Actually I'm with you, my best actor nominees section is complete and it has Foxx and both Bernal entries. As well as Cheadle and Jim carrey for Eternal Sunshine.

Deal!

Funnily enough, Bad Education is Cert. 12 here (meaning that everyone who is 12 and older is allowed to see it).

Even Mission; Impossible 2 and The Ring got higher ratings.

@Ross

I would, but not too soon! :razz:

Mine are close, with Will Ferrell for Jim Carrey being the sole exception...

Lecter, see it soon. See...it...soon.

Well, it's set. I am seeing it on Monday.

Okay, seen it in theatres today. Me not likey...more later.

Always later...

LOL Just saw you're post is a week old..

it'll never open here, and l cant find anywhere to (not) download it...

Er...nevermind that last post.

Fantastic. Technically outstanding, clearly directed, amazingly acted. Fele Martínez was wonderful with what he was given to work with, which l honestly think was too little. And previously l'd only seen Bernal in Motorcycle Diaries and Amores Perros, but he's fast becoming a favorite. He's so good in all three. Similarly, l've only seen this and Habla con Ella by Almodóvar; he's equally good on the other side of the camera (l should prolly see s'more of his - any recs?). My only real problem comes with the plot itself. It just feels muddled. Probably because of the whole introduce-a-character-only-to-later change-everything-you-know-about-him only-to-later-go-ahead-and-change-it-all-again thing. That kinda thing is very hit or miss with me. It worked in VLEngagement, but not so much here. But yes, wonderful movie.

also, NC17? Hardly. l agree with makeshift (l believe): if those were male-femal sex scenes theres no way this wouldn't be R.

*spoilers*

Whose character kept changing except for Angel's?
I thought it was pretty typical in only having one person who was playing multiple sides. Enrique was consistent, actually, even Ignacio and Zahara really did exist, and in the way they existed, only Angel played off that after they had dissappeared (his death). Sort of like the femme fatale lies about past husbands/lovers/connections/friends. I do think that the slippery part is that it is not a mystery in the way classic noirs are. In fact, I didn't even realize it was a mystery, since there is no scent of it. It just unfolds halfway through, so it feels more like a drama (with suspense) and perhaps that's what makes it feel less anticipated and more of a random character change. If a detective had been hired, you'd expect everyone to have a secret, since a director has been hired here, there aren't those expectations. Not that everyone didn't have the secrets anyways though.

*end spoilers*

I'm glad you liked the technical aspects of it, it could have gotten very confusing had not editing, score, direction, and cinematography held it together very well.

heh.

l'm gonna have to rewatch the film before commenting further. l'm pretty sure l know why l feel so differently than you about it - a mistake in my viewing/understanding - and don't want to post what l would here if l'm correct. lf after another viewing l still feel the same l'll explicate a bit more and touch on some of the above comments. Til then...

ok...well, first of all, l totally misunderstood the film. as l mentioned in PM, l watched 20 minutes or so before work...not going back for those 20 minutes was a very, very, bad idea. when watching the film after work, l see Bernal (aka Angel/Ignacio/Zahara) as a drag queen with a much younger Enrique. l thought this was flashback, NOT "La Visita" story...l totally forgot that Enrique was reading the story. This threw off my view of the whole film... Now l see it clearly...definitely makes much more sense, and over all enhances my opinion of it...

However, l must comment on the following:

This is still a bit of a problem for me (and it was a HUGE one before l straightened out my confusion) the movie is an hour of Drama (quite good, for that matter) then suddenly we're sprung with the fact that Ignacio is dead and Angel is the brother..and the "publisher" that came by after Ignacio's death...etc, etc... Now suddenly the film isnt mainly drama at all but almost wholly mystery. now we have to find out how Angel knows Enrique, what happened to Ignacio, who was the publisher, why Angel was pretending to be Ignacio (if he had went as the brother, explained that Ignacio died and this was his last work and he wanted to act in the film as a tribue to his brother or something, it would have probably been much more favorable to all involved.) Coupled with the fact that at first l was completely not understanding, the film becomes VERY muddled...but even now, this sudden switch in the middle of the film holds it back, l think.

Anyway, definitely a fine, fine film...and easily top ten material.

dolce, Bad Education came out in Peoria on 2/25. I might go watch it this week.

Excellent. Please let us know what you thought after a viewing (or two). Its only getting released there now?

So, Dolce, what aout that Back 'n Forth?

I will let you know. I know this is your number one movie of 2004

I think this is its first release here. I don't think there is a big foreign movie-watching contingent here.

But some movies play on forever. Shrek 2 was playing here in November 04 (not in the dollar theaters either) even after the DVD was released.

bump because I jsut show it, and I loved it.

I saw just for you dolce :wink:

It was such a smart movie. Really I went twice, the first time with my father when on vacation and a second time with my brother. My bro had already fallen a bit out of love with Almodovar because he's been watching those films since high school Spanish Class introcuced him to Women on the Verge (which he then proceeded to introduce to me). Both times there was a long silence afterwards as it all sunk in. My dad prcorred his classically hilarious line "It was good movie, in fact, I would even consider it a great movie." That's saying something for him, since he tends to qualify everything with a "It's not bad." My bro loves it, and picked up on something I didn't, which was a Sci-fi element? If anyone else picked up on that, please expound, but because of that, we re-watched Alien the next day.

I am so glad you oved it. What a relief. I worry that I sing its praises and everyone ends up thinking it sucked.

Admit it, Bernal is fabulous. He pulled that off remarkably well. I wasn't expecting it since his other roles don't tend to be as manipulative. He made Zahara really palateable as a fictional/real character.

I went with a very conservative friend of mine, who do to the film;s content expected to hate it, but we both loved it.

