Review of High Heels

High Heels (1991)
6/10
Attractive melodrama in Almodovar style with a sober meditation on the importance of family
27 July 2021
Almodovar successful and overwrought melodrama about a love/hateful relationship with the ordinary rare characters , twisted situations and eccentric events. A girl's veteran mother (Marisa Paredes) go back after 15 years abroad to perform in Madrid and to find her estranged 27-year-old daughter (Victoria Abril) who left her as a child , the latter has married one of her old boyfriends. They attempt to mend their broken mother/daughter relationship and deal with their common lover (Feodor Atkine) . The reunion after fifteen years is difficult , not least because Rebecca has married her old boyfriend . Things go wrong when there happens a crime and a rare judge (Miguel Bose) starts investigating . A mother, a daughter, a lover. Relationships can be murder.

Agreeable film full of feeling , outlandish characters , haunting mood-pieces , Spanish Neo-realism , and sense of style but not totally satisfactory , including conventional pitfalls , profanities and a lot of sexual scenes . The picture deals with a veteran singer returns after 15 years abroad to perform in Madrid and finds her troublesome daughter , stablishing a physical and problematic relationship between them . It is sad and amusing , but like the rest of the movie mostly sad . This results to be an off-the-wall as well as semi-ironic melodrama , including familiar absurdities , dysfunctional roles and many other things ; featuring two feminist heroines of classical proportions . The picture is pretty well but turns out to be inferior to Almodovar's subsequent entries such as ¨The skin I live in¨, ¨Volver¨ , ¨The bad education¨ or ¨Talk to her¨. The result is undiluted scabrous drama , crazy strings of plots , sharp images , plenty of colorful images and marvellous songs from Luz Casal . Filmmaker piles up on the contrivances , turns and twisted events so that the picture to have success . It's a piquant look at a peculiar family involving strange and complicated situations during its half an hour runtime . And being influenced by American Romantic Dramas and especially by director Douglas Sirk . Nice interpretations by all cast , outstanding Marisa Paredes , Victoria abril and Miguel Bose. Furthermore , a notorious support cast such as : Anna Lizaran , Cristina Marco , Féodor Atkine ,Miriam Díaz-Aroca , Pedro Díez del Corral ,Bibiana Fernández , among others . Enjoyable musical score by Ryuichi Sakamoto ; adding some wonderful songs . Brilliant and luxurious cinematography by Alfredo Mayo.

The motion picture was realized in his peculiar style by Pedro Almodovar ; he often uses symbolism and metaphorical techniques to portray circular story lines , though here he directs a special melodrama , including his ordinary touches . Almodovar directs throughout with splendid zip and he usually portrays strong female characters and transsexuals and along his career getting some important international prizes . His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release . In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company : El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world , making his films very popular in many countries . Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar who made successes such as Labyrinth of passions , Law of desire , Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown , Bad education , All about my mother , Talk to her , Broken embraces , The Skin I Live In and many others . The latest from acclaimed Spanish director , Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited (Los Amantes Pasajeros) competing for the inaugural best European comedy honor during the upcoming 26th edition of the European Film Awards . And his last hits as Julieta and Dolor y gloria with Antonio Banderas .
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