Bad Education
Y
Jan 1, 2006
CANNES -- In "Bad Education," Pedro Almodovar beguilingly combines film noir with autobiography even as he blurs the distinction between fiction and reality.
The movie's story exists on three interrelated levels: First, what is experienced in life; then, how reality is transformed by fantasy; then, finally, what cinema makes of this transformed reality. The filmmaker's choice of genre is a perfect metaphor for the transforming power of cinema, for noir usually deals with deception and duplicity, and the film's intricate, beautifully orchestrated structure creates a virtual hall of mirrors.
The film's North American release may prove tricky for Sony Pictures Classics, however, because the story line delves into issues creating incendiary headlines right now, namely pedophile priests and homosexuality in the Catholic Church. Almodovar is, of course, not an American, nor is he interested here in the severe problems that confront the American church. He is not, as he says, looking for "revenge" against the bad education he received from the clergy or to expose priests as sexual predators. But the film is likely to take hits from U.S. critics and social commentators who will read this into the film and find the mix of melodrama and passionate gay sexuality highly uncomfortable. The writer-director's name will be a big draw in art house venues, but this film is not as comical or kitschy as his other melodramas.
At the film's center is a young film director, Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), casting about for an idea for his next film. That idea walks in the door in the person of an old school chum, Ignacio, an actor who now calls himself Angel (Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal). He brings with him a short story, "The Visit," based on the experiences that he and Enrique had at school 16 years earlier. Enrique fails to recognize the boy he once knew but does recognize the truth of the story and its potential for a movie.
"The Visit" recalls the two boys' love for each other and how their principal and literary teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), expelled Ignacio because the priest was himself in love with Enrique. But the story continues on to fantasize about a reunion of all three as adults. Ignacio, now a drug-addicted drag queen impersonating movie star Sara Montiel (a gay icon in Spain), seduces Enrique and blackmails the priest.
Enrique wants to adapt the story for a movie. But he and Angel fall out when Angel demands to play the drag queen. Enrique investigates and learns that Angel is not Ignacio but rather his younger brother, Juan. The real Ignacio died three years earlier, after writing "The Visit."
Eventually, production moves ahead, with Angel playing the lead and becoming Enrique's lover. On the final day of shooting, the real Father Manolo, who now calls himself Mr. Berenguer (Lluis Homar), turns up and reveals to Enrique how Ignacio died.
As in French New Wave films, movies form a backdrop to the story of "Bad Education." The boys become intimate while watching a Montiel movie. The priest seduces Enrique with the song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's." When Juan/Angel and Berenguer go to a cinema after killing someone, they see French film noir movies. Afterward, Berenger muses, "It's as if all the films were talking about us." Indeed.
Movies are Almodovar's filter. He views his past in terms of his favorite films. Real people turn into fictional characters who in turn imitate characters from past movies. As in film noir, "Bad Education" is not about good or bad people but rather flawed humans who can become the victims of their own sorry past and some who will stop at nothing to attain success.
This is an often surprising, sometimes upsetting, intricately woven masterwork that sums up many of the obsessions and trademark characterizations that reach back into Almodovar's already storied career. The actors all move smoothly between the various "realities" without any confusion. Bernal is particularly appealing as the film's "femme fatale."
Jose Luis Alcaine's atmospheric cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' passionate, dramatic music greatly add to the melodrama.
Bad Education
Sony Pictures Classics
An El Deseo production in association with TVE, Canal Plus
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Executive producer: Esther Garcia
Director of photography: Jose Luis Alcaine
Production designer: Antxon Gomez
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costume designers: Paco Delgado, Jean-Paul Gaultier
Editor: Jose Salcedo
Cast:
Enrique Goded: Fele Martinez
School friend/Zahara: Gael Garcia Bernal
Father Manolo: Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Sr. Berenguer: Lluis Homar
Paca: Javier Camara
Mother: Petra Martinez
Young Ignacio: Nacho Perez
Young Enrique: Raul Garcia Forneiro
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating
The movie's story exists on three interrelated levels: First, what is experienced in life; then, how reality is transformed by fantasy; then, finally, what cinema makes of this transformed reality. The filmmaker's choice of genre is a perfect metaphor for the transforming power of cinema, for noir usually deals with deception and duplicity, and the film's intricate, beautifully orchestrated structure creates a virtual hall of mirrors.
The film's North American release may prove tricky for Sony Pictures Classics, however, because the story line delves into issues creating incendiary headlines right now, namely pedophile priests and homosexuality in the Catholic Church. Almodovar is, of course, not an American, nor is he interested here in the severe problems that confront the American church. He is not, as he says, looking for "revenge" against the bad education he received from the clergy or to expose priests as sexual predators. But the film is likely to take hits from U.S. critics and social commentators who will read this into the film and find the mix of melodrama and passionate gay sexuality highly uncomfortable. The writer-director's name will be a big draw in art house venues, but this film is not as comical or kitschy as his other melodramas.
At the film's center is a young film director, Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), casting about for an idea for his next film. That idea walks in the door in the person of an old school chum, Ignacio, an actor who now calls himself Angel (Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal). He brings with him a short story, "The Visit," based on the experiences that he and Enrique had at school 16 years earlier. Enrique fails to recognize the boy he once knew but does recognize the truth of the story and its potential for a movie.
"The Visit" recalls the two boys' love for each other and how their principal and literary teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), expelled Ignacio because the priest was himself in love with Enrique. But the story continues on to fantasize about a reunion of all three as adults. Ignacio, now a drug-addicted drag queen impersonating movie star Sara Montiel (a gay icon in Spain), seduces Enrique and blackmails the priest.
Enrique wants to adapt the story for a movie. But he and Angel fall out when Angel demands to play the drag queen. Enrique investigates and learns that Angel is not Ignacio but rather his younger brother, Juan. The real Ignacio died three years earlier, after writing "The Visit."
Eventually, production moves ahead, with Angel playing the lead and becoming Enrique's lover. On the final day of shooting, the real Father Manolo, who now calls himself Mr. Berenguer (Lluis Homar), turns up and reveals to Enrique how Ignacio died.
As in French New Wave films, movies form a backdrop to the story of "Bad Education." The boys become intimate while watching a Montiel movie. The priest seduces Enrique with the song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's." When Juan/Angel and Berenguer go to a cinema after killing someone, they see French film noir movies. Afterward, Berenger muses, "It's as if all the films were talking about us." Indeed.
Movies are Almodovar's filter. He views his past in terms of his favorite films. Real people turn into fictional characters who in turn imitate characters from past movies. As in film noir, "Bad Education" is not about good or bad people but rather flawed humans who can become the victims of their own sorry past and some who will stop at nothing to attain success.
This is an often surprising, sometimes upsetting, intricately woven masterwork that sums up many of the obsessions and trademark characterizations that reach back into Almodovar's already storied career. The actors all move smoothly between the various "realities" without any confusion. Bernal is particularly appealing as the film's "femme fatale."
Jose Luis Alcaine's atmospheric cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' passionate, dramatic music greatly add to the melodrama.
Bad Education
Sony Pictures Classics
An El Deseo production in association with TVE, Canal Plus
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Executive producer: Esther Garcia
Director of photography: Jose Luis Alcaine
Production designer: Antxon Gomez
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costume designers: Paco Delgado, Jean-Paul Gaultier
Editor: Jose Salcedo
Cast:
Enrique Goded: Fele Martinez
School friend/Zahara: Gael Garcia Bernal
Father Manolo: Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Sr. Berenguer: Lluis Homar
Paca: Javier Camara
Mother: Petra Martinez
Young Ignacio: Nacho Perez
Young Enrique: Raul Garcia Forneiro
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating
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