Pina opens the film with her famous Café Muller piece;
showcasing a society stuck in a loop, forever playing their part in a kind of
hopeless repetition. The bold strokes from the dancers are amplified when they
wade through awkwardly placed chairs which grunt along the floor in a way they
don’t want to be shifted.
Almodóvar contrasts this expertly in a very still hospital where
a nurse, Benino, is doting over the every need of a dancer in a coma. With a
surgeon’s control, he paints her nails describing the scene you’ve just watched
as if she were awake. The delicate way
in which the camera moves makes you almost cringe as he cleans her naked bosom
in such an invasive and routinely manner allowing you to quickly connect intimately
with their relationship.
As ever, Almodóvar creates powerful female characters. Lydia
Gonzalez, a female bull fighter, is introduced through a talk show. The
presenter seems less interested in her killing credentials and would rather ask
her about her personal life which results in Lydia walking off. Through a
mutual loneliness, she befriends a journalist named Marco who genuinely seems
interested in her career.
After an accident involving Lydia, Marco and Benino strike
up an odd friendship. The way in which they each deal with the two women is
interesting to watch and verges on the comedic when they start to make up what
one would be saying to the other. It can at times become creepy and this is accentuated
brilliantly through long time collaborator Alberto Iglesias’ music which plucks
its way through your spine.
One of my favourite moments in the film is when you see
Alicia’s body covered in a cloth very much akin to the Cristo Veleto at Cappella
Sansevero, it was then that I realised that perhaps Benino wasn’t doting but
rather polishing her.
This film is to be watched many times. After a second
viewing, I realised just how many clues and metaphors Almodóvar had woven throughout. What I love about this film is how personal it
can be and how people come up with different interpretations. For me, I wonder
if Pina had told the story in a much simpler way in the magnetic attraction
between partners and in the cyclic nature of life. The
powerful ending itself provokes many questions and you’ll be left knowing that Almodóvar
is smiling somewhere at your yearning for more.
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