Los Abrazos Rotos
Whenever I am supposed to name my favorite directors, these would be the two names. I might think of Lars von Trier or Park Chan-wook as some personal favorites, or of Billy Wilder, Zhang Yimou, Michelangelo Antonioni, Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman and Fritz Lang as some other directors I really admire. But for some reason, I would keep forgetting about Almodóvar just as often as I forget where to put the accent onto his name. Why is that? I mean, I totally love every single one of his movies I have seen so far and while some may disagree, I feel that he is both well-known and quite popular as well, despite his slightly perverted traits.
Also, the title somehow makes me think of “red razors”, why is that? (Ok, the reason might be that my Spanish is really bad.)
Enough of the blabbering now, the movie is actually serious enough as it is. I had the luck to have seen the film in a movie theater about 2 months (!) ago, and the emotional impact it had on me is still echoing a little bit. “Los Abrazos Rotos” is just so much for me: A passionate love story, a tragic death, incredible stylish visuals that look slightly film noir-ish and most of all, feelings I could fully identify with. It might just as well be Almodóvar’s most touching film for me, because he gave Penelopé Cruz such an intense and glamorous role, unlike in “Volver” where she was ‘only’ a normal single mother. in a sense, she is a little bit of an Anna Karenina here. The film feels incredibly unreal and real at the same time, and that is where I have drawn my fascination from. In essence, it felt like life to me, and that was the most important.
In that respect, I might watch the film a second time, giving myself the possibility to distance myself from these feelings a little so I would see more of the film itself, like more than just some references of Penelopé Cruz posing as Audrey Hepburn. Even though I’m not entirely fond of the cheesy Star Wars ending (“He is your father!”), I got the feeling that this movie is extremely rich with details and scenes such as the beautiful “Chicas y maletas” scene at the very end. I had to laugh when I saw that scene – it is SO Almodóvar and made me reminisce about the time when we saw “Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown” in Spanish class in 10th grade. That too was a very special time for me after all.
In a nutshell, Almodóvar will always remain a very personal favorite, especially since I have such a long history of seeing his films. And “Los Abrazos Rotos” is just another film that confirms that he might remain so for a long time.
without thinking too much about it, i’d probably call this my favorite amongst the Almodóvars I’ve seen – in any case it has afforded me more pleasure than any other one. it is totally gorgeous to look at, and I thought all the characters worked wonderfully together?
again, no transvestite though! :(
Yeah, I noticed the no transvestite trend as well! Maybe he’s just grown out of them or something like that? His earliest works didn’t exactly have them either, if I remember correctly.
I also agree with you that this might be his most stylish movie so far, although I think that Volver did quite a good job with that too, with Penelopé Cruz’ great singing performance.
My mother and I wanted to watch (yes, I remember that I’ve already seen it with you) it and I was able to convince my horribly conservative father to come with us, saying “it has no gay people, no transvestites and it’s not only about women, it’s an Almodóvar without all the things you don’t lile about him!”.
:D
Hahahaha, actually you are right. But you know, “Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios” is similarly without transvestites, gay people and is full of women and Antonio Banderas with weird glasses. In that respect, it’s the perfect Almodóvar for your father! XD
I want to see the movie again now. XD