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Talk to her makes you feel good to cry Aseem Chhabra
All of Pedro Almodovar's films --- including the Oscar winning All About My Mother and the hit Women Under The Verge Of Nervous Breakdown, have inquired into human sexuality and relations and laws of desire, often crossing over the conventional notions of male-female roles. In his latest film, Talk To Her --- a handsome, masculine-looking man cries watching a Pina Bausch ballet performance and then falls in love with a woman who pursues the ultimate macho profession. She is a matador. And a sensitive male nurse, whose sexual preference is often questioned in the film --- perhaps since gay men are stereotyped to follow that profession --- is in love with a beautiful female dancer. Talk To Her is a crowning glory for Almodovar --- an amazing piece of filmmaking where the director blends together his love for cinema (the film includes a hilarious short silent film), cinematography, colour, production design, dance and music. The film is the closing night film at the 40th New York Film Festival. It will be commercially released in the US in November by Sony Pictures Classics. Almodovar burst onto the international film scene in 1985 with a campy, comic look at a hugely dysfunctional family in Madrid --- What Have I Done To Deserve This? Critics and audiences loved the film, even though people appeared to be taken aback by the film's shock elements --- the bored housewife who watches her prostitute neighbour perform sex with her clients, the husband who is in love with an aging singer, the mother-in-law and her pet chameleon, and the two young sons, one who sells heroin and the other is sold off by the family to a sex-crazed dentist for money. For a while in the 1980s, Almodovar continued to work with the
wildly crazy characters. A nymphomaniac female punk rocker who has
an affair with the gay son of the exiled Emperor of Tehran in Labyrinth Of Passions; the drug happy nuns
of Dark Habits; and a mental patient
(a young Antonio Banderas, who became an international star through
Almodovar's films) who kidnaps a porn star in the controversial Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down (the film
earned an NC 17 rating in the US).
But in his past few film, Almodovar seems to have sobered down --- less outrageous and less prone to humour that challenges the viewers' middle class moralities. Instead, he has moved to explorations of obsessive love, sexual ambivalences, parent-child relationships, friendships, jealousies and insecurities --- the usual details of life that we mortals have to cope with during our tenure on the earth. Talk To Her's two male protagonists love women who, at some stage during the journey of the movie, are in coma. Benigno (Javier Camara) is a slightly chubby, lonely man, dutifully taking care of his dying mother. When the mother passes on, Benigno musters enough courage to strike a conversation with the beautiful Alicia (Leonor Watling) who is training to be a dancer. Alicia's dancing school --- located right across from Benigno's apartment is run by Katarina, played by the gorgeous Geraldine Chaplin. But soon after their first meeting, Alicia is hit by a car and as she is in a coma, Benigno manages to get a job in the hospital caring for the woman who he secretly loves. It is a chance happening --- stuff that movies are made off; the kind of liberty that even the best of directors take in portraying realistic stories. Benigno spends a large part of his waking days --- and often nights, with the comatose Alicia, massaging her, changing her clothes, sheets, cutting her hair, giving her pedicures and all the time talking to her. The conversations go one way but Alicia gets to hear all about Benigno's days, nights, the people he meets, the dance performances and films he sees. Meanwhile Argentinean journalist Marco (Dario Grandinetti) becomes enthralled by the Lydia (Rosario Floes), a female matador. Lydia gets injured in the bull fighting arena, and in a coma she is taken to the same hospital, and the same floor where Benigno is caring for Alicia. The hospital becomes the setting for Almodovar's main focus of the film --- the deep camaraderie that develops between Marco and Benigno. Marco is a successful journalist even though we see him cry a few times, but he holds back his emotions, especially after Lydia's accident. And it takes a social misfit like Benigno to get Marco to face his inner self. "Talk to her," Benigno says to Marco. It is a friendly advice which should help Marco face Lydia's condition. And Marco too works his way in trying to get Benigno to acknowledge the reality. Alicia is practically dead, Marco has to sometimes remind Benigno. Camara and Grandinetti are two fine actors, both performing with Almodovar for the first time. The two have very distinct acting styles. Camara's Benigno acts with his voice, his dialogues, and his body gestures. Grandinetti's Marco is much quieter. He mostly speaks and expresses his emotions through his eyes. Almodovar has said that he cast Grandinetti because of the actor's ability to walk --- comparing him to Hollywood legends like John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Robert Mitchum. But John Wayne never cried. Talk To Her opens and closes with two breathtaking dance performances by Pina Bausch. And in the center of the film is a special opportunity to see the Argentinean singer Caetano Veloso perform in his heartrending voice 'live' on the screen. Talk To Her is replete with moments like these which will please the viewers' senses. It will also feel good to cry while watching the film.
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