All About My Mother

Starring:Eloy AzorÃn, Carmen BalaguÃ© (II), Yael BarnatÃ¡n, Toni CantÃ³, PenÃ©lope Cruz, Fernando FernÃ¡n GÃ³mez, Carmen Fortuny, Patxi Freytez, Fernando GuillÃ©n, Malena GutiÃ©rrez, Carlos Lozano, Manuel MorÃ³n, Juan JosÃ© Otegui, Marisa Paredes, Candela PeÃ±a, Cecilia Roth, Antonia San Juan, Rosa Maria SardÃ , JosÃ© Luis Torrijo
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Pedro Almodovar broke into the art-house mainstream with this wild, manic comedy about a gaggle of women and their various problems with men, be they married lovers, cheating husbands, fiancés, or terrorists. Almodovar's long-time leading lady, Carmen Maura, stars as an actress (famed for her laundry detergent commercial as the mother of a sloppy serial killer) who's just been dumped by her married lover. In the midst of trying to track him down for a face-to-face confrontation, she crosses paths with her lover's son (Antonio Banderas), his unbalanced wife (Julieta Serrano), and his new girlfriend (Kiti Manver). Adding more fuel to the fire is the hapless friend (Maria Barranco) who got involved with a Shiite terrorist and is now being hunted by the police. Almodovar, a master of farcical screwball comedy, manages to keep all these balls in the air in dizzy, hilarious style without once losing his momentum. Chock full of the director's over-the-top stylization, in terms of both story and sets, the film is a hilarious yet heartfelt marriage of kitsch and drama, verging on parody but never going entirely over the top. Maura is absolutely breathtaking as the unhinged lover, dispensing wise advice to others while trying to keep a semblance of sanity, and the supporting cast is quintessential Almodovar, including a brief but memorable turn by Banderas in what could have been a bland, go-nowhere role. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1989. --Mark Englehart

All About My Mother After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. ----Bret Fetzer

Talk to Her
Writer-director Pedro Almodóvar makes another masterpiece with Talk to Her, his first film since the wonderful All About My Mother. Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is in love with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who is gored by a bull and sent into a coma. In the hospital, Marco crosses paths with Benigno (Javier Camara), a male nurse who looks after another coma patient, a young dancer named Alicia (Leonor Watling). From Benigno's gentle attentiveness to Alicia, Marco learns to take care of Lydia... but from there, the story goes in directions that deftly manage to be sad, hopeful, funny, and creepy, sometimes at the same time. The rich human empathy of Almodóvar's recent films is passionate, heartbreaking, intoxicating--there aren't enough adjectives to praise this remarkable filmmaker, who is at the height of his powers. Talk to Her is superb, with outstanding performances from all involved. --Bret Fetzer

The Flower of My Secret
Pedro Alomodóvar made this misfired, rambling comedy about a romance novelist (Marisa Paredes) whose crumbling marriage has left her depressed and unable to work. At a low point, she writes a scathing indictment of her own books (which are penned under another name), with no one realizing critic and author are one and the same. Almodóvar ( Law of Desire) has the start of a great idea here, and for once, he's direct about his sympathy for a character. But nothing else about The Flower of My Secret is so clear. Despite its unusual allegiance to the straightforward "women's films" of the 1950s, this movie blows it by becoming needlessly complicated over extraneous junk, forcing one to grope in the dark for Almodóvar's point. -- Tom Keogh

Bad Education
Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. -- Steve Wiecking

More Stills from Pedro Almodovar Classics Collection(click for larger image)

More Pedro Almodovar at Amazon.com

Songs of Almodóvar CD
Volver
The Films of Pedro Almodóvar

Customer Reviews:

Pedro! Viva!.......2007-05-14

I was familiar with the movies. They were part of a Retrospective about 6 yrs. ago at the Museum of the Moving Image. The box set is great!! The layout is fabulous. I had all the other movies except Matador. This is a must have for any Pedro fan. It is only missing High Heels, one of Pedro's best.

