"Tell Her" is a more important milestone in his life, not only because he has won countless honors with this film, but also because after the change of style of "All About My Mother", this work is more solid
and maturity, laying the peculiar way so far. Compared with the strong impact and naked expression in his earlier films, his approach is now more calm and restrained, creating a strong psychological stimulation in a solid narrative.
"Talk to Her" is also different from Almodóvar's always caring about women at the bottom. This is the story of two men. Although there are a lot of women in it, in the final analysis, it is to set off the inner world of these two men. . One of the male protagonists, Mark, is a famous writer. One day after experiencing the great pain of lovelorn, he saw a maverick female bullfighter on TV and became very interested in it. After that, he deliberately approached her by means of an interview to understand that she was finally gone. come together. The other protagonist, Baleno, falls in love with a ballet dancer in the dance studio across the street, and observes her dancing every day and then follows her home. Knowing that the dancer turned into a vegetative state in a car accident, he persevered and took care of her by the bedside for 4 years. And the matador was in a vegetative state after an accident during a game and was admitted to the hospital. The two people who were sympathetic to each other met.
There are a few details in the plot to see why Almodovar changed his usual female perspective to observe men. In the first scene, Marco was moved to tears when he watched the dance Pina, and this was not the only time he shed tears in this film. When catching a snake for a female bullfighter, he remembered a similar scene with his ex-girlfriend. Tears, indicating that he is an extremely emotional and delicate man. And the conversation between the two men in the car before the bullfighter's accident can also be seen. The bullfighter said that he would have a good talk with Mark after the game. Mark said that he had talked for an hour, didn't he? The bullfighter said you were talking for an hour, and I didn't say a word. This scene fully demonstrated the confusion between the two genders. Although they all look rough and strong (this was also mentioned in the discussion among the hospital nurses in the lounge, indicating that Ma is a masculine man in the eyes of women), but the heart is sentimental, and the painful recollection and memory of the lost love It also shows that he is not as free and easy as ordinary men. So from a psychological point of view, Marco is actually a feminine man.
Let's look at Baleno again. In the film, he followed the dancer Alicia and disguised himself as a patient to see a doctor at her house. work, and is engaged in very feminized occupations such as hospital bed care. But he doesn't see his experience as abnormal at all, so Baleno was surprised when Alicia's psychiatrist father said his condition was special. He thought he was just sitting in and talking nonsense just to see Alicia, but he didn't expect that the doctor really thought that he was mentally ill. Therefore, Baleno cannot be called a normal man. He should be regarded as a man who has been assimilated by women. His values, behavior and way of treating others have obvious shadows of women.
It's not hard to see why Marco can be Baleno's only friend, and it's only part of the reason why they share the same illness. The relative lack of masculinity is what attracts the two most to each other. Almodovar wanted to tell the story from the perspective of this type of men, and in the end, it was a female perspective. But his cleverness lies in not simply selecting two men with obvious yin and yang femininity, but letting the audience walk into the inner world of the two protagonists through various details to discover their femininity.
Another difference from his usual movies is that the characters in this one don't seem to live at the bottom of the society, writers, bullfighters, ballet dancers, even the poorest Baleno is a nurse in a famous hospital, and life doesn't give them anything any pressure. But they all have a common feature - psychological oppression. Both Marco and the female bullfighter are indulging in painful love failures, the two are more like emotionally dying people struggling to hug each other to find relief together, which is why Marco saw a public gaffe on TV The reason why the female bullfighter has a good impression is why the bullfighter still reconnects with his old lover at the end with Marco on his back. In the end, the two of them didn't really love each other and didn't intend to be together forever, so after the accident, the matador's old lover told Marco the truth and he left quite dashingly, otherwise it's not because of his crazy longing for his ex-girlfriend. Does it seem inconsistent?
