Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar, 2009)

[rohmerin]

No, of course it's not like Volver. Blanca Portillo and Penélope act in both films, but this is different. It's more like Law of desire and Bad education (a film director with melodramatic pasions, but this time 100% straight ) or Live flesh (with the noir atmosphere).

I've seen two films of David Lean at cinema, so may be next week I'll go back to rewatch it.

There's a song, a beautiful zambra song in the final credits. When I listen to it, my blood stops because with Alberto Iglesias music, it works so well that it's heaven. Zambra is something from flamenco, I'm a Spaniard but flamenco is as unknown to me as decency for bankers.

The song's name is A ciegas, sung by Miguel Poveda, if you want to download it... By the way, Poveda's Spanish is so Andaluz that I can't understand half song, so I had to download the original 1953 a ciegas, sung by Valencian and Broadway star Concha Piquer.

Almodovar rescata de nuevo música olvidada de nuestro patrimonio ¿folklórico?

[Antoine Doinel]

New trailer.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Almodovar might have a reputation as one of European's finest auteurs and probably its most financially viable abroad, but I've always been slightly agnostic about the quality of his films. I don't think he's made anything close to a masterpiece and that takes into account All About My Mother and Talk To Her. Broken Embraces doesn't change that. But it was better than I imagined it would be. At least it shows that Almodovar's not in a creative rut. It's a sleek, stylish love triangle that jumps between the early 90s and more or less the present at will, with yet another perfect Cruz performance at its heart. It's perfect too much in thrall to the films it's inspired by, which is something I'd say about various other Almodovar films. Here, he even refers to his own career. But it surpassed my expectations nevertheless.

[Finch]

Love All About My Mother and Talk To Her, especially the former; also find Bad Education worthwhile (along with some earlier Almodovars like Women on the Verge...) but Volver and now this one have left me rather indifferent. Very enjoyable to watch but it also feels curiously slight and unmemorable, except for Penelope Cruz who is so radiant in her Spanish films (they don't seem to have a clue how to use her in Hollywood) and Blanca Portillo who plays the agent Judit Garcia.

[Glemaud]

There's a certain something about this film that just didn't radiate with me. I don't know what it was, but it kept me from enjoying it as much as I wanted to. Maybe it's the Bunuelian melodramatic feeling I got from the film. The Lena / Ernesto relationship gave me an El feeling all throughout the film. But that aside, Cruz was magnificent, as usual.

Story wise, there was a little too much explaining. The last 20 minutes, I feel, could have been obliterated, and I'd probably enjoy it a little more. It had an air of mystery, which went away when more of the story was explained, which I'd probably conclude on my own with further viewings or sleeping on it.

All in all, a good film, not Almodovar's best, but enjoyable nonetheless.

[Amy Racecar]

Finally got out to see this today. First off, I found the cinematography to be really stunning. I think one of my big problems with Volver was how claustrophobic if felt, which worked during the early scenes but seemed out of place towards the end. The contrast was most obvious during the scenes at the sea, but even interior shots struck me as very open. Still, despite all of it's attractiveness the story was a little too convoluted, even for Almodovar. Like Glemaud, I'm thinking it didn't really need much of it's conclusion. I'll go further and wager

Spoiler

that it could have done without Ray X entirely. There were other ways of framing the affairs, and his plot just seemed so ridiculous. I also imaging it might have gone better if all of that exposition at the end was contained in the scene where Mateo is on the phone and doesn't realize he's being recorded, or if the film had ended abruptly with the tension still at a peak, or even just by excising that bit in the editing room after the scene from Women and Suitcases.

The whole film worked up a really strong grip on me, but then just went lax towards the end. I'll still revisit it, but it's not high on my list of Almodovar's films by any means.

[rwaits]

I had a very similar reaction. I was immediately drawn in by the story and cinematography, absolutely transfixed for the first hour of the film, watching a master at work. I was unable to understand how many critics called this film a misstep for Almodovar. However, the second half lost steam, as if Pedro himself was not quite sure how to part ways with these characters. I agree that the film might have worked better had it ended mid-climax instead of attempting to tie everything up. But who am I to question Almodovar? Definitely a worthwhile effort and one that I'll visit again. Almodovar's films, in my experience, are better with multiple viewings.

[jesgrew]

it was nice to see Angela Molina, who played Conchita in Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire, as Lena's mother. A nod to another film that shares similar themes maybe.

[Matt]

I thought this was Almodovar's least successful film since Kika. Maybe like that film, it is a transitional step toward the next stage in his career. There's nothing particularly wrong with the movie--all of the performances (except maybe that of Tamar Novas, who is sooo dull) were top-notch, Alberto Iglesias' score is amazing as usual, Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is gorgeous (if slightly less lush than what we're used to in an Almodovar film), and it was great to see old-timers like Chus Lampreave, Rossy de Palma, and Kiti Manver show up. I also loved that the film Mateo is making is essentially Women on the Verge. But Broken Embraces has the feeling of a cold piece of machinery clicking its way through the narrative without any genuine emotion.

There is one short piece of peerless filmmaking: from the moment where Lena finds Ernesto Jr. videotaping her outside (and we get a nice little Peeping Tom homage) to the end of her "lip-sync" of herself as she confronts Ernesto Sr. Everything else felt very rote, and absolutely none of the plot twists came as any surprise. Almodovar has done chilly alienation and fractured narrative much better before (Bad Education), and I liked the idea of the fragmentation of Penelope Cruz's character and the way she is only viewed through the eyes (and lenses) of the men in the film (a la Vertigo), but it just didn't let her build up much of a character. You never get a sense of why these men are so crazy about her (other than the obvious physical traits). But maybe that's a point of the film, that she is just a cipher and a vessel for male obsession.