Great collection to have.......2007-05-13

I am a big fan of director Pedro Almodovar's films and this collection of 8 of his best movies is a must-have. These timeless movies are presented in a nice, space-saving box. I recommend it wholeheartedly to any fan of Almodovar.

VIVA PEDRO.......2007-05-12

Brilliant fimmaking, enormous vairety, lovely transfers. The material is difficult ot see. If you didn't catch these things when they were first released, you are up the creek. The theatrical reissue that was meant to promote the video release didn't last long enough for me to see but one of them. The dvds of most are out print, but I had LIVE FLESH, TALK TO HER and BAD EDUCATION on dvd and WOMEN ON THE VERGE on laser disc. But still, I had to have the set. Really terrific. got a good price at amazon Marketplace and i'm totlaly satisfied.

You have to appreciate the improbable and ridiculous.......2007-05-01

A pretty good collection, if strangely inclusive of BAD EDUCATION, a recent film, with the older batch of films, mainly of 1980s. This could be because LAW OF DESIRE's film director character is a forerunner of the film director in the later film. The problem is in reviewing the collection or the individual films. For instance, there are 3 documentaries on the filmmaker included on an extra disk. Otherwise the movies are presented w/English subtitle options but no extras, except for one of them.

Almodovar's style as a whole is for wildly improbable plots involving situations and characters that run of the mill people would never experience. American film reviewers love this, as they love French farce, and so give these films a free pass, awarding a blue ribbon. The true question is whether the same films would be as highly reviewed if the identical screenplay were presented as a solely American product.

Almodovar's film staples include (on the 8 films represented in this package): (1) Penelope Cruz going into labor (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER; LIVE FLESH). (2) The homely guy is always slick, a real winner, at least professionally, and sometimes a film director (BAD EDUCATION; LAW OF DESIRE). (3) There's always strained theatrical moments, such as presentations of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, that take up much screen time, and often are comical without being meant to be. Ditto a usage of older films that his characters seem to be greatly influenced by. (4) The cute guy, who in real life would probably be greatly sought after as a romantic partner, is always a loser who becomes obsessed with another person or thing to the detriment of everything else (LIVE FLESH; LAW OF DESIRE; BAD EDUCATION). (5) Usage of FF nudity is primarily male. (6) Everyone in the world (or at least Spain) is personally acquainted with a transexual or transvestite.

Briefly, on the films themselves, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER is a tear-jerker that goes to extremes and unfortunately goes on way too long. Good acting, but improbable characters and their life histories make this film an experience to endure.

BAD EDUCATION has the superlative Gael Garcia Bernal in it, and is also a blatant indictment of the Catholic Church's methods. The twists and turns in the plot make it worthwhile as well as uniformly good performances. Unusual film from this director, who usually focusses more on the women. For those squeamish of homosexual content, this film is not nearly as explicit as LAW OF DESIRE.

LAW OF DESIRE has the young Antonio Banderas seducing/seduced by a film director whom he is obsessed with. There is FF nudity from Banderas and others. Rather interesting, not quite a thriller, but an ending that brings the story-line full circle in a way. Rather a moral on how what you're looking for may be staring you in the face but you have to be prepared to take it. I found the plot weak whenever it got into the ancillary characters, as they were unnecessary to the main plot but presumably there to soften the main character of the film director.

LIVE FLESH is an unbelievable situation of a young man from prison subsequently having affairs with two police officers' (one of whom he'd shot and crippled) wives. Unfortunately this plot was wholly predictable though improbable. Too many cliches of drunken criminal cop abusing wife, etc. At times seems it was meant to be a music video, and should have been, with pop songs used as narrative.

