Spain's big mistake
Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 11:00PM 
Throughout the recent awards season, I wrote several pieces about the Best International Feature race, an Oscar category that's very dear to my heart. It's also a source of endless frustration for I am Portuguese and Portugal remains the country that holds the record for most submissions without getting a single Oscar nomination. To be fair, that's not always the Academy's fault. Sometimes, the choice submission is so mind-bogglingly misguided, it kills any hope of a nomination the minute it's announced. It's not always that the submitted films are lacking in quality, but, sometimes they're productions that were little seen outside of Portugal and received no buzz whatsoever.
This is by no means a strictly Portuguese problem, mind you. In fact, since we're celebrating the 2002 movie year, it seems like a good time to explore one of Spain's most misjudged bits of Oscar selection…
Despite being Spain's most internationally celebrated contemporary filmmaker, Pedro Almodóvar isn't as represented in the list of Spanish Oscar submissions as one might expect. Overall, he's the country's most submitted director ever, having had seven of his films compete. Of that group, one picture won the Academy Award, two others were nominated and another one got a place on the category shortlist. That being said, there were some years when submitting an Almodóvar would have been a safe bet but Spain's submission went another way. I'm thinking, for instance of 1990, when Carlos Saura's Ay, Carmela! was submitted instead of Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, and 2011, when Augusti Villaronga's Black Bread got in instead of The Skin I Live In. Again, that isn't to say those are bad films (I'd say Black Bread is better than the Almodóvar flick), but they appear like lesser choices when the Oscar race is considered.
No other year better exemplifies this phenomenon than the aforementioned 2002. Spain's selection for that Academy Awards ceremony was Fernando León de Aranoa's Mondays in the Sun which premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival and would only get an American release in the summer of 2003, long after the Oscar voting had ended and little golden men had been already handed out. Unsurprisingly, it didn't get nominated. One might adore Aranoa's film, but it seems disingenuous to argue that it had a better chance at winning Oscar gold than that year's Almodóvar extravagance. After all, 2002's Talk to Her got its creator two unexpected nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, winning the latter, an honor that's never been matched by another movie produced in Spain.
On one hand, it's easy to understand a committee's reluctance to consider Talk to Her as their country's representative. No matter how critical praised it might be, this is one weird picture whose explorations of desire and longing, bodily autonomy, and male control over women are a complicated web of uncertain morality. On the other hand, Talk to Her is inspired cinema at its best. It speaks to the film's mastery that its twisted narrative is so effective, taking the audience through an odyssey of heady concepts, where the membrane separating love and harm, care and abuse, splendor and scandal, is more porous than ever. Instead of bludgeoning the audience with provocation, this most strangely mature of Almodóvar's flicks dances for the spectators, seducing them, whipping them into a frenzy of artistic ecstasy. Even considering its challenging nature, it's difficult to imagine Talk to Her not getting nominated had it been submitted. It would have probably won, too.
How many times should Spain have submitted Almodóvar? Definitely in 2002.
Reader Comments (43)
Talk to her is a masterpiece, for me is the best film of 2002, but it's not a usual film for the Academy, so I think Spain decidea for somethong safer .I like Sundays in the sun, it has great acting and nice directing, and a social topic that is so relevant in our society,also I think that Spain doesn't want to submit Almodovar all the time, because they want to give option to other directors.
Spain has a love-hate relationship towards Almodovar as they often laud more safer films rather than films that are far more daring such as the case with Belle Epoque which did win the Oscar for Best International Film though it is boring as fuck. It starred some of Spain's great actresses in Maribel Verdu, Ariadna Gil, and a young Penelope Cruz (in one of her early roles) though Cruz was in a much better film that came out the same year in Spain in Jamon, Jamon with a young Javier Bardem. Another Spanish film that year that should've been considered is Dream of Light by Victor Erice who is considered to be Spain's equivalent to Terrence Malick considering that both men don't make films frequently.
