Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother)
1999. El Deseo S.A. Spain/ France
Directed by Pedro Almodovar. sсript by Pedro Almodovar.
Starring Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Antonia San Juan, Penelope Cruz, Candela Pena.
читать дальше
Spanish cinema has seen an inspiration in the 1980s, as in 1975, General Franco died after ruling for forty years. After decades of Franco's dictatorship, censorship was lifted in 1977, starting an era of freedom, democracy, and consumerism, leading to an exp;osion of experimentation, expressiveness, and explicitness in the nation's cinema (Chaudhuri, 2005, p. 25).
Under Franco, popular genres glorified Spanish masculinity, thus, although the new consumer society was still male-dominated and the patriarchal and religious power did not suddenly disappear, such movements and topics as feminism, divorce, homosexuality, and abortion started to emerge, especially in cinema (Chaudhuri, 2005, p. 25). One of the themes explored in the post-Franco Spanish cinema was 'the Oedipal narrative'. The Spanish filmmakers used Oedipal conflicts within the narrative in order to speak about political issues and historical events, using even more flamboyant and explicit techniques since censorship and repression had been abolished (Kinder, 1993, pp. 197-198).
In the Spanish Oedipal narrative, father is usually absent, and, frequently, mothers replace the missing father. The works of Pedro Almodovar capture all the trends as the director explores sexuality, womanhood, and the so-called movida traditions – an underground cultural movement known for its drug-use and sexual liberalism (Chaudhuri, 2005, p. 26).
Moreover, “the displacement of political issues onto the domestic realm of the family” (Kinder, 1993, p. 238) receives special emphasis in Spanish cinema, particularly, in Almodovar's postmodern melodramas.
All About My Mother was released in 1999 and has since become his most critically acclaimed and successful film. The film received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, where Almodovar won the award for best director; he was also awarded a Golden Globe and won an Oscar for best foreign film. In London, it won a BAFTA award, and in Spain, it had already received seven Goya awards (Edwards, 2001, p. 180).
Such international success, according to Paul Smith, proves that “the big budgets of Hollywood can only be beaten by something that comes free to Europeans: imagination” (Smith, 2000, p. 189).
Almodovar is a director with a very personal form of expression: he connects with traditional Spanish culture, at the same time being able to compete with Hollywood and actually acknowledging the Hollywood influence. Almodovar has even been blamed for bringing too many foreign elements to Spanish cinema (Triana-Toribio, 2003, p. 136). All About My Mother is full of Hollywood references and is dedicated “to Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider... 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” (Almodovar, 1999). As it is seen from the title of the film and from the director's dedication, it is about women, different, all kinds of women: single mothers, prostitutes, nuns, actresses, lesbians, and transsexuals.
All About My Mother tells the story of a woman who is a single mother and a nurse. Manuela works in Madrid. Her son, Esteban, dies in an accident after chasing the car of a stage actress Huma Rojo, wanting her autograph. Manuela leaves Madrid and travels to Barcelona to find Esteban's father, Lola, who is a transsexual prostitute. While in Barcelona, Manuela reunites with her old friend Agrado, a transvestite and a prostitute, and meets sister Rosa, a young nun suffering from AIDS and carrying Manuela ex-husband's, Lola, child. Manuela starts working for Huma Rojo, a lesbian actress who did not give Manuela's son an autograph right before he died. The melodrama explores the stories of these women and touches on the theme of the absent father. In the film, Manuela's son, Esteban, writes in his journal:
“This morning, I was looking through my mother’s bedroom until I found a stack of photographs. All of them were cut in half. My father, I suppose. I have an impression that my life is missing that same half.” (Almodovar, 1999).
The film begins in a hospital. The opening credits appear and dissolve as the camera pans over medical equipment: drips and dials in bright colours, frequently appearing in Almodovar's films – yellow, red, and blue. These colours create a distinctive motif and are always associated with Almodovar. The opening sequence introduces the viewers to Manuela, a nurse who works in an organ-transplant department. The next scene shows “the domestic realm of the family”, as Manuela is at home with her son, watching television. They are watching an old Hollywood movie All About Eve, resembling the title of the film, All About My Mother. All About Eve is also about actresses and relationships between women. The scene from All About Eve is quite long and is only interrupted when Esteban asks Manuela if she has ever wanted to be an actress. In the next scene, Manuela gives Esteban, who wants to become a writer, a birthday present – a copy of Truman Capote's Music for Chameleons. Such references to Hollywood and American culture in general (Capote was a famous American author and All About Eve is a classical Hollywood film) are very much in the manner of Pedro Almodovar, who is not afraid to include foreign elements in his works.
