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DVD Bad Education (Original Uncut NC-17 Edition)
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
Review(s): DVD Bad Education (Original Uncut NC-17 Edition)
Swimming Pool Library
Pedro Almodovar has to be one of the most original and best film directors working today. His latest movie, BAD EDUCATION, is a joy to behold. The photography is stunning from the opening credits to the end of the movie. Shot in beautiful color, many of the frames literally are worthy of framing. Almodovar is one of those rare directors whose films are so visual that they would never translate to any other medium. I'm thinking now, for instance, of the aerial shots of the youngsters doing exercises where the pictures literally become works of art.
Gael Garcia Bernal (Angel/Juan/Zahara) of THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES and THE CRIME OF FATHER AMARO also is a living, moving work of art reminding us that a thing of beauty truly is a joy forever. He's not a bad actor/actress either. As he does so often, Almodovar teases the viewer with female impersonators so real that we aren't always certain as to which sex we are seeing. Then there's the story/book within the film, the film within the film, mistaken identity and a swimming pool scene between Bernal and Fele Martinez who plays Enrique that is hotter than Kansas in August -- and perfectly natural-- and apparently the reason for the movie's NC-17 rating. (Only in America would a man's naked butt cause a film to get such a rating while we can see Nicole Kidman's beautiful naked front, back and both sides in a totally gratuituous scene in EYES WIDE SHUT for an R rating only.)
It is always exciting and so visually invigorating to see an Almodovar film. His latest is certainly no exception.
I 'd like them English speaking.
When I have ordered this,I believed there should be English in the Language.And there isn't.Only Spanish speaking,and English and Spanish subtitles,which I found I have no time to enjoy the scenes since I am busy to follow the English subtitle.The film itself I could enjoy,but I prefer The Crime of Father Amaro.I like G G Bernal,and I admire him for his professionalism to challenge to various roles,but I confess I don't think him sexy as a gay.
Saints, Sinners and Angel
A Catholic school setting is the visual arena where-in director and writer, Pedro Almodovar, depicts his story of the troubled lives of two former school boys adroitly played by Gael Bernal and Fele Martínez with Daniel Cacho as Padre Manolo. In the 1970's an ambitious and somewhat avarice young man, having survived an unholy education at the hands of a hedonistic priest devises an elaborate scheme to blackmail him for a large sum of money. Recalling the unsolicited sexual advances and preteen experiences wrought upon him by his confessor father, he blatantly confronts the priest with his demands. His painful, literal memories are encapsulated in a manuscript entitled 'the visit' which have devastating implications for the priest, should they become grist for the media. Unaware to the priest, the visitor and blackmailer is not whom he seems, nor is he the only victim. The story snares both friend and foe alike within the twisting scheme which involves romantic betrayal, sexual themes and unfulfilled ambitions. In the end, the victor is the least likely to have counted on the outcome. All in all, a voracious screen triumph for both cast and director alike. Mild nudity adds to the visual images. *****
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