Carne trémula

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Carne Trémula
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Produced by Agustín Almodóvar
Written by Ruth Rendell (novel)
Jorge Guerricaechevarria
Pedro Almodóvar
Ray Loriga
Starring Javier Bardem
Francesca Neri
Liberto Rabal
Release date(s) October 12, 1997
Running time 103 min
Language Spanish
IMDb profile

Carne Trémula (English: Live Flesh) is a 1997 Spanish film, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Bardem and Francesca Neri. The film is loosely based on Ruth Rendell's book Live Flesh.

[edit] Plot

Madrid, January 1970: As the nation is held under a state of emergency ordered by the Franco regime, a young prostitute Isabel (Penélope Cruz) experiences severe nausea and internal pain. The older madame Centro de Mesa recognizes this as signs of labour, and gets her ready to go to a hospital. Unable to flag anyone down in the deserted streets, Centro puts herself in the path of an empty city bus, whose driver unwillingly lets them on. Before they arrive at the hospital, Isabel gives birth in the bus on a completely empty streets, under seasonal decorative lights. Local officials then compete with themselves to celebrate this unique story, in particular a transportation official giving Isabel and her young son Victor free passes for life.

1990: Victor (Liberto Rabal), now twenty years old and a pizza delivery boy, tries to make an appointment with the junkie hooker Elena (Francesca Neri) who he had sex with a week earlier. She is more concerned about her next hit and his smitten talk spooks her, so she brushes him off. Dejected, he gets on a bus and rides around aimlessly until he spots her in a window. Elena, thinking it's her drug source, buzzes him in. When they meet face to face, Elena tells him to leave, curses him out, and mocks him sexually (saying they didn't even have coitus earlier). Finally she gets her father's gun and orders him to leave. Enraged, Victor knocks her out, but not before a gun shot rings out.

Two cops respond to the report of a disturbance. The older cop Sancho (José Sancho) is an unstable alcoholic who suspects his wife of infidelity. The younger cop David (Javier Bardem) is more clean-cut and prefers to do things by the book. They glance through the window Victor threatening Elena, and Sancho is ready to storm in, but David wants to call for back-up. When they enter, Victor holds Elena hostage with her gun and freaks out. David tries to calm him down and put down his gun, but Sancho sabotages his efforts by continually threatening Victor. Finally, David puts his gun to Sancho's head, gets him and Victor to put down their gun and orders Elena to flee. Sancho then lunges for Victor, they wrestle for the gun, and another shot rings out, hitting David.

Six years later, Victor, in jail, happens to watch a wheelchair basketball match where the now paralyzed David is a star player, and his new wife Elena is cheering him on from the sidelines. Victor has made good use of his time, taking a correspondence course in education, working out, and enriching his mind on a variety of subjects, including the Bible. Before he is released, his mother dies and leaves him some money and a slum house. One of his first stops after he gets out of jail is his mother's grave, where he happens upon the funeral of Elena's father, an Italian diplomat. He gets in a few words to a grieving Elena, and then leaves.

On his way out of the cemetery, he comes across Clara (Ángela Molina). They get to talking, and she agrees to stop at his place for a drink, though she is off-put by his squalid house and ex-convict status. Eventually his enthusiasm and good looks prevail, and she agrees to teach him how to make love, in addition to pampering him with gifts and affection.

Elena, now cleaned up and operating a orphanage, tells David during cunnilingus of her encounter with Victor. David freaks out and understandably doesn't want Victor near his wife. However, Victor has become a popular volunteer at Elena's orphanage. Elena tries to talk Victor into leaving, but he is persistent that he has no bad intentions and even quotes a bible verse about being persecuted. David also stops by Victor's house and threatens him if he gets near his wife.

Unable to allay his paranoia, David begins to trail Victor and finds out about his affair with Clara, Sancho's wife. He also finds out that Victor works at Elena's orphanage and confronts him again, whereby Victor wrestles him to the ground and tells him that the one who pressed the trigger was actually Sancho. Afterwards, David tells his wife what Victor said, and the revealing context that at the time David was carrying on an affair with Clara. Elena is disgusted, but stills plans to leave the orphanage to get away from Victor. Victor tells Elena that his original plan of revenge was to become the world's greatest lover, make love to Elena all night long, and then leave her hanging, but he still loves too much to do so. Elena gives into a night of passion on the condition that Victor leaves the orphanage.

David hears from Elena herself about her infidelity, and although she plans to stay with him, he plots his own revenge. Having learn all there is to know about pleasing a woman, Victor breaks up with Clara, who is totally distraught, unable to stand her abusive husband. After a vicious fight, she temporarily incapacitates Sancho and plans to leave or die trying. David shows up at Sancho's place with photographic proof of Victor's and Clara's affair. Sancho and David drive to Victor's house, where Sancho shoots and kills Clara, Clara wounds Sancho, and Sancho finally kills himself.

After this massacre, David narrates a letter written from Miami to his wife, apologizing for the way everything turned out. Leaving the orphanage, an in-labour Elena and Victor get stuck in heavy traffic, a symbol for Victor that the times of fear during Franco's regime have passed.

[edit] Awards

  • The film won a 1998 Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor (José Sancho)


Pedro Almodóvar

Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (1980) • Laberinto de pasiones (1982) • Entre tinieblas (1983) • ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer ésto? (1984) • Matador (1986) • La ley del deseo (1987) • Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988) • ¡Átame! (1990) • Tacones lejanos (1991) • Kika (1993) • La flor de mi secreto (1995) • Carne trémula (1997) • Todo sobre mi madre (1999) • Hable con ella (2002) • La mala educación (2004) • Volver (2006)