The domestic scene is also a starting point for the theme of the absent father, as Esteban does not know anything about his father and is eager to hear stories about him.
The next day, Manuela takes her son to one of her training seminars that include staged situations where she plays the role of a woman whose dead husband's organs are required for transplant surgery. In this scene, viewers might start to realise that soon enough this convincing performance will become Manuela's own reality.
In the following sequence, Manuela takes Esteban to see a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire (another reference to Hollywood). The mis-en-scene where Esteban meets his mother outside the theatre is very memorable. Manuela appears in the scene in a bright red coat with an umbrella in her hand. The background is also vermeil red, as she is standing against the outdoor magnified poster of Blanche (main character in A Streetcar Named Desire) played by Huma Rojo, the leading actress, whose lips on the poster are also red. The colours and the background music intensify the effect of theatricality. Unsurprisingly, the next scene is set inside the theatre, and a part of the performance on stage is shown. During the scene, Huma Rojo, while playing Blanche on stage, utters an essential phrase, setting another theme of the film: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
After the performance, Manuela and Esteban are seen outside the theatre. It is dark and pouring with rain, which adds to the dramatic effect. Esteban wants Huma Rojo's autograph, so he runs after her car and is hit by another vehicle. The camera angles show the accident from Esteban's point of view as the camera spins and lands on the ground, and the final image is the wet pavement and Manuela running towards her son. Once a performance, the role of a grieving woman becomes reality, as the doctors ask Manuela to sign the papers and donate Esteban's organs.
Manuela decides to leave Madrid and go to Barcelona. The city is introduced via helicopter shots of the main tourist attractions, quitely moving to Manuela's perspective, changing the view to a dark road with prostitutes, drug-dealers, and bikers. There, she is reunited with an old friend she has not seen in almost twenty years, Agrado – a transsexual prostitute. Despite some dramatic elements like an attempted rape, fights, and stolen money, Agrado provides a comic relief to the whole film.
The phrase “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” is brought back when Manuela helps Agrado with bruises, and Agrado, in return, helps her find a job. Agrado introduces Manuela to Sister Rosa, and although the nun cannot help Manuela find a job, Manuela helps and nurses Rosa, when she finds out that she is pregnant and HIV-positive.
In Barcelona, Manuela sees the advertisement of A Streetcar Named Desire and attends the performance, now without her son. Incidentally or not, the seat next to Manuela is empty. After the performance, Manuela meets Huma Rojo in the dressing room. Huma tells her she started smoking because of Bette Davis (a big Hollywood star and yet another reference to American cinema). Notably, Bette Davis played the role of an aging actress in All About Eve. Manuela helps Huma Rojo find her lesbian co-star Nina, who is a drug-addict, and Huma hires Manuela as her assistant.
The first scene to show all the women together – Manuela, Huma, Rosa, and Agrado – is set in Manuela's apartment, where she lives with the pregnant Sister Rosa, who cannot tell her parents about being pregnant from a transvestite Lola – Manuela's ex-husband. Agrado says they remind her of the heroines from How To Marry a Millionaire – another classical Hollywood movie.
In one of the scenes in All About My Mother, Manuela is forced to replace Nina and play her role in A Streetcar Named Desire. It reflects on the parallels between All About My Mother and All About Eve, as in the latter, Eve replaces the character of Bette Davis.
This leads to one of the most dramatic scenes in the film, where Nina blames Manuela for stealing her role, so Manuela is forced to talk about seeing A Streetcar Named Desire in Madrid and her son's death. Manuela's monologue about her son is particularly touching and heartbreaking and is accompanied by flashbacks from Huma's point of view.
Although the film is full of drama and sorrow, the atmosphere is rather light and optimistic. Unlike Eve and Margo from the Hollywood classic, Manuela becomes good friends with Huma, and, despite the death of Sister Rosa (who dies giving birth), there is a sense of hope and regeneration, as Rosa's son, named Esteban, is raised by Manuela, and miraculously becomes HIV-negative at the age of two.
During Rosa's funeral, Manuela meets her ex-husband, Lola, and finally tells him about their son, Esteban, who died, and lets him meet his newborn child.
The film ends with Manuela and a two-year-old Esteban returning to Barcelona for an AIDS conference and her meeting Huma and Agrado in the dressing room at the theatre. The last words are uttered by Huma Rojo, who says “I'll see you later!” to Manuela and goes on stage to perform. The final credits start against the red curtain and include Almodovar's dedication to all women. Then, the curtain falls.