If, like me, you are a fan of absorbing storytelling, gorgeous visuals, and an elegant and subtle camera, then you’ll love Pedro Almodóvar‘s Broken Embraces.
It’s amazing to me how such an accomplished visual storyteller can also create such intricate, precise scripts, packed with verbal exposition, yet matched by visual expression. Perhaps only Orson Welles had the same sort of ability, although he wasn’t as rigorously creating his own scripts, then directing them, like Almodóvar does.
Broken Embraces is the story of Mateo Blanco, who, circa 2008, wishes to be known as Harry Caine (there’s an iconic mash-up of movie names – Hitchcock, Welles, and James M. Cain all come to mind), since he believes his original self died along with several other important features of his life, including his eyesight, in 1994. Even so, he survives day-to-day with a modicum of happiness, due to his work (as a screenwriter), his assistant, her son, and his own still very active libido. Mateo/Harry (Lluís Homar) has a past which is slowly revealed to us by Almodóvar, alternating flashbacks with current memories, and by the irritating (to Harry) presence of a stranger who has a hidden link with the past. That past centers around Mateo’s involvement with and desperate love for a rich man’s mistress (and aspiring actress), Lena (Penélope Cruz), and their subsequent attempts to break free from her kept world.
Much has been made of Almodóvar’s productive relationship with Penélope Cruz (if you have the time, watch the eye-opening bonus feature that shows a split-screen of Almodóvar directing Cruz), but we should also recognize another burgeoning relationship he has formed with the actress Blanca Portillo (Judit), who here plays Harry Caine’s amanuensis (and more). Ms. Portillo was so memorable as Agustina in Volver, and here she is an equally mesmerizing presence, deserving of more recognition than she has received. I’m looking forward to watching her work for Inarritu in Biutiful, later in 2010.
The greatest films can affect us in different ways. One may be transfixed by a powerful story told with a timeless touch by a masterful director, like Chinatown, as written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polanski. Or the visual spectacle may leave us agog, like Days of Heaven as directed by Terrence Malick. Or perhaps the sheer audacious technique of Orson Welles directing Citizen Kane. Pedro Almodóvar has studied and synthesized the great directors of Hollywood past into a truly Protean directing technique, that leaves me more and more in awe with each succeeding effort of the last 10 years. Talk to Her was groundbreaking in its use of sly and playful technical filmmaking. Bad Education was worthy of the old master Luis Buñuel in its calling out of the sanctimonious. Volver was a gorgeous combination of Douglas Sirk and Vincente Minnelli – enthralling and visually sumptuous from beginning to end. Broken Embraces is yet another impossible step forward for Almodóvar: he has succeeded in making a film whose impact is so incremental that the devastation I felt by the end at first seemed like it had come out of the blue, until I realized it was actually the result of the director’s masterful precision in building the effect over the course of the film. That feeling is one I live for as a filmgoer, and it happens none too often.
When we talk about film as lasting art, Inglourious Basterds is the one that will be discussed 30 years from now; Volver is the one that will be remembered as the lasting work of a great director; L’Enfant will be considered the most rigorous film of 2005. So, take the Academy Awards with a grain of salt – in many ways, it is simply a superficial popularity contest, fun though it may be. (The only moment where I caught my breath during this year’s show was Quentin Tarentino and Almodóvar together, presenting the nominees for Best Foreign Film). I think it is necessary to attempt to recognize great films (the ones that will truly last) when we see them. After all, film is the great art form of our time. Is great art being created in the other art forms? Literature – perhaps. Painting and sculpture – I would argue not. Music – pop culture is fun, but classical music has been encased in a state of almost complete obscurity and dessication for some 50 or 60 years.
In our world of artifice, superficiality, and cold, cold technology, make room for an artist for the ages, Pedro Almodóvar. – [DVD]
Drama/Romance/Thriller
Rated R
DVD Release Date: 3/16/10
[...] BROKEN EMBRACES [...]