TALK TO HER

I haven't seen it yet, plainoldme - I need to rent it...

I would like to hear from folks as to whether they think this is a mysogonist movie or a movie prescribing the proper role of a man in a relationship with a woman, and, if the latter, is the point of view that of a patriarch or a partner?

I liked this film quite a lot, even if it's not my favorite Almodóvar.

While the story is wild, the characters are very realistic. Not black & white, as Hollywood usually likes them.

Of course the film is not mainly about the friendship that grows between Marco and Benigno (stunning performance by Javier Cámara), but rather about losses, true love and weird miracles (life is so capricious!).

While many people (logically) see Benigno's story as the center of the film, I related a lot with tear-prone Marco, who is the one learning about life during the film. (Benigno is Peter Pan, a forever wild child, wise, innocent and perverted, always locked in his mother's sick womb).

The sentimental cuadrangle Marco-Lydia-Niño de Valencia-Marco's exgirlfriend is quite excruciating. Why can't Marco and Lydia be happy together, since they deserve to be? Because Marco can't forget his crazy ex girlfriend and Lydia can't forget Niño de Valencia, their toxic true-loves.
What kind of cleansing must be done in order to make the improbable Marco-Alicia liaison work? What must be lost to regain life?

Another great feature is Rosario Flores (Lydia) the daughter of mythical Lola Flores (the passionate epithome of Spanish folklore). She's far from being beautiful, but exudes tremendous personality. Her face while she's "knelt receiving from the burladero" (a suerte, a'trick' which has sent many a bullfighter to the surgeon) tells us that she's letting the bull define her suerte, her fate: that this brave woman, torn between two lovers is, in fact, killing herself.

fbaever,

I agree with you on so much about this film. Camara's performance is amazing: his Benigno is both intelligent and somewhat naive, lacking in social skills as might be expected from his (as Alicia's father put it) extraordinary adoloscence. That Alicia was frightened by him during their one meeting was totally rational: not only is the character of Alicia beautiful and special, the actress who played her possesses an idealized sort of beauty; in other words, she is the sort of young woman who might draw a stalker and Benigno's lack of social skills made him seem exactly that.

I found myself deeply touched by the character Marco, who dangled between the worlds of adult and child more than Benigno did. Marco grew because of his effort to save his former girlfriend, who was far too young for him. He grew more because of his relationship with Lydia.

I do not feel, however, that MArco carried a torch for the girlfriend but that he was in love with Lydia.

Lydia just might be the classic good-woman-in-love-with-a-bad-man. I think his name, Nino, or little boy, says it all. This is not an adult male. Although I know nothing about bull fighting, I felt the scene in which Lydia dressed for the fight, when she talked about her nieces and nephews watching the fight and when she asked how the bulls were ("Heavy" was the answer) was portentious. So was the warning that the bull was coming.

As for the actress (is that her name, Rosario Flores?), I thought she exemplifies the non-attractive but beautiful woman. Whether it is her style or personality, I am not certain. She is, however, magnetic.

Yes, Marco loves Lydia, but can't get rid of his love-obsession towards his former girlfriend. Months have passed and he's still in the cleansing process.

Let me recall the scene in the party where Caetano Veloso is singing "Cucurrucucú Paloma". Marco can hardly control his weeping. That's a very sad song about lost love, about "mortal passion". The lover doesn't eat, heaven itself shivers listening to his cry, and drinks himself to death calling her. A sad dove goes every morning to sing to her house; they swear that dove is nothing but his soul who's still waiting to have her back. Marco is obviously thinking about the woman he lost, not the one he has at the moment.

And all during the car ride to the town where the bullfight is held, Marco is talking to Lydia about his difficulties in superating the former relationship. Lydia is quiet, she wants to tell him about Niño de Valencia, but doesn't have the time, precisely because Marco is talking to her... about himself and his efforts to eliminate the ghost.

His films are always intimate and communicate very humanistic values and I agree that this is a good film but not one of his best.

Cucurrucucú Paloma

Although I hadn't heard that song since I was 19, in Washington, DC for a convention and dining one night at a Mexican restaurant, I recognized it as soon as the first notes came out. Always loved that song. Good to recognize it at my advanced age!!