TALK TO HER, generally considered one of the more popular Almodovar films, and a quiet, sincere character piece. I could easily have lived without the scene of the shrunken man interacting with a woman's nude body; that was outrageous for the fun of it, I guess. But from what appeared to be a would-be homosexual union between two men veered in another direction that also made the ending quite believable. It set up cliches only to knock them down.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN has provided me an obsession with gazpacho that has haunted me to this day. I didn't watch it again via this collection, but realized I have no memories of the film from first seeing it, except that it was fun; so that tells me nothing of the plot is essential, and I probably didn't identify with the characters.

THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET is weird, as it takes off from the scenario of ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, which isn't a good thing. It's about a writer's crisis, this time her own self-conceit being played out on a public stage, as she is both a well known author but also writes under a pseudonyn attacking her own work. Meanwhile, her marriage is falling apart. So she's really a woman having an identity crisis, as an artist, and as a woman. Maybe it takes a person who's undergone an identity crisis to understand this one.

MATADOR can be summed as "Can two serial killers find happiness in death with each other?" Add Banderas as a sexually confused young man who appears to have occasional perfect-radar psychic abilities and a young woman who's been sexually assaulted three times and is quite casual about it, and a closeted gay detective, and a psychiatrist who wants to seduce basically anybody, and you pretty much have a would-be psychology thriller very confused about what's going on. The film has the confusion one would expect from a wholly improvisational piece, like the director was making it up as they went along in the filming. I am blinded by the idea any of these characters would even exist in real life, except for the detective, so find it amazing they'd actually be stumbling into each other's orbit. A fun movie to spend some time on, as it is an entertaining mix of psychological motivations and I guess you can breathe easy nobody like this lives on your block.

It's about time Pedro's older (and best ) movies were available in USA format!.......2007-04-24

I have been an Amoldovar fan for more than twenty years (at least). I'm glad that he's gotten more American recognition now, but his older movies are still my favorites ( and so hard to find not that I'm no longer in a big city with great art and foreign film theaters. I'm so glad this incredible collection is finally available! (Not to mention that Matador and Law of Desire are some of the best acting Banderas has ever done!)

Average customer rating:

Hard to get one's head around this one
Not Almodovar's Best
another touching grand opus from a great director who continues to get better
Interesting, but incoherent
I loved it!

All About My Mother
Starring: Eloy Azorín , Carmen Balagué (II) , Yael Barnatán , Toni Cantó , and Penélope Cruz
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0767847105
Release Date: 2000-07-11

Amazon.com

After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Hard to get one's head around this one.......2007-02-27

At times, this was an emotionally exhausting film, containing so much grief & loss that it was difficult to watch, and by extension, difficult to review. It wanders amazingly far afield from what at first appears to be a movie about a mother/son relationship, but Almodovar manages to keep the movie from completely losing its coherence.

This is probably one of those movies where the sometimes bizarre content can overwhelm a viewer. Repeated viewings no doubt would reveal some nuggets that were missed the first time through. One could certainly do worse than watching this a second or third time, that's for sure.

If nothing else, watch the movie for the riveting performance of Cecelia Roth as Manuela. Prior to seeing this, I was unfamiliar with her work, but now hope to seek out some of her other movies.

Not Almodovar's Best.......2006-09-26

While the acting (especially that of Cecilia Roth and Penelope Cruz) is superb, I don't care much for this story at the point I should care most, the climax! As usual for his movies, the plot is highly improbable, and while that rarely bothers me, I'm growing tired of Almodovar's over-the-top characters -- the ridiculously eccentric gays, lesbians and transexuals, who he then wants to portray as the most admirable characters in the movie. (An effort to "normalize," "humanize" them, perhaps? Whatever. Go preach from the pulpit, I say.) What worked in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (clearly a screwball comedy), doesn't work here, where the tone is more somber, and the plot somewhat more believable.

Still, I'm looking forward to more from Almodovar. You never know where his stories are going until you've watched the whole movie. That said, I'm also starting to expect all the quirky weirdos, and I don't always look forward to encountering them.

another touching grand opus from a great director who continues to get better.......2006-08-03

almodovar glorifies women! remarkable in its refusal to patronize, and it has all the touches youve come to expect. i laughed, i cried ...

