Thanks to Nat Rogers for pointing out this new teaser for Pedro Almodovar’s upcoming Penelope Cruz-starrer “Broken Embraces.” I do mean “teaser,” by the way — it’s under 30 seconds long, with no betrayal of dialogue or plot — but if, like me, this is your most anticipated film of 2009, you take what you can get.
This much we can tell: it’s lush. If “Volver” was a joyful, humanist showcase for the tinderbox screen charisma of its leading lady, this appears to be its (and Cruz’s) nastier, noir-ier bookend, furthering Almodovar’s ambition to construct her as this generation’s premier Euro screen goddess. I. Can’t. Wait.
Comments
18 responses to “A soupçon of ‘Broken Embraces’”
Almodovar is about as overrated as a filmmaker can be.
Agreed. Talk to Her is pretty good but that’s as far as I go.
Gotta love the hugs…
A part of me wants PenГ©lope loosing next sunday so she’s a lock next year for this.
And the film is about……what?
Almodovar is one of the best directors that has ever lived. End. Of. Story.
these are all shots of them embracing, i but each shot ends right before the embrace is broken. that you’ll have to pay to see.
Overrated is Malick, Scorsese, Kubrick, Fincher, Wes Anderson, Woody Allen.
I love it when people take a filmmaker they don’t personally like, and think that amounts to “overrated.”
KB… Almodovar has been stingy with the details and this teaser does exactly what it’s supposed to. Tease. Not give away the beginning, middle and end.
Almodovar is this generations Fellini. Fact.
I think the problem with a lot of international cinema right now is that too many aren’t taking Pedro’s example and staying in their home country (or, at least, home continent). So many promising foreign directors have been sidetracked by hollywood careers.
And then there’s Pedro. Slugging away keeping Spanish cinema relevant for 20 years. If he’s overrated then god help us.
i love Bad Education, this is just a bizarre teaser.
AlmodГіvar is overrated?
God, guys, is it the subtitles? The lack of effects? The fact that he likes to direct films about women instead of men?
If anything, he’s one of the five greatest working directors.
Can’t Wait for It!!
I’ve never seen an Almodovar film. This quick teaser though has some seriously beautiful images in it.
Does this position Cruz (following her Oscar win on Sunday) as a front-runner in Lead Actress?
How much love will Almodovar get after the glaring Volver snub (for Screenplay, Director, & especially Foreign Film)?
Almodovar is one of the director’s on the world scene that is a must-see every time out. (IMHO)
I love it when a person can’t bear for someone to have a different opinion than there’s, and makes impetuous statements poorly veiled as insinuation against those who dare not like what they like.
I got these words from Almodovar, they’re from this site:
http://www.elpais.com/fotogaleria/abrazos/rotos/fotos/Almodovar/6235-1/
I also translated the things about the synopsis.
Synopsis:
One man writes, and loves living in the dark. Fourteen years before he suffered a brutal accident car on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident not only lost his sight, also lost to Lena, the love of his life. This man is using two names, Harry Caine, playful pseudonym for signing literary works, stories and screenplays, and Mateo Blanco, his real name, just for living and directing films. After the accident, Mateo Blanco is reduced to its nickname, Harry Caine. As he can’t direct films anymore, he imposes himself with the idea that Mateo Blanco died in Lanzarote with his beloved Lena … At present, Harry Caine lives on the scripts and the help of his faithful old production manager, Judit Garcia, and Diego, her son, secretary, typist and guide. (as Harry is blind)
Making of:
The protagonists of Broken embraces are filming a comedy, “Girls and suitcases”. Mateo Blanco is the director, the actress is Lena Rivero. Judit Garcia, the director of production, and Ernesto Martel, Lena’s lover, is the producer. Ernesto Martel Junior has to tape the making of the film. Mateo and Lena fall in love at first sight, but she is living with Martel, magnate and madly in love with her). Judit had a love story with Mateo years ago, and she is not over it, but this is not interfering in their common work, she is actually his right-hand woman. Ernesto Martel is a broker (the generation of the hit of the 80s) with lots of money and few scruples, he is not a producer, but as Lena shows inclination towards the cinema, produces desperately Mateo’s film in order to keep Lena by his side. Ernesto’s son, Ernesto Junior is a young childish man who likes the films and the men, in particular Mateo. Martel Senior entrusts to Martel Junior the making of a documentary about “Girls and suitacses”, this way he can spy on Lena. Their only problem is not moral but technical, the first video has a terrible sound recording. Martel Senior reinvents an improvised dubbing, hiring a neutral lip reader (performed by Lola DueГ±as).
Duplicity:
The film starts with the image of a couple of double of the protagonists. Ernesto Martel Junior doubles the conduct of his father, but is the latest model that he would like to imitate. When his father dies, Martel Junior plans to avenge his memory with a movie that speaks of how his father overturned and destroyed him while living. Despite being gay, Martel Jr. married twice, as his father. He has two sons who detest him as much as he hated his father.
The Noir:
When Lena falls into the clutches of Ernesto Martel she has all the attributes of the femme fatale, dark haired beauty and ambitious, humble past and a family in a precarious situation, intelligence to not resign herself and to take risks, but she has plenty of scruples and she lacks cynicism. Her love for Mateo anticipates her tragedy, although she would have been able to leave the magnate, but he would not have allowed her to do it. Lena is a femme fatale, but doomed to fatality. Mateo, Lena and Ernesto Senior formed a typical noir triangle, the three love fiercely and one of them is very powerful, violent and unscrupulous. The combustion is served. The triangle is flanked by Judit GarcГa who joins the group of betrayal, a secret son and the complex of guilt, ingredients that will make this relation get more and more sickly.
I love it when … oh, never mind.
Come on, Harmonica, you know it’s not the difference of opinion that bothers me at all. I just think “overrated” is a frequently abused word.
There’s only one “Harmonica” that I know of… and you’d better not be him!