Live Flesh (film)
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| Live Flesh | |
|---|---|
| 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 | |
Live Flesh (Spanish: Carne Trémula) 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 Plaza Caballero (Penélope Cruz) gives birth in a bus to a child.
Twenty years later Victor Plaza (Liberto Rabal), now twenty years old, tries to make an appointment with the junkie daughter of diplomat Elena (Francesca Neri) whom he had sex with a week earlier. Elena tells him to leave. Finally she gets a 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. Through the window they catch sight of Victor threatening Elena, and Sancho is ready to storm in, but David wants to call for a back-up. When they enter, Victor holds Elena hostage with her gun. David tries to calm him down and get him to drop 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 guns 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 meets Elena at her father's funeral.
On his way out of the cemetery he comes across Clara, Sancho's wife (Ángela Molina). Eventually his enthusiasm and good looks prevail, and she agrees to teach him how to make love, as well as pampering him with gifts and affection.
Elena, now off drugs and operating an orphanage, tells David of her encounter with Victor. David stops by Victor's house and threatens him not to go near his wife.
Unable to allay his paranoia, David begins to trail Victor and finds out about his affair with Clara. He also finds out that Victor works at Elena's orphanage and confronts him again, whereby Victor tells him that it was Sancho who pulled the trigger. 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 her too much to do so. Elena gives in to a night of passion on 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. 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 in the attempt. David shows up at Sancho's place with photographic proof of Victor 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.
At the end 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)
Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (1980) • Laberinto de pasiones (1982) • Entre tinieblas (1983) • ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? (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)
