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All About My Mother



This Oscar-winning melodrama, one of Pedro Almodóvar's most beloved films, provides a dizzying, moving exploration of the meaning of motherhood. In an instant, nurse Manuela (Cecilia Roth) loses the teenage son she raised on her own. Grief-stricken, she sets out to search for the boy's long-lost father in Barcelona, where she reawakens into a new maternal role, at the head of a surrogate family that includes a pregnant, HIV-positive nun (Penélope Cruz); an illustrious star of the stage (Marisa Paredes); and a transgender sex worker (Antonia San Juan). Beautifully performed and bursting with cinematic references, All About My Mother is a vibrant tribute to female fortitude, a one-of-a-kind family portrait, and a work of boundless compassion.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 2K digital restoration, supervised by executive producer Agustín Almodóvar and approved by director Pedro Almodóvar, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Fifty-two-minute documentary from 2012 on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Pedro Almodóvar; Agustín Almodóvar; actors Penélope Cruz, Marisa Paredes, Cecilia Roth, and Antonia San Juan; production manager Esther García; and author Didier Eribon
• Television program from 1999 featuring Pedro Almodóvar and his mother, Francisca Caballero, along with Cruz, San Juan, Paredes, and Roth
• Forty-eight-minute post-screening Q&A in Madrid from 2019, featuring Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, and Paredes
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Emma Wilson, along with (Blu-ray only) an interview with Pedro Almodóvar and a tribute he wrote to his mother, both from 1999

Philip French was right when he called this film the last great film of the last century. It's such a rollercoaster of emotions. Can't wait to revisit in the new resto!

Been waiting for this for ages, Almodovar’s best. Hopefully Talk to Her also sees a release in 2020.

It looks as if this has dropped the commentary from the 2000 US DVD release, though in compensation hopefully no gaudy and distractingly yellow subtitles anymore! I'll be curious to revisit the film again for the first time since seeing Cassavete's Opening Night, which the inciting incident of the film feels like a tribute to.

I love the cinematic-metalanguage of the film, with references to such classic films as OPENING NIGHT, ALL ABOUT EVE, and A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Also the end credits of the film there is a dedication which starts with iconic actresses whom Almodovar admires:

“To Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider…To all actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to men who act and become women, to all people who want to become mothers. To my mother.”

colinr0380 wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 6:55 am It looks as if this has dropped the commentary from the 2000 US DVD release, though in compensation hopefully no gaudy and distractingly yellow subtitles anymore! I'll be curious to revisit the film again for the first time since seeing Cassavete's Opening Night, which the inciting incident of the film feels like a tribute to.

I can't find a single review or list of disc specs that mention a commentary on the 2000 DVD release.

He might be thinking of Talk to Her?

My mistake, I must have got the commentary confused with the one on Talk To Her. Although on checking the 2000 DVD again, it does have an isolated score option, so I'll still be keeping it for that!

All About My Beaver

Wow, this is absolutely gorgeous!

I rewatched this (still love it) and was reading up on it and noticed that the US cut on the Criterion disc is missing three minutes, any idea what was cut from the film?

phoenix474 wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:47 am I rewatched this (still love it) and was reading up on it and noticed that the US cut on the Criterion disc is missing three minutes, any idea what was cut from the film?

What are you comparing to? According to the dvdbeaver comparison, runtime is almost identical to the R1 Sony DVD:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_ ... lu-ray.htm