Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Collection (Talk to Her/ Bad Education/ All about My Mother/ Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown/ Live Flesh/ Flower of My Secret / Matador / Law of Desire)
by Caddie Hastings, Daniel Cebrián, Pedro Almodóvar
Our Price: $249.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $181.96 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Darío Grandinetti, Fele Martínez, Gael García Bernal, Javier Cámara, Rosario FloresDirector: Caddie Hastings, Daniel Cebrián, Pedro Almodóvar
Writer: Pedro Almodóvar
Writer: Dorothy Parker
Writer: Jesús Ferrero
Writer: Jorge Guerricaechevarría
Writer: Ray Loriga
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Catalan (Original Language); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Italian (Original Language); Latin (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language), Unknown
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-30
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Collection (Talk to Her/ Bad Education/ All about My Mother/ Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown/ Live Flesh/ Flower of My Secret / Matador / Law of Desire)
Movie Review: A great collection, sadly (and inexplicably) out of print
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't love every film in this collection. Almodovar is too brave and experimental for every one of his films to appeal equally to all but the most devoted fans. If you like his early, wild, anything-to-break-convention work, you may find his later work too mild or conventional. If, like me, you find those later films deeply moving and appreciate their more mature tone, you may not be as thrilled by the early work, finding it full of guts, but lacking a bit of heart.
But having these films altogether is a wonderful look into the extremely diverse work of one of the bravest and most interesting film makers of our generation. Even the films I don't deeply love personally are full of unforgettable images, moments, pieces of acting or writing. In a world of film that often aims for the middle, Almodovar shoots for the stars, and that's worth seeing whether you personally think an individual film gets there or not.
Even now, out of print, and overpriced for the occasional used copy, this set is also a good deal. To get these 8 films seperately is going to cost you at least $80 or $90 with shipping, and some - like 'Live Flesh' - are currently out of print and overpriced themselves anyway.
Also, a couple of these discs - 'All About My Mother' and 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' are in upgraded form -- although there is some argument whether the upgrades are for the better. DVD Beaver, which I find the most in depth DVD review site concludes the versions in the set ARE superior, and provide side by side images for comparison.
While everyone will (and should) have very individual reactions to these complex, challenging (if often fun) films, here's my order of preference and my personal notes on the films;
All About My Mother (1999) - My favorite Almodovar film to date. He finally combines the best of his older, absurdist films, with his new found maturity and real emotion that began to emerge in 'Flower of My Secret' and 'Live Flesh'. A woman's son dies, while trying to get an autograph from a great actress, leaving his mother bereft, and trying to start a new life. I won't give away any details, but her journey is both funny and tragic, and leads to some terrifically unexpected and sometimes ironic places. Full of odd and wonderful characters, and some very strong acting. A bit cute or 'forced' in a few moments, but overall a moving, special and wonderful film. If you don't know Almodovar's work, this is an excellent place to start.
Talk to Her (2002) My second favorite Almodovar film. A moving and complex study of the relationship between two men, and their connection to women in comas. A few brilliantly funny moments, and some ultimately very creepy undertones keep it from being over-sentimental. Every character is more complex then they first appear, and the confusion between what is good and what is bad in both intent and effect is very rich. Some great camera work too. Gets slow in a few spots, and the sentiment still goes over the top in a few places, but still a terrific film about the similarities and differences between love and obsession.
Live Flesh (1997) A maturing Almodovar in a less absurd - if still melodramatic - mode than his early films. This time the tone is more film noir/mystery/character study. Unlike most of the early work, this is generally `serious', with just touches of his humor. Visually very striking and dark. Wonderful performances, including an early one by Javier Bardem. I appreciate how all the characters are grey, no one is `good' or bad'. Basically it's a love triangle with multiple angles, and a cop drama about violence and love. What it's missing (for me at least) , and keeps it a very good film, not a great one, is deeper levels of emotion. It's always interesting, but I didn't ultimately find it affecting. Also a couple of key plot contrivances are clunky - which the anarchic young Almodovar could get away with, since everything was absurd anyway. But when you're being more `real', forced twists feel more... well, forced. Still a highly enjoyable film well worth seeing, and another important step in the growth of a major filmmaker.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1985) Great fun, as Almodovar's visual sophistication continues to expand from film to film, and his ability to create a subtle mix of the campy, the surreal, and real emotion grows ever stronger. Full of odd and silly twists and turns, and populated by absurd but still very human characters. It's also a film with a theme - the amazing strength and resilience of women. So why not a 5 star rating for a film a lot of smart people consider a flat-out masterpiece?. Maybe I need to re-see it a third time, but on recent round of working my way through all of Almodovar's films, it felt paper thin. I enjoyed it, but it didn't feel like a film that would stick with me, or effect me. In some ways, I found the far more flawed `Matador' has more unforgettable images, moments and challenging power. That said, this is still very worth your time. You'll smile a lot.
