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| My faith restored |
We drove through the dark on narrow rutted lanes, often through great splashy puddles left behind by the incessant rain. Few signs of habitation. We might have been in Transylvania.
Our destination was Michaelchurch Escley which is a real mouthful. Estimated population for 2018 was 209. The approach to the village hall was the Bumpy Alps in miniature but the welcome was warm and, as the projector switched on, the audience became silent and remained so for the ensuing 100 minutes. We watched Pain and Glory, an effortlessly impressionistic bio-pic of the film director's life. With any other director it would have seemed indulgent but this was Pedro Almodóvar, Spain's greatest, nay Europe's greatest, nay... (fill in your preference).
He is no stranger to us. We've seen: Tie me up! Tie me down!, Volver, Talk to her (The poignancy!), All about my mother, The skin I live in. I turned to VR as the lights went up and said something which I now forget. She said, simply, "Ah..."
All with sub-titles of course. If you have problems and assuming you can read, you must cast this defect to one side. Otherwise you will continue to miss PA's invention, his sense of fun, and the unbelievable variety of his supporting characters. Doubly missing these things since you will want to see these films a second time.
You wouldn't want to go through life with a PA-shaped hole in it. Honest.
Your review has absolutely convinced me to see this film. We never actually go into a cinema anymore, so will have to wait until it's streaming on the internet somewhere. I'm going to google Pedro Almodóvar to see if I've seen any of his films. I may have in the early days when I was once married to an aspiring film-maker.
ReplyDeleteI'm an Almodovar fan too, and saw Pain and Glory this fall during our flight from Europe back to Canada. Agree with you completely: it was excellent!
ReplyDeleterobin andrea: It doesn't have to be Pain and Glory. The other titles I mention will - I hope - grip you. Also, here's a moderately comprehensive set of reviews of his "ten best":
ReplyDeletehttps://www.indiewire.com/gallery/pedro-almodovar-best-films/film-and-television-385/
There's a boxed set - Pedro Almodóvar, The Ultimate Collection - containing Tie Me up! Tie Me Down!, Bad Education, All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Volver, Broken Embraces, The Skin I live In, which Amazon lists at a very modest price of £15.20
($19.83).
Suddenly I bear the responsibility of making the recommendation. Should I buy the boxed set back from you if it all goes pear-shaped? Taste is, after all subjective. I'm glad to see Beth supports me.
Beth: Why have I never flown to and/or from New Zealand on a plane which offered me PA? Why was it always Die Hard or a genre variant? Strange how the day brightens up when a friend admits to a shared enthusiasm. Bless.
Beth 2. Comments to this, your most recent post, are closed but by the time I discovered that I'd already written this comment. It seemed a pity to waste it.
ReplyDeleteSnowscapes of home
Your comment on Almodóvar drew me back to this post. I suddenly realised I knew this scenery from way back; when I acted as usher at my best friend's wedding in Wayland, NY. Though not then a snowscape. Younger than me, he died last year and here was a memory revived.
I am intermittently involved with VR's drawings and paintings and now scan others' work for clues about technique. One such arrived in your third image where the road rolls on to the horizon and passes through a gap in the trees. To imply that the road there is in shade you offer five horizontal lines and I'm reminded that even in a realistic work like this wit, in its broadest sense, may serve by suggestion.