Sorry to be pedantic but isn't the León de Aranoa film called "Mondays in the sun" (Los lunes al sol)?
"Even considering its challenging nature, it's difficult to imagine Talk to Her not getting nominated had it been submitted. It would have probably won too."
If it had been released in the 2010's, probably (by then, the rules surrounding the Foreign Language Film category had changed), but in thee 2000's, you could have a Foreign Language Film nominee with five or six nominations that still lost (case in point, Amélie and Pan's Labyrinth) and also, let's not forget that even though it resulted in Penélope Cruz's first Oscar nomination, Volver was snubbed for Foreign Language Film, so I can deefinitely understand Spain's resistance for going with a film as challenging and potentially off-putting as Hable con Ella. It may have still gotten its surprise Director and Original Screenplay nominations, but it may have still been snubbed in Foreign Language Film. There were reeally no guarantees (also, remember how many of the most acclaimed foreign language films of the 2000's ultimately lost to more Academy-friendly work, like The Class, or The White Ribbon, or A Prophet).
Also, thevoid99, I don't know what you found so boring about Belle Epoque, I find it utterly charming and hilarious (Fernando Fernán Gómez always makes me laugh and I adore Ariadna Gil and Maribel Verdú in it).
Big Mistake. Big! Huge!!
It depends... should Spain always deliver Almodovar, when available, or give a chance to another autors? Let's remind that Almodovar is NOT the only Oscar winning / nominated director at work, from Spain...
- Fernando Trueba
- Alejandro Amenábar
- Javier Fesser
- Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
- Nacho Vigalondo...
Spain's biggest mistake is to beat grannies at the poll stations. Let's be serious.
I still don't understand this submission... Nothing against Aranoa's film, which is fine, has great acting in it and also swept at the Goyas (Talk to her only won best score out of 7 noms), but I don't think anyone remembers it anymore... Having said that, I think his not getting submitted as best foreign film most likely improved Almodóvar's chances in the other, harder categories and ultimately earned him a second Oscar – and this one was all to himself, rather than to Spain. Anyway, this category can be very temperamental even when the right films are submitted by their countries. Volver, probably one of Almodóvar's best-regarded works at home, was shortlisted and still got snubbed on nomination morning, which was a shock to everyone (Penélope Cruz has said how that marred her joy for her own nom, as she thought the nomination in Foreign language was a sure thing and best original screenplay a strong possibility).
Ay Carmela (13 Goyas), Black Bread (9 Goyas) and Mondays in the Sun (5 Goyas) won the Goya Award for best film. No one of the mentioned Almodovar's movies did. Spanish Cinema is not only Almodovar. The quality of the Spanish submission in the 15 years is not very high and some great options has not been sent as The Fury of a Patient Man (Tarde para la ira), Marshland (La isla mínima), Camino or Cell 211 (Celda 211), all Goya Winners and very good movies. Of course, Goya Award is not always the best model (Klaus won Bafta and Annie but was defeated by Buñuel in Best Animated Film) but there are not so many good movies made in Spain (and in Spanish) every year.
Today we mourn the loss of Rosa Maria Sardà, one of the great actresses of her generation. You've seen her in All About My Mother, as the mother of Penélope Cruz. A woman (and art forger!) unable to understand her daughter because she only loves her dying husband. She was also amazing in Trueba's The Girl of Your Dreams (also with Cruz), as the drunk diva.
Interesting. I dont think TALK TO HER would've been nominated. As mentioned by others, we were still in the era of insane snubs (relative to things like stature).
But it is a stone cold masterpiece.
I think one of the issues with foreign film selections across the board is the 'read the room' problem. On one hand, the committees from various countries SHOULD vote on what they feel is the best film from their country. On the other, the savvier comittees do think about things like 'reading the room,'... if a film is winning RAVES in other countries and at international film festivals and people outside of your country appear to be obsessed while your own country likes it a lot but it isn't maybe the #1 choice but the #2... it's arguably crazy not to try to look outside of the home-team bubble.