Bad Education (2004) Fascinatingly complex nourish mystery. A film-maker is reunited with a boyhood lover, who wants to tell a dark story from their Catholic school days. But is the story true? And who's story is it really? Gael Garcia Bernal is terrific in a complicated, multi faceted role, and all the acting is very good. Gorgeously shot, with a great score. I wish I felt more emotionally, but my mind was always completely absorbed, even if my heart stayed a little cool. Maybe that's the nature of a film where everyone is hustling and using each other.
(mild spoilers ahead)
A bit obvious and self-conscious in a few spots, and pederastic Catholic priests is a cliché the film only partially transcends (although the humanity given to the priest makes it far more interesting), and a couple of the climactic twists feel less motivated than what comes before. But worth it for the `Vertigo' like layers of reality that keep getting pulled back and forcing us to keep reassessing `good', `bad', `art' and `real.' Many critics consider this Almodovar's masterpiece - and I could see watching it a third time. This is the kind of film that grows on repeated viewings.
Matador (1987) Almodovar meets DePalma in this dark thriller with less `jokes' than most of his films, though black humor pervades the whole thing. All the characters are obsessed with death; a murderess who kills during sex, a teacher of matadors who lives to kill, and masturbates to snuff films, and a student who wishes he could kill but faints at the sight of blood. Some of the twists are silly, obvious and/or cop-outs, and the characters never feel `real', but there are some great, operatic disturbing and funny moments as well. Sort of a thinking person's, surrealist `Fatal Attraction'. Some of it is clunky, but the film sticks with me. Very good performances all around. Most critics I respect liked it even more than me, and I'll probably re-visit it down the line. As with many Almodovar films, it seems like the kind of film that could easily grow on a second viewing -- its flaws more forgivable, its strengths more powerful.
Flower of My Secret (1996) Sweet, and very well acted. This is much less wild and outrageous than earlier Almodovar, but compensates by having more real emotion. Still, this has two of his usual key elements -- dramatic use of intense color, and a melodramatic, almost soapy, story. It's clear he loves melodrama at the same time he gently pokes fun at it. But in 'Flower of My Secret' the soap has more underpinnings in humanity, with subtler behavior and humor. Technically he gets even better with this film. It's beautiful, shot in a more subdued style than his earlier work. Not a great movie, but a good, entertaining, human one that paves the way to his later fully 'real' and moving masterpieces like 'Talk to Her'. Lovely performances. There seem to be two distinct groups among Almodovar fans. Those who prefer his earlier, wilder, more genre busting work, and those who prefer his more recent, subtler films. I'm in the second group, but can completely understand those who feel differently. And where you fall on that scale is likely to have a big impact on your reaction to this film.
Law of Desire (1987) Clearly a technical step forward with some stunning visuals, and solid performances. But the melodramatic love/murder plot of a director obsessed with one man, while another is obsessed with him just got a little creaky and tiresome for me after a while. It's not absurd or campy enough to be funny, or real enough to raise strong emotions.
