Cinema Nova, 11/1/2010
Status: On track
Shortly after seeing new Spanish film Broken Embraces, I read an article where its director Pedro Almodovar talked about the film. My reaction was, and I quote, “Wait, that’s what the film was about?... Really?” I can't be sure, but I don’t think that’s a good sign.
Apparently, Broken Embraces is Almodovar’s love letter to cinema. That’s what he says anyway. It’s supposedly littered with references to other films, in-jokes and poignant juxtapositions. I didn’t get that out of the film at all (except for the obvious ones that were signposted in neon).
What I did get out of it was similar to what I’ve been getting out of Almodovar’s films (Talk to Her, All About My Mother) for a while now. Like his other films, it looks fantastic and is drenched in color, the camera work is sometimes inspired and sometimes annoying. The plot tells two parallel stories about an ensemble of characters, just like many of his other films, but here it is so convoluted that it has little sense of narrative structure or journey.
I felt like I was watching this film (“oh, that set looks great”, “I like what the camera is doing here”) rather than experiencing it, suspending disbelief to be caught up in the characters and the melodrama (of which there is plenty). Lucky, then, that the film is so pretty.
Penelope Cruz (Elegy, Vicky Christina Barcelona) gives a great performance as Lena, an aspiring actress caught between two powerful men, but she’s only on screen for about half of the film, and the rest of the cast, while perfectly able, are less impressive.
