Bright as a kaleidoscope of colors, character relationships that destroy three views, and bloody stories about eroticism, the protagonists are inseparable from transsexuality, prostitutes, incest...
This is the film of Spanish film master Pedro Almodóvar.
Among these elements, the only protagonists of Almodovar's films are women running around in red high heels.
Almodovar is a "wonderful flower" in the world film industry. He is the national teacher of the Spanish film industry and the most famous gay film. He is irrigated by Pop Art, and the women under the camera are so sexy and charming ,clever.
Almodovar once said: "Women can provide me with comedy material, while men can only let me write tragedy."
In this year's Beijing Film Festival's "Focus on Filmmakers" section, seven of Almodóvar's films were shown:
From actress Pepa who was hysterically betrayed by her boyfriend in "Woman on the Brink" to Manuela, a strong mother who lost her child in "All About My Mother," and finally passed "The Skin I Live" Transgender", showing Almodóvar's respect and admiration for women.
Almodovar splits, dissects, and reorganizes different stages of women in the film, and also finds his own movie soul in these women.
01
Craziest woman - Pepa
"Woman on the Brink"
Which woman has never been saddened by a lovelorn? Haven't been insane because of a man's betrayal? No urge to perish together in despair?
Actress Pepa has experienced this misfortune that every woman can suffer - a man's change of heart.
Pepa finds out that her lover, Evan, is missing for no reason after she is pregnant. At the same time, Evan's former wife escapes from the lunatic asylum and comes to trouble Pepa, while Pepa's good friend Candela runs to Pepa's house to take refuge because of covering up terrorists. Under the same roof, women staged a ridiculous tragicomedy.
Pepa, who was devastated by Evan's disappearance, stepped on red high heels and searched for Evan all over the world.
Facts have proved that a woman who is broken-hearted can die when she becomes mad.
Pepa did not hesitate to drug in tomato juice, threw the phone out of the window, threw records, and finally even aimed at Evan at gunpoint, just to save him.
But women are infatuated and fickle.
After searching, going crazy, and desperate, Pepa finally woke up completely, and found himself again on the edge of collapse. When Ivan tried to save him, Pepa could freely and decisively reject him.
The film is Almodovar's famous work, he achieved great commercial success, and even broke the Spanish box office record for a time.
Since then, these women with different personalities, either crazy or paranoid or strong resistance or kind and lovely, have become the only protagonists in Almodovar's films.
02
The poorest woman - Rebecca
"Love High Heels"
"When I was a child, I always liked to hear your high-heeled shoes gradually go away until they disappeared into silence before falling asleep."
Rebecca, a daughter who is extremely obsessed with her mother. She has a love-hate relationship with her mother, Becky, who abandoned her for stardom ten years ago.
For ten years, she had missed Becky and was madly jealous of her.
Rebecca has been wearing earrings bought by her mother for ten years, imitating her mother's demeanor, walking posture, and speaking tone, trying to follow her mother's pace.
However, she did not have the shining talent of her mother at all, and she became a pitiful creature living in the shadow of her mother.
Now she is 27 years old, and she will see her mother many years later, and the old husband standing beside her turns out to be her mother's old lover!
Stealing her lover is the only way Rebecca thinks she can beat her mother.
Daughter, son-in-law, and mother form a strange triangle. When Rebecca accidentally discovers that her husband still loves her mother, she is sad and angry and decides to kill her husband.
Humble daughter and shining mother, Almodovar this time on the mother-daughter relationship.
Maybe just like Rebecca, every ignorant girl once regarded her mother as an imaginary enemy and quietly tried her mother's high heels, put on her mother's skirt, and put on her mother's makeup. Made up of girl's mind.
Mothers and daughters are both the closest friends and the most subtle enemies.
03
The greatest woman - Manuela
"All About My Mother"
"All About My Mother" is considered to be Almodóvar's best work, it has won several heavyweight awards including the Oscar for best foreign language film and the Palme d'Or in Cannes, and also contributed one of the greatest and most selfless mother Manuela.
Those who have seen the movie should have a hard time forgetting her standing in front of the huge red poster.