1 2 3 4 5 6
Summary of Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Collection (Talk to Her/ Bad Education/ All about My Mother/ Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown/ Live Flesh/ Flower of My Secret / Matador / Law of Desire)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Pedro Almodovar broke into the art-house mainstream with this wild, manic comedy about a gaggle of women and their various problems with men, be they married lovers, cheating husbands, fiancés, or terrorists. Almodovar's long-time leading lady, Carmen Maura, stars as an actress (famed for her laundry detergent commercial as the mother of a sloppy serial killer) who's just been dumped by her married lover. In the midst of trying to track him down for a face-to-face confrontation, she crosses paths with her lover's son (Antonio Banderas), his unbalanced wife (Julieta Serrano), and his new girlfriend (Kiti Manver). Adding more fuel to the fire is the hapless friend (Maria Barranco) who got involved with a Shiite terrorist and is now being hunted by the police. Almodovar, a master of farcical screwball comedy, manages to keep all these balls in the air in dizzy, hilarious style without once losing his momentum. Chock full of the director's over-the-top stylization, in terms of both story and sets, the film is a hilarious yet heartfelt marriage of kitsch and drama, verging on parody but never going entirely over the top. Maura is absolutely breathtaking as the unhinged lover, dispensing wise advice to others while trying to keep a semblance of sanity, and the supporting cast is quintessential Almodovar, including a brief but memorable turn by Banderas in what could have been a bland, go-nowhere role. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1989. --Mark Englehart
|
All About My Mother After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. ----Bret Fetzer
|
Talk to Her
Writer-director Pedro Almodóvar makes another masterpiece with Talk to Her, his first film since the wonderful All About My Mother. Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is in love with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who is gored by a bull and sent into a coma. In the hospital, Marco crosses paths with Benigno (Javier Camara), a male nurse who looks after another coma patient, a young dancer named Alicia (Leonor Watling). From Benigno's gentle attentiveness to Alicia, Marco learns to take care of Lydia... but from there, the story goes in directions that deftly manage to be sad, hopeful, funny, and creepy, sometimes at the same time. The rich human empathy of Almodóvar's recent films is passionate, heartbreaking, intoxicating--there aren't enough adjectives to praise this remarkable filmmaker, who is at the height of his powers. Talk to Her is superb, with outstanding performances from all involved. --Bret Fetzer
|
The Flower of My Secret
Pedro Alomodóvar made this misfired, rambling comedy about a romance novelist (Marisa Paredes) whose crumbling marriage has left her depressed and unable to work. At a low point, she writes a scathing indictment of her own books (which are penned under another name), with no one realizing critic and author are one and the same. Almodóvar ( Law of Desire) has the start of a great idea here, and for once, he's direct about his sympathy for a character. But nothing else about The Flower of My Secret is so clear. Despite its unusual allegiance to the straightforward "women's films" of the 1950s, this movie blows it by becoming needlessly complicated over extraneous junk, forcing one to grope in the dark for Almodóvar's point. -- Tom Keogh
|
Bad Education
Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. -- Steve Wiecking
More Stills from Pedro Almodovar Classics Collection(click for larger image)
 | 
|  |
 Songs of Almodóvar CD |  Volver |  The Films of Pedro Almodóvar |
Tradición y cambio: Lecturas sobre la cultura latinoamericana contemporánea (Spanish Edition)by Denis Lynn Daly Heyck, María Victoria González Pagani
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 2004-07-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $79.24
The Sea InsideNEW Line Home Video; Release date: 2005-05-17; DVD
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
BiutifulLions Gate; Release date: 2011-05-31; DVD
Best price: $5.40
Price in other shops:
What Have I Done to Deserve This?Genius; Release date: 2003-09-09; DVD
Best price: $21.99
Amores PerrosLions Gate; Release date: 2001-09-25; DVD
Best price: $4.87
Price in other shops:
![Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! [Region 2] Image](/images/Tie-Me-Up-Tie-Me-Down-Region-2-B0002TTTA6-X.jpg)
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! [Region 2]DVD
Best price: $12.22
![Kika [NTSC/REGION 1 & 4. Import-Latin America] Image](/images/Kika-NTSC-REGION-1-4-Import-Latin-America-B000LZKV6W-X.jpg)
Kika [NTSC/ REGION 1 & 4. Import-Latin America]DVD
Best price: $11.94
Broken EmbracesSony; Release date: 2010-03-16; DVD
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops:
VolverSony; Release date: 2007-04-03; Published: 2007-04-01; DVD
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
Women on the Verge of a Nervous BreakdownSony; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $7.65
Price in other shops: