La Mala educación (2004)
Also known as "Bad Education"
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez-Cacho, Lluís Homar, Francisco Maestre, Francisco Boira, Raúl García Forneiro, Ignacio Pérez, Javier Cámara, Alberto Ferreiro, Petra Martinez, Roberta Hoyas, Leonor Watling
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Running Time: 106 minutes
US MPAA rating: N/AUK BBFC rating: 15
Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Madrid, 1980. Director Enrique (Fele 'Lovers of the Arctic Circle' Martínez) is intrigued by a surprise visit from a young actor (Gael 'Amores Perros' García Bernal) with a manuscript entitled 'The Visit'. The man claims to be his boyhood sweetheart Ignacio, and the manuscript, which he says is part truth, part fiction, documents the abuse Ignacio suffered at school in the 1960s at the hands of Father Manolo (Daniel Giménez-Cacho), and describes how in 1977 he paid a visit to the priest and blackmailed him with a threat to publish a semi-autobiographical story entitled 'The Visit'. The predatory Enrique agrees to make the story into a film (albeit with a changed ending) and to let the actor, in exchange for sexual favours, play the transvestite Ignacio - but a visit which Enrique pays to Ignacio's mother, and another which he receives from the real Father Manolo (Lluís Homar), only adds to his suspicions that all is not what it seems.
'Bad Education' is an erotically charged puzzle. Enrique and Ignacio's brief school romance and tragic separation, and the gaudy melodrama of the later episodes, keeps the viewer engaged, while the convoluted layering of films within films and flashbacks within flashbacks creates an intellectual challenge for any viewer trying to get a grip on what the film is about. Ignacio's story is manipulated and distorted by everyone to their own ends, ranging from Ignacio right through to the film's director Pedro Almodóvar himself - who also, like Enrique, directed his first feature film in 1980, and who himself wrote (but never published) a short story called 'The Visit'. Each main character has his own reason for wanting this story either told or suppressed, and each reason becomes clear by the end of the film - but it remains a mystery whether Almodóvar's own motive for telling the tale is revenge, blackmail, the exorcising of personal ghosts, pure art, or some combination of these.
Although this film is Almodóvar's fifteenth, it is his first to address, however obliquely, the Franco era and the lasting effects it had on the lives of those who were brought up in it. The stolen passions and emotional blackmail which dominate this film all have their template in the 'bad education' which Enrique and Ignacio received at their Franco-era Catholic boarding school. Yet our view of this is obscured by the film's kaleidoscopic structure. When the young schoolboys are seen swimming or exercising, the camera lingers voyeuristically over their half-naked bodies - but it is unclear whether this reflects a fascist ideal of masculinity, the salacious perspective of the priests, or a reflection of the homoerotic longings of Ignacio (as writer) or Enrique (as reader). Even the paedophile priest proves a chimerical figure: in Enrique's revised cinematic script with its changed ending, Manolo is portrayed tabloid-style as an evil monster, but Manolo is by his own account someone altogether more pathetic, and far less in control of others than they are of him.
At the end of 'Bad Education', much prominence is given to the word 'passion'. No matter how deeply personal a statement the film may be for Almodóvar, it is difficult to uncover much emotional depth here beneath all the layers of deceit, disguise, manipulation and shifting identity - but perhaps Almodóvar, with his bitter portrayal of the scars left by a Catholic upbringing, has a different kind of 'passion' in mind, making this film a blistering rejoinder to Mel Gibson's own
It's Got: A flamboyantly Hitchcockian soundtrack by Alberto Iglesias, an extraordinarily versatile performance by Gael García Bernal, a paedophile priest who proves marginally more sympathetic than anyone else, and much cross-dressing and double-crossing.
It Needs: A little more passion (in the secular sense).
Alternatives: 'The Butcher's Boy', 'Dark Habits', 'Sleepers'
Summary: A convoluted and enigmatic noir melodrama about the Holy Cross, cross-dressing and double-crossing - with an obscure autobiographical twist.
External Links
Official Web Site
La Mala educación at the IMDB
Comments6 Comments |
| a brilliant film not for every kind of person, but a motion picture wher it shows a reality that we often ignore... one of the best motion pictures ever |
| Comment by:- vasco | | 21 June 2004 | ip: logged |
| Ca m'a laissé une marque très forte , même si on peut regretter des scènes ( trop ? ) crues . Un film magnifique ^-^ . |
| Comment by:- tea | | 25 June 2004 | ip: logged |
| Ca m'a laissé une marque très forte , même si on peut regretter des scènes ( trop ? ) crues . Un film magnifique ^-^ . |
| Comment by:- tea | | 25 June 2004 | ip: logged |
| i think it is one of almodovar best films tha t really tells the truth about the catholic church i trully recommmend this film |
| Comment by:- alfonso marquez | | 27 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| The best film almodovar has made since Matador. Beautiful colors, excellent music. Melodrama and religion thats a great combination. gael garcia is not only beautiful , he is an excellen actor. |
| Comment by:- charles mitt | | 14 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| Soory, Pedro, but you've really lost it with your latest film.Why should viewers bother trying to understand such a convoluted story? Other films have dealt with the subject with far better results. The basic question in any film is: Do I care about the characters? If you don't care about them, you quickly lose interest. But people will flock to see any Almodovar movie, regardless of the reviews, good or bad. I'll think twice next time. Dazzle me, Pedro, with more substance, less dazzle. |
| Comment by:- Victor Trahan | | 19 October 2004 | ip: logged |