In the first half of her life, Manuela had to be a single mother because she married a scumbag.
But on a rainy night, in order to ask actress Yanmi for an autograph, his son Esteban was killed in a car accident. In order to fulfill his son's last wish to "see his father", Manuela returned to his hometown to find his son. ex-husband.
Back in Barcelona, she met the kind nun Rosa, but found that Rosa was pregnant out of wedlock and was infected with AIDS. And the father of the child turned out to be her ex-husband who had been transgendered!
Strictly speaking, Manuela and Rosa are delicate rivals in love, but the kind Manuela takes care of Rosa like a mother and raises Rosa's HIV-infected child alone.
She also met again the actress Yan Mi, who indirectly killed Esteban, but without any grudge or complaint, she forgave this ignorant person and became friends with her.
In the end, she found her ex-husband Lola at Rosa's funeral. He, who had become a transgender woman, contracted AIDS and died soon.
Manuela looked sadly at her ex-husband who confessed to her, and finally chose to forgive this sinful man.
"It's a film about a woman's ability to endure pain," Almodovar said.
Losing a husband, a child, and a friend, these three great pains all cruelly descended on Manuela, leaving her grief-stricken and exhausted.
But at the same time, we also see in Manuela one of the great things that women have, and that is tolerance.
In the face of the great harm of fate, Manuela finally chose to tolerate these tragedy makers, rather than resentment.
04
The Bravest Woman - Raymonde
"return"
In Almodovar's erotic world, strong women are never new, and the bravest woman must be the "Father Killing Husband, Mother and Daughter Alliance" in "Return".
Three generations of women in a family have been betrayed and hurt by the men closest to them. Their choice is to kill these men.
Raymonde's mother accidentally learned that her daughter was raped by her husband, so she burned the beast to death so that her daughter could escape from this horrific family;
Many years later, Raymonde also experienced such a tragedy. Her sister (daughter) was almost sexually assaulted by Raymonde's husband. In panic, the daughter accidentally stabbed her adoptive father to death.
This time, it was Raymonde's turn to stand up bravely. Now Raymonde is no longer the weak and weak woman she used to be. She is strong and brave and told her daughter, "At any time, remember that I killed him, not you."
Raymond calmly handled the corpse and cleaned up the scene. The two dead men were the perpetrators, and the murderer who became the murderer was more like the victim.
These three women can be said to be sinful, but at the same time, the bravery that is desperate for their loved ones is beautiful and just.
They are not weak, only courageous.
05
The cutest woman - Ayue
"All About My Mother"
As a friend of women, in Almodovar's films, there is no shortage of kind and lovely women. But if you choose only one, many people may think of A Yue, who generously told his history of transgender and plastic surgery on stage.
Strictly speaking, it is most appropriate to define her gender as neither male nor female. Her upper body is a woman and her lower body is a man.
A Yue made a living by prostitution, but said boldly, "Do you know why I am called A Yue? Because I take it as my duty to please the public."
She has two pigtails, she is not good-looking, she speaks freely, and lives promiscuously, but these can't stop her honesty and kindness.
She took in her old friend Manuela, whom she had not seen for many years; when she learned that Yanmi was betrayed by her girlfriend, she comforted Yanmi; she generously stated her transgender identity on the stage, "100,000 for cutting double eyelids and 20 for nose padding. Wan", without the slightest inferiority and embarrassment.
In Almodovar's films, he has always paid attention to the marginalized group of transgender people, and the role of A Yue seems to be his gentle defense of the group of "transgender people". You can find out from A Yue that transgender people are not. As scary as imagined, they are also lovely and kind.
Almodóvar portrays too many women, both prostitutes and transgenders, some of them are highly neurotic, and their words sound like ducks; some are dying for love, wearing tacky clothes on the streets of Madrid Some people dare to kill and set fire to anything, but they are not afraid of anything when they are ruthless.
But these women, rude or crazy, have the same nature - kindness.
They are loyal to their friends, never give up on love, and treat the world with their own unique tenderness.
This is also Almodovar's tribute to women through his numerous films.
- FIN -
※This article represents the author's personal views
First published on the public account: Xiaoxian Movie
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