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ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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 Posted - 08/24/2009 : 07:21:02
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Pedro Almod�var brings us another drama/thriller with comedic undertones that borders on the soap opera. Here we have two stories that entertwine. Mateo Blanco was a movie director who was blinded in a tragic accident 14 years before this film begins, and has since called himself Harry Caine (which, by the way, is a pseudonym that Almod�var used for himself on his other film this year The Cannibalistic Councillor), and now writes movie scripts. As the film opens, he finds out that Ernesto Martel (Jos� Luis G�mez), a high-powered financier in Madrid, has just died. Later that day, a man calling himself Ray X comes to Harry to pitch him a story about a high-powered man, who ruined his son's life (in part) because he never accepted that his son was gay.
Rewind 14 years and we find Lena (Penelope Cruz)is a secretary to Martel. When she finds her father is dieing of cancer and she needs some extra money, she decides to revert to her previous career and do some escorting on the side. But her Madame has been instructed to call Martel in that event, and so Lena becomes Martel's mistress in exchange for helping her father. But Lena isn't happy being a "kept woman" and wants to audition for a film being done by Mateo Blanco. Martel allows her and even becomes the backer for the movie, but on the condition that his son Ernesto Jr be by her side the whole time, under the guise of his making a documentary about the production, when he's actually spying on Lena for his father. Of course, Mateo and Lena fall in love, and so the intrigue begins.
Throughout all this is Mateo/Harry's faithful manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) and her son Diego, who now helps the blind Harry to write movie scripts. At the start of the film, Judit becomes fearful when she sees Ray X, since she knows this is actually Ernesto Jr, and she thinks he could be a threat to Harry. But she has to leave town for 10 days and so leaves Diego to take care of Harry and protect him from Ray X. That evening, Diego accidentally takes an almost fatal combination of drugs at his DJ gig and ends up recovering at Harry's home (after being released from the hospital). Diego insists on Harry telling him why his mother is so afraid of Ray X/Ernesto Jr. And so begins the flashback to Lena and Mateo's story of 14 years before.
If all this sounds a bit confusing, I have to admit that the basis of the story is complex, but with two hours of film, there's plenty of time for everything to makes sense. Almod�var slips comfortably between the two times (okay, so we see the years printed on the screen), without ever overstylizing. The script is both intelligent and fun, with the action pulling us in and taking on enough twists that those two hours just slip by before you know it. Of course, it helps that the film inside the film they were making is a farce, to keep things from getting too heavy. And there are times near the end of the film that you think they've just about jumped the shark, but they pull back just in time to keep it (mostly) real. But where you're really pulled in here is with the intrigue that goes on. Things like the creepy and pimply Ernesto Jr with his hand-held camera showing up everywhere, or the lip reader who reads out the dialogue off of Ernesto Jr's candid footage of Lena and Mateo for Ernesto. Its also interesting how, as the full extent of what happened 14 years prior becomes more clear, the action switches more often between the two time periods - as if the past is finally about to catch up with the present. There's also some really nice camera work here - in particular one bit where a turning reel of flim fades into an overhead shot of Mateo running down a spiralling staircase. In all, a nicely crafted, written and directed piece of work here, and a thoroughly engaging film overall.
What's most amazing about this film is how very similar they make Cruz look to Audrey Hepburn for her part in the movie (talk about your "separated at birth but by a generation" - just take a look at this picture from the movie and then look at this one of Hepburn. What did I tell ya? Practically twins)!
This should be showing up on your screens in the UK at the end of this week, but for those of you in the USA, you'll have to wait for the New York Film Festival on October 11, or one of the (planned, according to IMDb) wider releases of 20 November 2009 for New York City, and 11 December 2009 for Los Angeles. One can only hope that this does well enough in the festivals and limited releases to get even wider showings across the USA.
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 09/03/2009 : 22:21:25
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Thanks CL. Actually Cruz looks more like Audrey Hepburn than Audrey Hepburn does in that picture! (Audrey looks more like The Joker in fact, but, moving on...)
Spanish cinema isn't embarrassed about printing things like dates - or "six months later..." [or "despues seis meses" to be more accurate] - when it suits them. I seem to remember Almodovar did it several times in "Todo Sobre Mi Madre" for example.
I'll try to pop along to see the film in the next week or so.
Hasta luego...
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Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos)
