Thursday, September 2, 2010

Almodovar

It started about 4 years ago with Volver. We don’t go to the pictures that much but something about the film tempted us to walk to the end of the street, literally, to go and see it, despite it having subtitles. We loved it; the story, the performances, the comedy and probably most of all, the whole visual spectacle.
I needed more. As christmas approached, I spotted Pedro Almodovar Collection going cheap in HMV, so bought it as a ‘present’ for my lovely lady. We worked our way through those 5 films and then I spotted another collection I could buy as a ‘present’. In the meantime we’d also been to see Samuel Adamson’s wonderful stage version of All About My Mother at the Old Vic.

With 4 more great films watched the next collection was out in time for another ‘present’ buying opportunity. And then, eventually came another feature film, Broken Embraces. So that was 15 Almodovar films seen and though some of the early ones can be a bit rough and ready they’d all been worth watching and I certainly wasn’t tiring of his style. In fact the more I saw the more I loved them.

Were there any more?

A quick google and it transpired that there were only 2 more and as luck would have it another birthday was on the horizon so I ordered High Heels. With that watched, only Labyrinth Of Passion remained and it was on Amazon so I ordered it last week and it arrived today. I’ve no doubt it’ll get watched this weekend sometime. Or maybe as there’s no Corrie on Friday it will serve as a suitable alternative to some, probably, dire football.
So that’s it, after this weekend it will all be over until The Skin I Live In is released next year. I guess I’m going to have to watch them all again. In fact it’s probably worth watching them all again twice. As I don’t speak Spanish the one annoyance with watching Almodovar films is that I miss some of the visual feast as my eyes keep flicking to the bottom of the screen to read the subtitles. As to the other question that’s left hanging, anybody got any good present ideas?

3 comments:

Sea Penguin said...

When I lived in "the city" in the 1980s/early 90s, I used to go to the cinema all the time. They always seemed to have Almodovar films on - I can't for the life of me remember which ones, but they were always brilliant! there was an actress - was it Carmen Maura? in them and she was terrific. Must see if I can get that box set as well. Thanks.

Glenda Young said...

Carmen Maura is wonderful. The box sets are definitely worth buying, it's like having a box full of colourful cinematic delights.

Sunny Jim said...

The box sets are definitely worth buying and usually good value too.

But what on earth can I get her for christmas?