The Flower of My Secret (1995)
(La flor de mi secreto)
Country: SP
Technical: col 107m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Marisa Paredes, Juan Echanove, Carme Elias, Rossy de Palma, Chus Lampreave, Joaquín Cortés, Manuela Vargas
Synopsis:
A successful sentimental novelist struggles with her own professional dissatisfaction and separation from her partner, who is using his role in international peacekeeping efforts as an excuse to prise free of her.
Review:
This was the first time the director successfully toyed with more serious themes, delving into the psychology of his female protagonist without recourse to sexual hyperbole or punk mannerisms. It is a richly textured film, that derives inspiration from La Mancha, his home region, and flamenco, as well as from the melodramas of Douglas Sirk and Max Ophüls. Its scenario at once recalls that of Women on the Verge..., with its heartless lover and ancillary female characters, sleeping pills, and so on, and anticipates that of Volver, in the subject of its fictional manuscript, The Freezer. But this is for Almodóvar geeks only; the rest will recognise the tight knot of self-supporting female characters, the richly coloured mise en scène, and the calvary of love culminating in an unexpected epiphany - and that from a lapsed Catholic director!
(La flor de mi secreto)
Country: SP
Technical: col 107m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Marisa Paredes, Juan Echanove, Carme Elias, Rossy de Palma, Chus Lampreave, Joaquín Cortés, Manuela Vargas
Synopsis:
A successful sentimental novelist struggles with her own professional dissatisfaction and separation from her partner, who is using his role in international peacekeeping efforts as an excuse to prise free of her.
Review:
This was the first time the director successfully toyed with more serious themes, delving into the psychology of his female protagonist without recourse to sexual hyperbole or punk mannerisms. It is a richly textured film, that derives inspiration from La Mancha, his home region, and flamenco, as well as from the melodramas of Douglas Sirk and Max Ophüls. Its scenario at once recalls that of Women on the Verge..., with its heartless lover and ancillary female characters, sleeping pills, and so on, and anticipates that of Volver, in the subject of its fictional manuscript, The Freezer. But this is for Almodóvar geeks only; the rest will recognise the tight knot of self-supporting female characters, the richly coloured mise en scène, and the calvary of love culminating in an unexpected epiphany - and that from a lapsed Catholic director!
(La flor de mi secreto)
Country: SP
Technical: col 107m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Marisa Paredes, Juan Echanove, Carme Elias, Rossy de Palma, Chus Lampreave, Joaquín Cortés, Manuela Vargas
Synopsis:
A successful sentimental novelist struggles with her own professional dissatisfaction and separation from her partner, who is using his role in international peacekeeping efforts as an excuse to prise free of her.
Review:
This was the first time the director successfully toyed with more serious themes, delving into the psychology of his female protagonist without recourse to sexual hyperbole or punk mannerisms. It is a richly textured film, that derives inspiration from La Mancha, his home region, and flamenco, as well as from the melodramas of Douglas Sirk and Max Ophüls. Its scenario at once recalls that of Women on the Verge..., with its heartless lover and ancillary female characters, sleeping pills, and so on, and anticipates that of Volver, in the subject of its fictional manuscript, The Freezer. But this is for Almodóvar geeks only; the rest will recognise the tight knot of self-supporting female characters, the richly coloured mise en scène, and the calvary of love culminating in an unexpected epiphany - and that from a lapsed Catholic director!