For instance how did South Korea not notice how popular THE HANDMAIDEN was at its international showings (?) and went with something that never broke out beyond South Korea?
It was pretty obvious from the beginning that TALK TO HER was going to be a major big deal abroad. That isn't always true with Almodovar films but it sure was with that one. Perhaps they felt they had submitted him too frequently at that point (with only two successful bids) but in truth it seems ilke they just aren't reading the room when it comes to his work and its popularity abroad.
Mondays in the Sun is an excellent film which deserves to be better known in America.
I rewatched Talk to Her recently... It was impossible for me to see it without bringing a new lens informed by the #MeToo movement. Claudio's piece acknowledges the challenging nature of the film, but wow -- in rewatching I was disappointed by its dated notions of autonomy and gender. It just didn't feel like it stood the test of time, even if the craft is still amazing. For a filmmaker who (I believe) really does celebrate actresses and female leads, Almodovar really misses something here. Give me "Volver" or "Flower of My Secret" any day.
A curious case: Back in 1992, everyone expected Argentina to submit Alfonso Aristarain's A Place in the World. But the selection committee went for Eliseo Subiela's The Dark Side of the Heart, that was a dream-like, messy film less attuned to the Academy's liking. Very upset, Aristarain convinced Uruguay to submit A Place..., even though the film was directed by an Argentinean, written by an Argentinean, produced by Argentineans, cast mostly with Argentineans and told the story of an Argentinean rancher. Aristarain knew the rules but decided to submit the film because his wife was a native Uruguayan who had been the film's costume designer and had a hand in co-writing the screenplay. The film was nominated as submitted by Uruguay.
Some weeks after the nominations, member of the board Fay Kanin was visiting Mexico; she was approached by the producers of Like Water for Chocolate, who were pissed off as they had been left out. They told Kanin: "Did you know that A Place in the Word is actually Argentinian, and not Uruguayan? Kanin immediately did her homework and Uruguay's nomination was withdrawn. The Mexicans obviously expected their film to be nominated as, no doubt, they must have come in sixth in the ballot. But, no such luck. The Academy decided to leave the fifth spot vacant. The winner was Indochine.
Almodóvar deserved these nominations from The Academy:
Women on the verge of a breakdown - International Film
Law of Desire - International Film
Live Flash - International Film, Adapted Screenplay
All About My Mother - Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, International Film
Talk to Her - Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, International Film
Volver - Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, International Film
The Skin I Live In - Adapted Screenplay, International Film
Pain & Glory - Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, International Film
All about my movies -- You're not being pedantic. Thanks for pointing out the mistake.
Julia -- The title of this piece was a reference to this. Glad someone noticed it.
thevoid99 -- The case of Belle Epoque is a good example of strategic submissions. I consider Dream of Light to be one of the best films of the 1990s, it's a masterpiece that I love dearly. However, to submit that film would have been a mistake, when the much more Oscar-friendly Belle Epoque was right there. In the end, it was the right decision if the objective is to secure Oscar glory.
Richter Scale -- That's an interesting perspective. Had Talk to Her been submitted by Spain, would it have still gotten the nominations in other categories? I think it would, quite frankly. If it had been just the screenplay nod, I might think a foreign language submission might redirect the Academy's love, but that Director nod speaks of more widespread love.
NATHANIEL R -- In these matters, I tend to think a strategic approach is always better. Some Portuguese examples that I can think of are the 2011 and 2012 submissions. Considering international exposure and critical acclaim, I think Mysteries of Lisbon and Tabu should have been those years' submissions. Instead, Portugal sent a lovely documentary José & Pilar and a realist melodrama Blood of My Blood, both of which were hardly seen outside of Portugal.
RV -- I don't think Almodóvar endorses his character's strange actions all the time, including in Talk to Her. His films have all sorts of strange morality and they tend to be fascinated by twisted minds. After all, Matador sees the sexual fervor in murder, Tie Me Up is about a stalker, and so forth. While I do think his films can be "problematic", I also believe one shouldn't take the narratives of Almodóvar at face value. That said, I appreciate your input and have to agree on the Flower of My Secret love.
Marcos -- That's a fascinating bit of Oscar trivia.
To everyone, I'm grateful for the feedback. Thank you.
I ve just rewatched Talk to Her last week with my boyfriend who haven’t seen it. I used to praise it and it ranked high among my Almodóvar’s favorites. I was Utterly Disgusted at its misogynist approach and moves. I urge you to watch it again and discuss it. As much as I (used to) love Almodóvar his (unintended maybe?) misogyny is certainly present all over his ouvre. I understand that it reflects another times in society but we should be able to identify these issues.
I'm glad there are a few dissenters here because I finally watched TALK TO HER for the first time last year and I...hated it with the fire of a thousand suns. I just could not with a movie that tries to make the viewer empathize with a guy who *SPOILERS FOR AN ALMOST 20 YEAR OLD MOVIE* assaults and rapes a comatose woman *and* tie up the narrative loop by "giving" said woman to his friend who knows what he did. Ick ick ick.
I say "tries" because in my case, at least, it failed. I heart Almodovar but this movie, no.
I did enjoy the Pina Bausch ballet.
I have never understood the love for this movie. I always thought it should have been called Rape Her. I'm not an Almodovar hater: Law of Desire, Bad Education, Broken Embraces, The Skin I Live In, and maybe Women on the Verge... are masterpieces. But this one and Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down are morally repugnant to me.
The only weird part is that it was his first film after conquering the category. You think they'd give him a chance to keep his hot streak going. Fellini and Bergman went back to back. De Sica won twice. Farhadi won twice in five years, only one picture, The Past, being passed over.
I feel identified with the comments by Cafg, Jesus Alonso and Enrique: If the Oscars discover some great films outside the US, Why don't discover more talent instead of being stucked with the same authors? However I'm OK if they want to be repetitive.
What really piss me off is the dependency of the big audience in México (I don't know if is the same in other countries) with the Oscars as cinema reference, but the most pathetic is that is not only with foreign films but actually with mexican films.
I could understand that most people prefer to consume what is popular for social terms, but not to know the works of art that are doing in your country is just ridiculous.
The Academy picked the movie they wanted and not the movie that pundits wanted. I love how pundits pretend to rule the game when they clearly don't.
Raimunda -- It wasn't the Academy that picked Spain's Oscar submission. Each country has committees or other such systems to select their submission. If anything, the Academy followed what pundits had predicted and showered Talk to Her with love while completely ignoring Mondays in the Sun.
César Gaytán -- A lack of love or appreciation for national cinema is a problem that I feel is common to many countries. At least, the same thing happens in Portugal, though not even international validation seems to be enough to make people go watch Portuguese cinema.
Lynn Lee -- I completely understand that reaction to the movie and deeply appreciate your input. I've read the words of many people with similar reactions to yours over the years and I confess to feeling a bit bad about my love for the film. Admittedly, I usually like Almodóvar's irreverent provocations and have learned to never take representation as an endorsement in his cinema. He seems to love to empathize with beautiful monsters, more often than not.
Since you say you love Almodóvar I'd be very interested to know what you think of his earlier work. When looking at Talk to Her and some of his 80s and early 90s films, the 2002 flick's blatant amorality seems to pale in comparison with the older movies'. I apologize if this response seems a bit argumentative or pushy, but I'm honestly curious. I ask this because I love his cinema but have often found its worldview troubling, if twistedly fascinating.
Talk to Her is my favorite Almodóvar alongside Live Flesh. Was Um Filme Falado selected by Portugal to compete at the Oscars? It is a great movie and it has Malkovich and Deneuve to catch the attention of the Academy... I’m really curious.
Antonio -- Um Filme Falado is one of my favorite films by Manoel de Oliveira, though I need to give it a re-watch since last time I saw it was many years ago. It was selected by Portugal in 2003, but it failed to get into the shortlist. Not only has Portugal never gotten a nomination, but no Portuguese film has ever reached the shortlist of finalists for the award.
The Spanish Academy picked Mondays in the Sun, the same way the French Academy picked Miserables over Portrait. The Spanish Academy did not like Hable con ella. It won only one Goya.
Don't know about France but there's certainly no panel or comittee in Spain now in 2020, much less in 01
Every member gets to vote. They only need to pay for their annual membership.
Raimunda --Sorry for the confusion. I thought you were talking about AMPAS, not the Spanish Academy, who both vote on the Goyas and on the Oscar submission.
Pedromaniac -- I wasn't aware that the entire Academy could vote on the Oscar submission. In Portugal, there's at least a committee that limits the choice to a selection of finalists. I was under the assumption that a similar system was in place in Spain. I thought that, in part, because the list of Goya Best Picture winners doesn't match the Oscar submissions. My apologies for the misunderstanding.
Claudio, I agree with you about Almodovar's empathy for beautiful monsters. I just could not see anything beautiful about the monster in Talk to Her.
And to be clear, I'm by no means an Almodovar expert, far from it - I've only seen seven of his films, and all but one were from 1999 forward. I guess I prefer mellowed out, "established" Almodovar to taboo-busting Almodovar. What can I say, I'm a square at heart.. :)
That said, I'm aware he has a number of other, shall we say problematic films in his oeuvre, which I have not seen (e.g., Tie Me Up/Down, which others have mentioned)...maybe at some subconscious level I've been avoiding them? Maybe it's why I waited so long to see Talk to Her? But I thought, if my fellow movie lovers adore it *that* much and are saying it's his best, then there must be something to it and I really should watch it. Alas, I was taken aback at the violence of my distaste for it, especially since every other film of Almodovar's I've seen I've either liked (Women on the Verge, Julieta) or loved (All About My Mother, Volver, Broken Embraces, Pain and Glory).
Definitely, Spain made a big mistake when it did not select Talk to Her as its representative to the Oscar. I do think that this would have won because I remember that there was a lot of expectation around the next Almodovar movie after All About My Mother and those expectations were met at least outside of Spain.
I see that some comments believe that this would not have won remembering cases like Amélie and Pan's Labyrinth but No Man's Land was always Amelie's rival and more so being a war drama and we know that the year of Pan's Labyrinth was competition when the ineligible Letters from Iwo Jima won the Golden Globe. The year of Talk to Her there was no such competition.
Lynn Lee -- Thank you for answering my question and articulating so well your feelings about Almodóvar's films. I'd recommend you don't seek out his earlier stuff if you were so put out by Talk to Her. The Skin I Live In and I'm So Excited are also dicey works. As for Kika, that one goes even too far for me and my love of his cinematic provocations.
Reading the feedback from you and other readers who bristle at Talk to Her's perverse story, I think I should perhaps try to explain a bit better why I love it so much. Despite my misgivings about auteur theory, some filmographies beg to be appreciated through the prism of their director. I believe Almodóvar is one of those artists whose films demand such an approach. Talk to Her resonates a lot to me when seen in that perspective.
Almodóvar has always liked to project his own identity and psychosis unto the screen, often in malevolent characters, including rapists and serial killers. In Talk to Her, he does this again, examining the unhealthy way men use women. The director himself has been often accused of misogyny, as being a user of women who tells stories of feminine suffering that he never came close to experiencing.
The relationship that the men have to the women of Talk to Her seems like a very Almodóvar twist on that artistic relationship, the same way his fandom for actresses is twisted into stalker behavior in Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. In a most upsetting way, he equates the abuse of women, the taking of their autonomy to an act of love. The truly twisted part of it all is that he portrays it through the perspective of the men, the obsessives.
Through their perspective, through the perspective of another man that uses women, the obsession is portrayed as something transcendental that goes beyond the reality of violated consent in the premise. He looks at abuse and finds a kernel of love in it. It's horrid, I agree. It's a tale drained of morality whose characters are all either abusers or victims, monsters, and survivors. When I say they are beautiful, I don't mean the characters themselves or their actions, but the way Almodóvar presents them. He makes beauty out of horrid things time and time again.
Through this director's lensing and throughout his career, many taboo subjects have been made so utterly beautiful, the audience is forced to question their revulsion or attraction to them. He uses the mechanism of melodrama to explode emotions in such ravishing ways, that one marvels at their aesthetic appeal even if they come from sordid creatures that deserve no sympathy. It's a constant push-and-pull between beauty and revulsion that makes his films come out like a dance of contrasting forces. In a way, it makes sense that Talk to Her is the film where he is most clearly connected to the art of dance. For as much as Talk to Her is a story of abuse, I think it's also something more abstract, a dance of ideas and confessions.
While the most recent Pain & Glory is a confession of the artist exposing the relationship between memory and his own work, I find that Talk to Her to be a rawer sort of confession in the form of film. It's a confession of twisted urges and personal faults that inform his cinema and make it ugly at the same time it's dazzling. The more recent film is the confession you make in print in your autobiography, while the 2002 one is the kind you only ever utter to a trusted therapist and hope that no one else ever finds out. It fascinates me in that way and manages to be genuinely moving.
I apologize for this lengthy comment and I swear I'm not trying to convince you to like this film, just trying to explain myself a bit better. I hope readers who object to my praising of the film can understand where I'm coming from, even if they don't agree. Also, I'd like to make clear that I don't condone the actions of the men in Talk to Her in any shape or form.
Again, thank you for your answer, and, as always, I appreciate all the feedback, both positive and negative.
It should also be mentioned that Almodovar's relationship with the Spanish Film Academy has been difficult with Almodovar himself being critical and he even once resigned from the Academy although I think he is now a member again.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown won the Goya for Best Picture but Almodovar did not win Best Director (Gonzalo Suárez won for Rowing with the Wind) he finally won for All About my Mother.
Pepe Sancho once said in an interview that when he was nominated for Live Flesh, Almodovar spoke with him and told him not to get excited because being nominated for a movie directed by him they were not going to give him the award. Almodovar was wrong and Pepe Sancho won.
Although it should be mentioned that it is probably a matter of taste of the Academy. Ay Carmela! won 13 Goya and it is directed by one of the greats of Spanish cinema: Carlos Saura.
Mondays in the Sun was acclaimed in Spain and is starring one of the favorites of the Spanish Academy: Javier Bardem who won the Goya as Best Actor over the excellent Javier Camara.
Since we mentioned Spain, I think the main reason for the lack of nominations between The Sea Inside and Pain and Glory and the list of winners of the Goya for Best Film does not coincide with the films selected for the Oscars is because, as many know To compete the films have to be released in their countries between October and September of the following year. Since 2001, Spain has selected its representative from a shortlist of three films. For example, Mondays in the Sun was chosen from a list that included Talk to Her and Story of a Kiss.
Pain and Glory was chosen from a list that included While at War and Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles.
Many films with the hope of being considered for the Oscar are released in September but either do not stay in that Top 3 or simply are not selected for the Oscar so they are not eligible for the following year and is the case of some Goya winners for Best Picture such as Marshland and The Fury of a Patient Man.
Almodóvar should be submitted every time.
So the comment section is filled with the typical american-woke " the film is problematic" for a great work of art. Can't you seperate art from real life ?
The idea of Almodóvar being submitted every single year bores me to death and I love him.
worth mentioning... most Spaniards can't stand Almodovar's character. That translates into many unwilling to acknowledge his skills as filmmaker and writer, ahead of this band, some spanish film reviewer, who only gives something moderately positive about an Almodovar film, when it is an unquestionable masterpiece (as Pain and Glory), otherwise, the trashes his films.
Second, I said that he was going to be nominated for Director and win Original Screenplay, almost one year in advance, in the Oscarwatch forums. That got me a ticket to have a personal subforum next year, after that happened.