I need to see it again, so I am buying the DVD.

Talk to Her is my favorite of his films...I even own the soundtrack.

I love Bernal, I do...I want him all to myself, and he was so godo in this film. Why was this ignored during the awards season! I am not happy!

Hmmmm...

The worst Almodóvar film since Live Flesh (which means it is still pretty fantastic). Bernal gives a good performance but Fele Martinez stole this movie away from him, and the rest of the cast doesn't slouch either.

My main problem with it is that Juan's character seems to be logically missing something. I understand that he wants to be an actor, but because of the layout of the film, we never really get enough of a sense of his passion for film. His desperation and motivation plays heavily into the events of the film and during the non "The Visit" scenes, he just comes across as dead weight. We also begin to understand that he doesn't necessarily like or look up to his brother. He doesn't even come out and tell us that, and in fact, in the end he says something to the effect of, "try living with this guy in a small town, that's why I killed him."

Because of this, his motivation for going to Enrique at all seems rather hollow. Because of this, Juan is just kind of an empty character. Also the execution of the "blackmail" device works in theory but it doesn't play out well.

This all has to do with the second half of the film which turns into the murder mystery. The first half of the film is utterly brilliant and reminds me of why Almodóvar is so great. He doesn't cinematically pass judgements on the morals of those involved and doesn't highlight the tragedy but gives us a wide breadth of human experience. None of his characters are cookie cutter. This all ends about the time when Enrique finds out the truth. The soundtrack/score here is also superb.

It's only during the second half, when we find out all of the lame motivations for the events and the characters begin to grow a little thin. And that's unfortunate.

Oh, where shall I begin?

What I didn't like about it I guess. Warning: Spoliers Ahead.


Angel's character. He seemed to underdeveloped. I mean there's never any explanation...or at least some insight into his character to let the audience see why he he would take some of the actions he does. The closest it comes is when he says towards the end that it's not easy having a brother like Ignacio in a small town. Yes. 100% true, in fact...but it's murder we're talking about here. There are people who would kill someone like Ignacio just out of hate/for no real reason at all. But those are disturbed people. It's Angel's brother we're talking about. Even though Angel seemed like he'd be willing to go to pretty much any extreme to get things his way...they never really showed any reason/motivation/traits of being a murderer. And that's another thing...his ambition to get the role in the movie? Out of where? He didn't seem that passionate about acting. Are we just supposed to assume he was? I guess it says a lot about the character's development that he we never even gained any insight into Angel's sexuality (not that it matters in the film). We don't get any evidence showing that he's having sex with other men, for any other reason than for his own personal gain. But then there is no evidence AT ALL that he is into women or anything. Again, doesn't matter, but when seeing a movie I like to get as much of an insight into the characters as possible. For Angel /Juan it was minimal.

The movie was also pretty melodramatic. I don't personally consider it a flaw, if it is well done. Just though I'd mention it. :wink:

Despite it's flaws, Bad Education is an extremely well executed film that's fittingly creepy, and a kind of film I wish there were more of. Gael Garcia Bernal is great despite my said reservations about his character...he pulls off the Spanish accent perfectly, something that would definitely get an American actor more attention in a non foreign movie. But Fele Martinez gave the best performance in the film. His character might have been underdeveloped as well, but in this case it could just be a matter of letting the audience decide. How did he feel about Ignacio and his death? Was he really only allowing Angel to continue what he was doing to see how far he would go? I think there was more to it.

The ending also seemed a bit random ( you know, where they get the tablets about what happened where the film left off). It just seemed like Almodovar worked on it for a couple of minutes and the first thing that popped into his head was the way he decided to take his characters.

And as it always happens when I start out by noting a film's flaws, I end up sounding like I really dislike it. I don't. I think it was a great film. But it could have been a little more. Still I'm glad there are directors who are willing to take a risk with something like this despite the challenge (it's not an easy film to pull off), instead of just going taking the easy road. While he didn't create a masterpiece, Almodovar was successful in creating one of his best films, and one of the best films last year, a huge improvement over his last film, Talk to Her, which in my opinion is pretty overrated.

B+/A-

P.S. The NC-17 rating was pathetic.

Just saw The Flower of My Secret today. Anyone else seen this early film by him?

bump...

Speaking of Flower of my Secret, I've been meaning to see it... anyone been able to see Atamé? I can't find a copy for the life of me... this should be the Almodovar love thread. As one of his most dedicated followers, I'm happy to post the trailer for Volver here as well, since the thread for the movie is escaping me... I also posted this in the trailer area, but I figured between this thread and whatever Cannes threads we have running, we can fit in some discussion. Better yet, we can start a thread when the first line of posters sees it early November...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/volver/trailer/

Anyone else have a theatre near them participating in this *Viva Pedro* retrospective? I've seen one here in Cali and one over in New York already, and its all over the front page of RT.

Its pretty safe to say he's surpassed all other international directors in name and stature here.

Anyone going to go check out one of his 8 re-releases on the big screen right now?

Here's the poster:

I wish.

Why are you in Cali, Galia?

Berkeley, visiting my sister. I missed my flight home Sunday night. And they rescheduled me for tonight. So its my last day here. Unfortunately my sister didn't plan for it, and still has to go to work. Kinda sad having two days here but spending most of it without my sister. :-( I want to spend every minute with her. I thought about going to a movie today, one of the Viva Pedro eight, actually, but I just can't really get psyched. I've seen all of them except one already, four of them big screen, heh.

So instead I'm reading a book and hoping my sister can sneak out of work early so that we can go into the city and hang out before I get on the plane.

I'm red-eyeing it to work tomorrow morning. Should be interesting.....