Interesting, but incoherent.......2006-06-20

The problem with this foilm is it's not sure whether to be melodrama or not. The plot is very dramatic and fanciful, (e.g. all the characters seem to form instant strong bonds with one another - a lot of people rave about how the film is a great study of female relationships, but the trouble for me is that too many of them are too out of the ordinary), yet the acting and directing is often very earthy, heartfelt and expressive in a very homely way. So I'm not too sure about what to make oof it really.

I think "Talk to her" is a far greater achievement, where the film feels far more coherent.

I loved it!.......2006-05-16

It is a complicated film about complicated women, trying to capture, I think, the dynamics of women in general. I think it seeks to answer 'what a woman is' by exploring their relationships with each other, their deepest loves, and purpose in life. Maybe I am just looking at the surface, maybe I am missing the whole boat but it seems that way to me.

I think it would be incredibly difficult to improve this film.

absolutely cool, deeply satisfying, fun, intense.

All About My Mother - Todo Sobre Mi Madre - Original Spanish

Average customer rating:

It relaxed me rather than bore me

All About My Mother - Todo Sobre Mi Madre - Original Spanish

ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000A7K0PI

Product Description

Won Oscar (2000) for Best Foreign Language Film; also won 40 other awards with 28 additional nominations. PLOT OUTLINE: Young Esteban wants to become a writer and also to learn the identity of his father, which has been carefully concealed by the mother, Manuela. Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. ++++ DVD Features: This officially licensed release from South Korea is listed as NTSC Code 3 (will play on all region-free players or DVD-ROM drives); please check compatibility BEFORE purchasing. Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic; Dolby Digital Sound. SPANISH w/optional English or Korean subtitles.

Customer Reviews:

It relaxed me rather than bore me.......2006-04-03

This Spanish movie can be hard to swallow like most European ones that rule out action, suspense and fantasy in their quest for being artistic. The movie moves so slowly that you couldn't believe its Wikipedia article mentions so many events. Somehow, however, I enjoyed it. Its jazz background music is comforting. It made me feel at ease, relaxed.

This movie is about a Manuela, a single mother of one teenager, who quits her entire normal life in Madrid to find her son's father in Barcelona in what seems to be mainly a sort of self-search quest, or just to have long vacations. Once in Barcelona she makes friends and gets involved in their lives especially Rosa's, a pregnant girl in disgrace, a very popular stereotype in Hispanic movie and TV productions, just like the American productions display very often the stereotype of the socially-troubled teenager. Rosa is played by the single truly famous character in this film, Penélope Cruz, although she suffers a big lack of charisma in here. Very curiously, Manuela does not look for a nursing job (her career) but anything else and complicates her life.

The reason why Manuela looks for her son's dad is not marrying at all. This is a Liberal movie where religious people are the bad guys, but at least the movie doesn't get too harsh on them and virtually only shows an old religious strict mom in a few scenes. Meanwhile other groups like prostitutes and are the good ones, but not placed to high either. Thus this movie is not so much about totally evil guys vs. totally good ones as in most movies. This makes the movie very special because most of people's common lives are not so. One thing is that we all face opposition in our jobs, schools, when searching a mate, etc. Another very different thing is facing pure evil, which we usually don't face it, despite how cruel our common opposition can look; in the same way none of us are pure good. No, for good or bad, life is not as simple as good vs. bad as low-intelligence people struggle to stand for, like Bill O'Reilly or Al Sharpton for example. -Michael Crichton's speeches in his web site show wonderful examples how oversimplification is harmful- No wonder this movie won prizes, like an Oscar.

Manuela looks for her son's dad to tell him their son died (in an accident) but it rather seems that she just wants some long vacations.... even when Spaniards already have more then 3 vacations weeks a year. Otherwise, did she really have to quit her job? Or maybe it's the curious tendency of everybody to make life more complicated, which also makes the film especial and real. But this is something that too many people will not admit.

