Word: almodovar
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...Desire," the last film Pedro Almodovar made before his international hit "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", stands at a pivotal point in the Spanish director's repetoire. It combines the technical sheen of his later films with the kinky irreverence of his earlier work...
...convoluted plot centers on Pablo (Eusebio Poncela), a filmmaker whose fashionable, charmingly tasteless movies resemble Almodovar's. Pablo lives with his brother-cum-sister Tina (Carmen Maura) a religious transsexual actress. Pablo and Tina both want boyfriends...
...buff named Antonio (Antonio Banderas) decides he'd like a shot at domestic bliss with Pablo. Antonio worms his way into the hearts and beds of both siblings, fixes all their appliances and kills one of their friends. Behind this story rages a giddy post-Franco Madrid filled with Almodovar fixtures: quaaludes, pederast priests, disco-dancing children and haunting boleros...
...Almodovar's singular talent lies in his ability to respect and ridicule his characters as they make their way through his melodramatic, messy story. "Law of Desire" sometimes feels like a B-movie, sometimes like a parody of a B-movie and occasionally like fine drama. It's a hodge-podge that winds up surprisingly witty and even moving. "Law of Desire" may also be Almodovar's smartest, most challenging film. He displays here an acute consciousness of the way deviance and normalcy tend to get mixed up; in his merciless satire, the Church and the family unit appear twisted...
...highest and, with the help of European Community subsidies, it built $30 billion worth of highways and other public works. No longer did Spaniards have to emigrate north for jobs: their income rose to 79% of the E.C. median. Culturally, Spain became fashionable: the campy fantasies of filmmaker Pedro Almodovar; the sunswept abstractions of painter Miguel Barcelo; the postmodern extravaganzas of architect Ricardo Bofill; the prankish sexiness of fashion designer Sybilla. Madrid promoted itself as the eye of a creative tornado known as la movida, whirling all night long. Novelist Camilo Jose Cela won the 1989 Nobel Prize for Literature...