. What we can see is mostly the front rather than the back.
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