Average customer rating:

Hard to get one's head around this one
Not Almodovar's Best
another touching grand opus from a great director who continues to get better
Interesting, but incoherent
I loved it!

All About My Mother [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Talk to Her (Hable con Ella)
Bad Education (Original Uncut NC-17 Edition)
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ASIN: B00004RCPR

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Hard to get one's head around this one.......2007-02-27

Not Almodovar's Best.......2006-09-26

another touching grand opus from a great director who continues to get better.......2006-08-03

almodovar glorifies women! remarkable in its refusal to patronize, and it has all the touches youve come to expect. i laughed, i cried ...

Interesting, but incoherent.......2006-06-20

I loved it!.......2006-05-16

Sony Pictures Classics 10th Anniversary (All About My Mother / Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Indochine / Run Lola Run)

Average customer rating:

Sony Pictures Classics 10th Anniversary (All About My Mother / Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Indochine / Run Lola Run)
Starring: Columbia 4 Pak
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
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ASIN: B00005Y6XT
Release Date: 2002-03-05

Amazon.com

All About My Mother
After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret Fetzer

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hong Kong wuxia films, or martial arts fantasies, traditionally squeeze poor acting, slapstick humor, and silly story lines between elaborate fight scenes in which characters can literally fly. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has no shortage of breathtaking battles, but it also has the dramatic soul of a Greek tragedy and the sweep of an epic romance. This is the work of director Ang Lee, who fell in love with movies while watching wuxia films as a youngster and made Crouching Tiger as a tribute to the form. To elevate the genre above its B-movie roots and broaden its appeal, Lee did two important things. First, he assembled an all-star lineup of talent, joining the famous Asian actors Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh with the striking, charismatic newcomer Zhang Ziyi. Behind the scenes, Lee called upon cinematographer Peter Pau (The Killer, The Bride with White Hair) and legendary fight choreographer Yuen Wo-ping, best known outside Asia for his work on The Matrix. Second, in adapting the story from a Chinese pulp-fiction novel written by Wang Du Lu, Lee focused not on the pursuit of a legendary sword known as "The Green Destiny," but instead on the struggles of his female leads against social obligation. In his hands, the requisite fight scenes become another means of expressing the individual spirits of his characters and their conflicts with society and each other. The filming required an immense effort from all involved. Chow and Yeoh had to learn to speak Mandarin, which Lee insisted on using instead of Cantonese to achieve a more classic, lyrical feel. The astonishing battles between Jen (Zhang) and Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh) on the rooftops and Jen and Li Mu Bai (Chow) atop the branches of bamboo trees required weeks of excruciating wire and harness work (which in turn required meticulous "digital wire removal"). But the result is a seamless blend of action, romance, and social commentary in a populist film that, like its young star Zhang, soars with balletic grace and dignity. --Eugene Wei

Indochine
Régis Wargnier's 1992 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is a bit like watching paint dry, despite its exotic locale and lead performance by the legendary Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). Deneuve plays a wealthy French landowner, born and raised in Indochina, from 1930 until 1955, the year of a Communist takeover. The brewing political changes bound to upset her fortune and destiny find an even more personal parallel in her relationship with an adopted daughter (Linh Dan Pham), who grows up and becomes independent. The outline of this scenario sounds pretty good, but the film is flat and unworthy of its star. --Tom Keogh