Third, I had a post-Oscar conversation in person with Agustín Almodóvar, at Malaga Film Festival, in 2003, also there was Julio Medem (Vacas, La Ardilla Roja). We talked about the temptations from Hollywood to have Pedro direct a studio production and how reluctanct he was, unless he would be warrant total creative freedom. He seems to have finally accepted, maybe Best Picture and Director are a possibility in the near future? Not every foreign language overseas master has achieved good results in Hollywood... but probably half the actors and actresses in Hollywood are desperate to work with him unquestionably one of the best actor's directors in film history.If his films were in English, how many nominations and wins would have been witnessed for performers (and writting)?
Dl -- this troubles me too. Almodovar films are super rich with moral provocations and questionable characters. Depiction is not endorsement. And provocations -- asking people to think about really uncomfortable things -- is meant to be problematic I think.
I think because his films are filled with perversions and outre sexuality (as well as murders and rapes and other crimes) modern day audiences who are looking for films to take moral stances aren't going to like them. So we may be moving into a time when his work is devalued.
I fear we are going to be moving into a time period where the only movies that are praised are simplistic message movies and that kind of art only very rarely ages well. As morality and public moods of what is good and bad and appropriate and righteous and all of that do shift with each generation.and sometimes multiple times within them.
It's curious. We're in such an encouraging time of progressive activism in terms of racial diversity and LGBTQ rights and women's autonomyand sexual consent (all important/ great things) and yet at the exact same time everyone is getting more and more conservative in their views of art and showing a distressing inability to look beyond binaries of "good" and "bad" or just rejecting any movie that doesn't exacty reflect what they're comfortable with.
I hope we don't get a new Hayes Code where there's a list of actions that must be condemned if they are seen within the film or that cant be shown at all.
NATHANIEL R
I am a bit more optimistic. Maybe the general public will stick to vanilla entertainment, but that's what the general public has been doing since the 80s. I believe that people who want to challenge themselves with film will always exist.
Jesus Alonso
A part of Spanish people not liking Almodóvar is not an unprecidented situation. Many directors and actors who manage to become successful worldwide face harsh criticism in their country. I can assure you neither Lanthimos nor Winslet, Cruz, Cotillard, Almodóvar or even Kurosawa have received the unanimous praise in their respective countries that their global fame would suggest. Most of the time, there's the feeling of "Why him/her over...?".
Well, Claudio, you make a compelling case for Talk to Her - almost enough to make me want to revisit it. Key word being almost! ;) But I agree I should probably avoid the other, earlier films you mention.
By the way, despite my use of the word "problematic," I'm not suggesting people shouldn't see Talk to Her or that it should be condemned because of its moral messaging (or rather, lack thereof). I respect the opinions of those who, like you, found beauty in its perversions. I'm only speaking for myself and anyone else whose revulsion made it impossible for us to appreciate its merits. I think I just have a knee-jerk reaction to any film that aestheticizes the rape or degradation of a woman (see also Breaking the Waves, which provoked a similarly visceral response on my part and put me off all subsequent Lars von Trier films until Melancholia). I hate it, but that doesn't mean I expect everyone else to.
Di... let's say Almodóvar has a HUGE ego and he's really difficult sometimes to work with, as I was told in personal conversation by director Daniel Calparsoro, who had one of his films produced by El Deseo. His ego has gotten afloat many times, he has quite a personality and was blatantly obvious in Hollywood back during the Oscars in which Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, when he refused to take actress and longtime colaborator and Oscar-buzzed Carmen Maura as her companion but chose trans star Bibiana Fernández instead, the AMPAS were in shock for that last minute decission and secured a back seat (far back) for Maura so she could attend the ceremony anyways. That started a feud that lasted till Volver.
Jesus Alsonso
So many directors who have a very clear vision of what they want are incredibly demanding. I read that Almodóvar and Maura had fallen out during the making of "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown" and that he wasn't sure that she would finish the film.