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Reviews
La mala educación (2004)
Visually appealing & emotionally unsettling
I'm quite surprised that the only comments so far for this film seem to be from Spanish people.. the film should be playing in selected cinema's in the UK right about now as well. I went to see it yesterday eve, having been very impressed with Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All about my mother) last year, and I was so, so glad I went. The setting, the costumes & the atmosphere are sunny and colourful as is the case in all Almodóvars films. Don't let it deceive you into thinking his works are as light and easily digestible as they look, though: despite the sunny feel to it, La Mala Educación is a profound, sometimes shocking but always strangely moving picture of how
(a) relationships between people are, if you think about it, unbelievably complex (I won't mention any particular scene, but I thought the scene in the Museum of Gigantesque Figures was very very telling - "You do it. I'm not a monster!"),
(b) adults often have trouble with coming to terms with certain things that happened in their childhoods and giving the ghosts of the past a place in their lives.
Definitely, DEFINITELY recommended. Go and see it if you can, even if you don't like it (I can see how Almodóvars bright, exuberant, confrontational approach would not be everyone's cup of tea) it makes an interesting change from the usual Hollywood drivel. Challenge yourself!
Lettre d'un cinéaste à sa fille (2002)
A quiet stream of images, stories and thoughts...
Rather short film by a Belgian filmmaker, which he made for his daughter when she asked him "why he had never made a film for her". I watched it at school in French class and was very much struck by it. It's very touching and quite thoughtful and well done despite its low-budgetness. It's basically a loose collection of different images and short stories, with music supporting the rich imagery. I loved the middle part in black and white, the story about the girl, the blind man and the dog. It's fairy tale all over, this is a film which makes you appreciate the beauty of flowers in the rain. It's been a year and a half since I've seen it and I still remember it fondly. Definitely worth looking into.