magnificent

gsygsy

A wonderful movie,a masterpiece. Whether or not it's the summit of the director's output so far will be a matter of taste, but it's definitely up there with Hable Con Ella and All About My Mother.

The story is dazzlingly well told. Even though it has the trappings of soap-operatic melodrama, sheer pace prevents any of the characters descending into self-pity. The emotional courage of these women (there are only four men with speaking parts in the entire movie, as far as I can remember, with not one of them being a major character) is what marks them out. Their complete involvement in life and, particularly in this film, death.

The photography is excellent. Beautiful shots suddenly throw an event into weird relief, such as the funeral cortège framed between the sides of a narrow street, or the landscape suddenly resonating poetically with the hypnotic turning of windmills.

The rhythmic editing is a trademark of Almodovar's. He's like a great jazz musician. Talking of which, his use of and sensitivity to music is another of his defining characteristics, and the score here, highly reminiscent of the same composer's work on Hable Con Ella, is again wonderfully melodic and romantic, matching the inner fire of the superb actors.

Penelope Cruz lights up the screen. As others have remarked, her performance seems to be something of an homage to Sophia Loren - but Cruz is her own woman: she dazzles in a to-die-for role. However, this is far from being a star-plus-the-rest movie: the entire cast is in every way up to the mark, not least the great Maura, who herself seems to be invoking another Italian cinematic icon - Giulietta Massina.

Unmissable.

score 9/10

gsygsy 28 August 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1460348/