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All about my mother

Image from Amazon
All About My Mother (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, Spain 1999

Director:Pedro Almod髒ar

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Cecilia Roth .... Manuela
Marisa Paredes .... Huma Rojo
Candela Pe馻 .... Nina

Story:
Also known as Todo sobre mi madre.
A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance, becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover, and she becomes Rosa's caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.

My review:
The director is known for making bizare movies and this one is supposed to be a milder piece of his works. It features unusual characters that we don't normally encounter, in this case a transvestite Lola who doesn't know he has a son. Lola also seduces a nun. Are this events so extraordinary that we shout "shocking!"? Or are we too ignorant or even turn a blind eye on things that actually happen everyday on earth? Just imagine in a place where famine is a daily phenomena, than having food is extraordinary then. What about clean drinking water? What about political freedom? Bizare or not, normal or unusual, it's all a matter of prospective.

1 comment

Comment from: dominicchan  

Replied by Ryoko.

My rating: 4

My review:
I think Almodovar understands women?s feelings very well, he may be a very sensitive person.
In this movie every character has something that is hard to face. Sometimes they try to escape their stark realities, however, they also try to struggle with and accept them in the end. Especially female characters like Manuela, Agrado, Sister Rosa, they are lovely to me.
Well, after I watched this movie, I confirmed again that nobody knows their life will be happy or unhappy soon or forever because nobody can control (dominate) their lives, however, I want to believe that unhappy life will not long forever and every cloud has a silver lining.
I have watched other Almodovar works like ?Tie me up(Atame)?, ?Kika?, ?Talk to her?, ?My life without me?, ?La mara educacion?. If you are interested in Almodovar, I personally recommend ?La mara educacion?, because it is said to be a kind of his autobiography so it would be a clue to understand him better.

10/17/06 @ 22:25