All About My Mother

All About My Mother

Original poster
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Produced by Agustín Almodóvar
Michel Ruben
Written by Pedro Almodóvar
Starring Cecilia Roth
Marisa Paredes
Antonia San Juan
Penélope Cruz
Candela Peña
Music by Alberto Iglesias
Cinematography Affonso Beato
Editing by José Salcedo
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics Flag of the United States
Warner Sogefilms Flag of Spain
Release date(s) April 16, 1999 Flag of Spain
November 24, 1999 Flag of the United States
Running time 101 minutes
Country Spain
Language Spanish
Gross revenue $67,872,296 (worldwide)

All About My Mother (aka Todo sobre mi madre) is a 1999 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The screenplay deals with complex issues such as AIDS, transvestitism, faith, and existentialism.

Contents

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Plot

The film focuses on Manuela, a nurse who oversees donor organ transplants in Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid. On his seventeenth birthday, her son Esteban is struck by a car and killed while chasing actress Huma Rojo for her autograph following a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which she portrays Blanche DuBois. Despondent, Manuela journeys to Barcelona, where she hopes to find her son's father Lola, a transvestite she kept secret from the boy, just as she never told Lola he had a son.

In Barcelona, Manuela reunites with her old friend Agrado, a warm and witty transsexual prostitute. She also meets and becomes deeply involved with Rosa, a young nun who works in a shelter for battered prostitutes and is pregnant by Lola; Rosa's uncomprehending mother; Huma Rojo, the actress her son had admired; and the drug-addicted Nina Cruz, Huma's co-star and lover. Her life becomes entwined with theirs as she cares for Rosa during her pregancy and works for Huma as her personal assistant. Eventually she encounters Lola, who is dying from AIDS, and introduces him to his child by Rosa, christened Esteban in memory of Manuela's son, and reveals the secret she kept for eighteen years.

At its end, Almodóvar dedicates his film "To all actresses who have played actresses. To all women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother."

Production

The film was shot on location in Madrid, Barcelona, and A Coruña in Galicia.

The soundtrack includes "Gorrión" and "Coral para mi pequeño y lejano pueblo," written by Dino Saluzzi and performed by Saluzzi, Marc Johnson, and José Saluzzi, and "Tajabone," written and performed by Ismaël Lô.

The film premiered in Spain on April 8, 1999 and went into general theatrical release in that country on April 16. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the Auckland Film Festival, the Austin Film Festival, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival before going into limited release in the US. It eventually grossed $8,272,296 in the US and $59,600,000 in foreign markets for a worldwide box office total of $67,872,296 [1].

Cast

Critical reception

Janet Maslin of the New York Times called it Almodóvar's "best film by far," noting he "presents this womanly melodrama with an empathy to recall George Cukor's and an eye-dampening intensity to out-Sirk Douglas Sirk." She added, "It's the crossover moment in the career of a born four-hankie storyteller of ever-increasing stature. Look out, Hollywood, here he comes." [2]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "You don't know where to position yourself while you're watching a film like All About My Mother, and that's part of the appeal: Do you take it seriously, like the characters do, or do you notice the bright colors and flashy art decoration, the cheerful homages to Tennessee Williams and All About Eve, and see it as a parody? . . . Almodovar's earlier films sometimes seemed to be manipulating the characters as an exercise. Here the plot does handstands in its eagerness to use coincidence, surprise and melodrama. But the characters have a weight and reality, as if Almodovar has finally taken pity on them - has seen that although their plights may seem ludicrous, they're real enough to hurt." [3]

Bob Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "No one else makes movies like this Spanish director" and added, "In other hands, these characters might be candidates for confessions - and brawls - on The Jerry Springer Show, but here they are handled with utmost sympathy. None of these goings-on is presented as sordid or seedy. The presentation is as bright, glossy and seductive as a fashion magazine . . . The tone of All About My Mother has the heart-on-the-sleeve emotions of soap opera, but it is completely sincere and by no means camp." [4]

Wesley Morris of the San Francisco Examiner called the film "a romantically labyrinthine tribute that piles layers of inter-textual shout-outs to All About Eve, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Federico García Lorca and Alfred Hitchcock, and beautifully assesses the nature of facades . . . Almodovar imbues his Harlequin-novel-meets-Marvel-comic-book melodramas with something more than a wink and a smile, and it's beguiling. His expressionism and his screenwriting have always had fun together, but now there is a kind of faith and spirituality that sexcapades like Law of Desire and Kika only laughed at . . . [I]t contains a host of superlative firsts: a handful of the only truly moving scenes he's filmed, the most gorgeous dialogue he's composed, his most dimensional performances of his most dimensional characters and perhaps his most dynamic photography and elaborate production design." [5]

Jonathan Holland of Variety called the film "emotionally satisfying and brilliantly played" and commented, "The emotional tone is predominantly dark and confrontational . . . But thanks to a sweetly paced and genuinely witty script, pic doesn't become depressing as it focuses on the characters' stoic resilience and good humor." [6]

Selected awards and nominations

Stage adaptation

A stage adaptation of the film by playwright Samuel Adamson received its world première at the Old Vic in London's West End on September 4, 2007. This production marked the first English language adaptation of any of Almodóvar's works and had his support and approval [7]. Music by the film's composer, Alberto Iglesias, was incorporated into the stage production, with additional music by Max and Ben Ringham. It starred Diana Rigg, Lesley Manville, Mark Gatiss, Joanne Froggatt, Colin Morgan, and Charlotte Randle. It opened to generally good reviews, with some critics stating it improved upon the film [8][9].

References

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Life is Beautiful
Flag of Italy.svg Italy
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
2000
Succeeded by
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China
Preceded by
La Niña de tus ojos
Goya Award for Best Picture
2000
Succeeded by
El Bola