The Cannibalistic Councilor short is hilarious, though. Vintage Almodovar.

[Michael]

I'm right with you, Matt.

I also got the impression that Almodovar was paying a homage to his filmmaking career, sort of making his own 8 1/2 (also referenced in the film). In that case, he should have thrown a drag queen or two in the blender of the film. The Lanzarote locations are stunning with their black sands and green-onyx waters.

Unfortunately Broken Embraces is flat and drags on. I was left completely cold and dry by the film despite the gorgeousness of its visuals and music. With its familiar scope, interwining of film noir and melodrama, and "film-within-a-film", I was hoping it'd be a step up from Bad Education (for me, still his best film) but it ultimately snoozed.

Penelope Cruz was radiant and like Matt wrote, she was never allowed to grow as a character, which is really a shame. I wish her character received the same treatment as Bad Education 's striking prisms / fragments of Ignacio, how Ignacio grows from the imaginings and memories of various characters to flesh and blood, the emotions contained in those shatters and all - like the mosaics in the hallway leading to Ignacio's door about to open.

[rohmerin]

Curious, I agree that La mala educación is Almodóvar's best film.
Los abrazos rotos could have been better if the passive Penélope character should have been written like the homme fatale in Bad education, you're right, she doesn't grown.
Clever thought, but I'm still thinking that Broken Embrances is a very beautiful love story to love (amor) and to making films.

P.S: excuse me for my English, I think I have to check the grammar with the should have ...verbs

[skillerified]

New to the forum, hello everybody.

Caught the BR disc of Broken Embraces last night. I tend to agree with others who found the film mildly disappointing. For me, I just never really found myself totally engaged with it. It's clearly an attractive film for a number of reasons, most of them mentioned above already, and yet there seems to be a certain emotional distance to the film that isn't typical of Almodóvar. It does come off cold. Part of it, I think is in the already outlined distance between the viewer and Lena, who really should be the heart of the film. I also think part of it comes from the emotional and physical thrashing she takes from her first appearance onward.

Personally, I can't help but start to wonder if it isn't time for Almodóvar to start looking to break some of the stylistic and aesthetic conventions that he seems to have created for himself over the last 15 years or so. Easy for me to say, I suppose. Still, I can't help but walk away from Broken Embraces feeling like I've seen all this from him before. And along those lines, I agree with the previous poster who said that Almodóvar still hasn't made that one film that consummates his total potential. I'm sure lots of people disagree, but I feel like he's made a lot of really good films without hitting on that one great one yet. If this does end up as a transitional piece, then maybe he's getting closer to that point.

[R0lf]

For me part of the strength in Almodovar's style is that he underplays his movies and I think this is what people are feeling when they say that his films are just good or that he hasn't made that "one film".

I'm actually reminded of what somebody said over in the Fassbinder thread about his films as a whole "making a house".

[johncarvill]

I've seen a lot of comments (here and elsewhere) which basically boil down to: this is Almodovar treading water. Which always makes me wish some other directors would tread this kind of water!

A lot of hard-core Almodovar fans seem to really rate 'All About My Mother' and 'Talk To Her'; I enjoyed both of those films, and probably they have qualities which 'Embraces' and 'Vover' lack, but these 2 most recent Almodovars, for one thing, just look so gorgeously cinematic. And Criz looks and acts better all the time.

Funny, from a film-fan point of view, if pressed I would say that 'Volver' is probably a 'better' film, yet I much prefer 'Broken Embraces'.

With the Peeping Tom reference, did that scene also remind anybody else of 'Rear Window'?

[Michael]

Why is that Bad Education continues to be forgotten and neglected? Is it because of its gay content that may be a bit too "hardcore"?

All About My Mother, Talk to Her, this or that. People, Bad Education is the sparkling diamond of all Almodovar gems.

[mfunk9786]

I can only speak for myself, but I'm left emotionally cold by Bad Education. Talk To Her, Broken Embraces, and especially Volver were able to arouse a wide range of emotions in me, but Bad Education was a film that I admired from afar more than I connected with it on an emotional level. But maybe that's just me!

[Michael]

Bad Education turns me into a huge sob wreck. At riverside, a boy sings as a priest lust after and knowing his innocence is about to shatter and his life is about to darken forever kills me. The cruel splitting up of the boys as the music swells and their faces evolve into their adult years. Then we dive into the story of Ignacio – the first look at him as he opens his door punches you with everything you need to know about him and his whole life. Enrique is driven to “resurrect and free” his lost love from the web of lies and obsessions and to move forward with his life with the help of his loves final cry from the grave. All that is just a speck of the whole tapesty.

Every one of those boys, the gay-for-pay Angel and all – I know them too well.

I remember walking out of a cinema after viewing the film feeling so alive thinking we, gay folks, finally have Vertigo we can call our own.

[Tom Hagen]

Michael, my lack of passion for Bad Education is partly because it paled in comparison to Law of Desire, which covers some similar thematic territory.

[johncarvill]

Minor update: finally got round to watching 'Live Flesh' and liked it a lot more than 'Talk to Her', probably more than 'All About My Mother' as well.