Puta Madre! The Pedro Almodovar Poll

Thanks, that's a good read - and a list for further watching.

thanks julio, yes it was a link to that

WHy is Kika so hated?? The rape scene is despicable, but I get the sense that's not quite the reason people hate it so much. Aside from that, I think it's really fun and Victoria Abril's insane TV host character is batshit and hilarious (also: costumed by Gaultier)

Peter Coyote was so not fun

An Almodovar poll, worst to best:

www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/the-films-of-pedro-almodovar-ranked-from-worst-to-best/P1

My favourites are Live Flesh and The Skin I Live in - crime and horror are good genres for him to work in.

― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Friday, September 9, 2016 1:31 PM (two months ago)

Same as. I dont really like this guys movies. Overheated melodrama isnt my thing maybe

do you like gay?

its the whiff of telenovela that bugs me

What Have I Done to Deserve This? and Broken Embraces at 18 and 17 is definitely wrong! Broken Embraces, especially, is severely underestimated. But who puts WHIDTDT lower than Kika and Dark Habits?

I saw What Have I Done to Deserve This? again a couple months ago and would place it in his top five w/out hesitation.

Well, the battle for top five is tough, but top ten, definitely! I'll also say Almodovar has made few images as touching as the one in Broken Embraces of the blind film director, clawing at the screen with the blurry picture of his lost love.

This one:

http://kronoper.dk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2533_5.jpg

Kika and Broken Embraces are the only two of his films I shun like lepers.

:(

I get Kika, but why Broken Embraces? Except that it's dark and depressing, especially for Almodovar.

hm sry that list is wack

long profile of him in this wks nyer btw

NY MoMA retro underway, think i will go see some of the saucy '80s stuff again

https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/3611?locale=en

The only one i really hated when i saw it was Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! I'm willing to rewatch tho.

I rematched its spiffy new DVD release, still think it begins the fallow period. But – mm Antonio.

don't think i've ever seen Dark Habits, or his debut, gonna prioritize those.

no wonder PC got an Oscar nom for Volver - way to save the sleazy reveal until the very end. I have to rewatch it but I remember Broken Embraces being much better - at least less lopsided.

hope his new one makes it to the USA this year

Broken Embraces is too languorous for me. He's best when sleazy + fast.

I love the melancholy of Broken Embraces

I remember Volver feeling like a step back after Bad Education and Talk to Her, but not a huge one.

it's good, a little light, and definitely mining the Academy vein. Too long though, and that reveal isn't given its due.

i watched 'the flower of my secret' tnight, odd one; i liked it but w some reservations

I've wondered how audiences would accept Talk to Her's premise in 2019; I own it but haven't watched it in years.

I gave it to a friend for her birthday recently, knowing nothing about it besides Almodovar. She was... a little perplexed

I just had a copy lying around and thought that was the one that won an Oscar, and how much safer can you get?

I watched "Talk to Her" for the first time maybe 6 years ago and HAAAAATED it

I should prob rewatch it but I found it p repugnant and lacking all of the verve and flourish that I loved

Almodovar is ... not my favorite director.

The eighties films remain wonderful entertainments, and his late '90s comeback was cool. I don't fault straight critics for not realizing that his genuine affection for female performers rests on a homosexual's idea of feminine comportment, filtered through decades of telenovelas and Joan Crawford flicks.

Don't fault this gay critic (sic) for his genuine affection for Bad Education over anything else he's seen by Almodovar.

gay critic (sick)

Went to see Pain & Glory / Dolor y Gloria last night and really liked it. Amazingly this was the first of his films I've ever seen. Pleased and surprised to spot/hear Rosalía in it very briefly.

The only thing I disliked were the graphics. I loved the set of difficult conversations between son and mother. Really powerful.

Do you mean the computer animated interlude describing Salvador's ailments early on? I couldn't help but laugh at that, as well as with it.

Yep, the later bits with his mother were good. There were several very emotional scenes that worked really well for me, especially revolving around the 'Addiction' performance. I liked the relatively quiet restraint of it all, even in those moments.

Yeah that interlude.

I liked the calculated restraint of 'addiction'. More in the prep for it than the actual performance as shown.

has this gotten US distro yet?

I rewatched Broken Embraces yesterday and it's even better than I remember, imo his best

*not yesterday, recently- along with many others

It plays at a local Miami fest the first week of October.

Yeah, this is really good. And it might finally get people to take late depressed Almodovar seriously, that is, everything after Volver. I agree, Broken Embraces might be his best.

I watched Live Flesh last night, which more than any other of his I've seen felt like a precursor to Broken Embraces.

ah we're getting Pain & Glory in October! fantastic

Just finished a wee run of four of his latter films at the local independent cinema over the last month (All About My Mother, Talk To Her, Volver, The Skin I Live In) that tied in with his 70th birthday and the release of Pain & Glory, which I saw just before these. I also saw Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown on Mubi last week.

I liked them all, but Volver was probably my favourite. All About My Mother won in terms of pure emotion and was the one that made me cry in the cinema. Talk To Her pitched the weird, dark comedy aspects perfectly. I really enjoyed The Skin I Live In, but something about it didn't quite work for me. Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown was funny, but felt a bit messy and light (?) in direct comparison to all those later films - it was really interesting to see the development from there through All About My Mother and into the 2000's though.

Right now I'd vote for Volver from what I've seen if this poll reran.

Check out Broken Embraces, imo his best & oft overlooked

I watched The Skin I'm In again last night, and, well, nope: still a stiff. I prefer my Pedro with jokes and camp; when he's serious, his films linger on the unpleasantness (confining women, rape, etc). This seems to happen every couple decades. In the nineties he beached himself between High Heels and All About My Mother with dreary melodramas where the resin's drained from the tree.

Anyway, the new one makes its South Florida debut next week at a festival.

Yeah, The Skin I'm In seems extremely unpleasant to me as well.

I dug it but Broken Embraces is much less schticky, p much just a straight noir, very compelling