Run Lola Run
It's difficult to create a film that's fast paced, exciting, and aesthetically appealing without diluting its dialogue. Run Lola Run, directed and written by Tom Tykwer, is an enchanting balance of pace and narrative, creating a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers. This is the story of young Lola (Franka Potente) and her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). In the space of 20 minutes, they must come up with 100,000 deutsche marks to pay back a seedy gangster, who will be less than forgiving when he finds out that Manni incompetently lost his cash to an opportunistic vagrant. Lola, confronted with one obstacle after another, rides an emotional roller coaster in her high-speed efforts to help the hapless Manni--attempting to extract the cash first from her double-dealing father (appropriately a bank manager), and then by any means necessary. From this point nothing goes right for either protagonist, but just when you think you've figured out the movie, the director introduces a series of brilliant existential twists that boggle the mind. Tykwer uses rapid camera movements and innovative pauses to explore the theme of cause and effect. Accompanied by a pulse-pounding soundtrack, we follow Lola through every turn and every heartbreak as she and Manni rush forward on a collision course with fate. There were a variety of original and intelligent films released in 1999, but perhaps none were as witty and clever as this little gem--one of the best foreign films of 1999. --Jeremy Storey

Pedro Almodovar 5-DVD Collection (Bad Education; Talk To Her; All About My Mother; Live Flesh; Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Average customer rating:
Pedro Almodovar 5-DVD Collection (Bad Education; Talk To Her; All About My Mother; Live Flesh; Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Manufacturer: Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FVXU06

Product Description

"Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SYNOPSIS: This 5-DVD Collection contains 5 Almodovar's movies: Bad Education (La Mala educación): In the early 60s, two boys - Ignacio and Enrique - discover love, movies and fear in a Christian school. Father Manolo, the school principal and Literature teacher, both witnesses and takes part in these discoveries. The three characters come against one another twice again, in the late 70s and in 1980... Talk To Her (Hable con ella): Marco, a journalist grieving for a love affair that ended ten years' ago, falls in love with Lydia, a bullfighter also on the rebound. Benigno, a nurse, dedicates his life to his only patient, a young dancer in a coma as a result of an accident four years' before; he talks to her, reads to her, holds photographs in front of her closed eyes. Does a miracle await? All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre): A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child... Live Flesh (Carne trémula): Pizza delivery man Victor is having an argument with Elena, whom he met a few days ago, but she was high then and doesn't want to hear about him. Reacting to the noise, two cops, young David and older Sancho, arrive at the scene, the gun accidentally goes off... Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (¡Átame!): Ricky is released from a mental hospital, and knows exactly what he wants to do. He hunts down Marina, a porn film star he once had sex with, and tries to convince here to be his wife. She is a bit reluctant, so he ties her up... Will this approach endear him to her ? SPECIAL FEATURES: Box Set, Interactive Menu, Multi-DVD Set, "

Average customer rating:

Law of Desire [Region 2 Import]
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Manufacturer: Optimum World
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Introduction by Jose Arroyo
Trailer
16 page extract from 'Almodovar on Almodovar
Faber and Faber
Spanish with English Subtitles

ASIN: B000NO6V6A

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All About My Mother [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Amores Perros
Bad Education (Original Uncut NC-17 Edition)

ASIN: B00004YN3L

All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre) [NTSC/REGION 4, Import-Latin America]

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All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre) [NTSC/REGION 4, Import-Latin America]
Director: Pedro Almodovar
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000KH19PS

All About My Mother [Region 4 Import - English Subtitles]

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All About My Mother [Region 4 Import - English Subtitles]
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Manufacturer: Dendy
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Product Features:

Behind the Scenes featurette
Cast & Crew Biographies
Trailer
Subtitles

ASIN: B000JZY3EU

Product Description

From acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER is a delirious, baroque drama saturated with extreme characters, hilarious interactions and vibrant colours. Almodovar's self-described "screwball drama" is as mad as anything he's ever written. It's the story of Manuela, a single mother, who after the tragic death of her beloved teenage son, goes to Barcelona in search of the father, Esteban, who has since had silicone implants and goes by the name of Lola. Manuela reunites with her old friend, transvestite prostitute Ia Agardo, finds work with the famous actress Humo Rojo and befriends a pregnant nun who charges her with raising her baby... bringing Manuela full circle. ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER is a dedication "to all actresses who have played actresses, to all men who act and become women, and to all the people who want to be mothers".

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