For Baleno, he is actually the person at the lowest emotional level in the film, which to a certain extent paved the way for his tragic ending at the end of the film. People who have watched this film may not have much disgust and resistance to Baleno's behavior, but feel a little sadness for his tragic complex. That's how I am. But thinking about it carefully, his pursuit and expression of love are creepy and almost perverted. I think that even if Alicia wakes up, it is unlikely to accept such a persistent love, too strong oppression will only be terrifying and further distance from each other.
One of the more interesting parts of this film is the 6-minute silent film that Baleno went to the theater to watch. It is said to be adapted from a silent film in Spanish history. Almodóvar repeated the same story to form a play. play. At first, I didn't think that this little silent film had any meaning. After the film ended, I realized that the man who became smaller was the incarnation of Baleno. Baleno's fanatical love for Alicia made him completely give up on himself and blindly cater to him. It turned out that he would go to the theater for Alicia because he didn't watch dance, because Alicia likes watching silent films, and he was in a coma for four years. When I have time, I go to the cinema to watch a silent movie and then come back and tell Alicia. To what extent can you love someone, even after several years of care and talk have not been responded to, can you continue to insist on changing it? To give up your life completely and become another incarnation of your lover, can you do it? Baleno did it all, he loved Alicia so much that he became her, living for her thoughts in place of her immobile body. It's a lonely man's expression of love. At the end of the silent film, the man who became smaller completely entered the female body, which also made Baleno finally determined to do something that he had not dared to do for four years. But the ending is just like what the silent film expresses, the woman is satisfied and happy, and the man has no way back - Alicia was awakened because of her pregnancy, and Baleno was completely over because she couldn't bear the life without Alicia. life.
At the end of the film, Alicia noticed Marco crying again while watching the dance in the theater, and this scene gave me a big shock. I don't know what Almodovar means. I think that Alicia recognized Marco in that scene, which means that she could hear Baleno's persistent talk with Alicia for so many years. If it is explained in this way, the man's contribution will be meaningful. According to the director's words, this is a story about the loneliness and emptiness of men, their responses and feelings when love causes pain to men. Baleno gave a very direct answer - he accompanied Alicia who was sleeping for four years and kept pouring out his heart. And all this is obviously not useless, and Alicia's expression at the moment when she saw Marco's tears gave all the answers. The heavy story also makes me feel gratified.
Let's talk about Amoxiwa's grasp and scheduling of the movie. Personally I think Amoxiwa's film style is very unique. He disagrees with the roughness and directness of Hollywood, and although he has direct depictions of ethics, crime, violence and sexuality in almost every film, it seems to him that this is just a vehicle rather than a center in his expression. For example, in "Return", the child kills his father at the very beginning. According to Hollywood methods, a series of processes such as hiding, transporting, and burying the corpse will be described in detail, creating an extremely tense atmosphere. But Almodovar didn't care at all. In the play, these women are serious, and killing someone doesn't seem to be a big deal. The whole movie's description of this matter is only one-tenth. The biggest use is to The fact that the heroine is also raped by her father gives a sense of reincarnation and coincidence of fate. The same is true in "Tell Her". The male protagonist Baleno raped a vegetative person. Such a shameful thing was explained lightly by Almodovar. In addition to Baleno's previous infatuation, the audience felt that it was not so hateful. Instead, feel sad for Baleno. He is also different from Europe in terms of narrative. Since the New Wave in Europe, the way of film expression has undergone a huge change. Unlike the majestic atmosphere of the United States, European directors tend to pay attention to the details of life and pay attention to humanistic feelings, which is similar to Almodóvar. But Almodovar doesn't like to zoom in on the details. He often sees touching moments in his films, but they are all passed by, which is relatively in line with the reality of life. Taste for yourself. In terms of narrative, it tends to be revealed naturally. For example, in "Return", about the mother quietly taking care of the aunt, all the previous clues are just laid out, and no suspense is deliberately created so that the audience can continue the following plot, but when the mystery is revealed When I recall the previous details and suddenly realize. In general, Almodovar created his own film style and integrated his own ideas into it naturally.
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