All About My Mother
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DVD details
Actor: Carmen Balagu? (II), Eloy Azor?n, Pen?lope Cruz, Toni Cant?, Yael Barnat?nPrimary Contributor: Marisa Paredes
Primary Contributor: Cecilia Roth
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-07-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of All About My Mother
DVD Review: Beautiful, colorful film with a wonderful DVD transfer and featurettes
Summary: 5 Stars
Rarely do you get the full treatment of foreign film to DVD. I equate this DVD release to the Criterion treatment since there are just tons of things included. This film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film to Pedro Almodovar. He is a prolific director and his films just get better and better. This may be the reason why this DVD release has so many extras. First, the DVD has both the wide screen and full screen format on both sides. Also, you can select to have the film without dialog and just the soundtrack by Alberto Iglesias which is superb. I love the music to film chapters 6, 11, and 20. It has the kind of orchestral suites similar to Hitchcock suspense and drama. Vaguely reminded me of Hitchcock's Vertigo soundtrack with was eerie and lush in emotion. In addition, you also get the exclusive interview which reminded me on some aspects of the film which were interesting. Also, it makes for great film discussion on character development and relationships with other characters. The talent files are just as informative to give you some other films to look forward with these famous actresses and as well as director. Unfortunately, this DVD is no-longer-released and I managed to get this copy in the $3.99 bin from Blockbuster. The perfect place for these foreign film hidden treasures- don't rent well and end up in these pre-viewed bins. Best place to find no-longer-released DVD if you are looking for great foreign dramas without paying a fortune. I won't give away the plot since it's the most interesting as well as "screwball comedy" as Almodovar puts it in his interview. It is more of a drama with comedic moments that develop into something touching, colorful, and beautiful. Nothing like this sort of comedic drama and only Almodovar could do this sort of work.DVD Review: A harsh realistic film in Spanish
Summary: 4 Stars
Only in modern times can we have a Greek tragedy like effect with most of the people still alive? HIV and a transvestite father combine with a drug abusing daughter of an actress to produce an effect of loss
even when the baby doesn't have the disease.
I thought the lead actress was very good in this and it appears that a supporting role was enough to get Penelope Cruz to Hollywood?
I like it even with the harsh life it showed.
DVD Review: Impressive
Summary: 4 Stars
Almodovar is truly in a class by himself and his originality is a welcome breath of fresh air in a time when way too many popular films are regurgitations of familiar and cliched stories.
This story, of one woman's tragedy and her subsequent journey to find a mysterious somebody from her distant past (sorry if this is vague, you really shouldn't know anything about the plot before watching), is told by expertly inverting the conventions of not only film but of genre, gender and shock conventions.
If you're looking for something different and engaging, check this one out.
DVD Review: Mama Said There'd Be Gays Like This
Summary: 5 Stars
Pedro Almodovar's masterpiece, All About My Mother, avoids wide, well-lit boulevards, choosing instead to shed light on its large, complex subject by trolling life's darkest and most unsettling alleys. (Instead of June Cleaver you get Hermana Rosa, a knocked-up nun.) The film is brilliantly crafted, visually spellbinding, full of lovely literary and film allusions, funny, poignant, and heartbreakingly real. The irony here is that, by gleefully thrashing stereotypes and searching where nobody else would, Almodovar offers a portrait of motherhood so authentic it can even withstand crossing gender barriers.
Trouble begins early. The first of many mothers in the movie, Manuela - played with fierce conviction by the lovely Cecilia Roth - has an inappropriately close relationship with her teenage son Estaban. Their life together is complete, in its way, though fatherless. Estaban's death sets Manuela on a pilgrimage of sorts, from Madrid to Barcelona, to tell the boy's father what's happened. But this connection is only one of many, to people from her past, to a theater troupe, to another Estaban not yet born. Her fatalism, her sense of self-sacrifice, and her amazing endurance are uniquely maternal - one senses that Manuela would do whatever was required to discharge her obligations.
Manuela's time in Barcelona is an orgy or people, mothers of all descriptions. Almodovar mocks that most famous of all mothers, the Madonna, by casting Penelope Cruz as Hermana Rosa, a beautifully innocent, simple-minded nun dying of HIV-AIDS. Not exactly exemplary. Hermana's mom won't be getting many cards on Mother's Day either; she's too busy forging Cezannes to spend time with her daughter. Likewise, the theater troupe is not exactly overrun with familiar mom types. Marisa Peredes is amazing as Huma Rojo, the lesbian leading lady with a Bette Davis fixation. She's smitten with co-star Nina, a narcissistic nymphet junkie.
Fortunately, Manuela's old friend Agrado possesses many of the traditional maternal virtues; caring, compassion, and concern for the welfare of others. Problem is, Agrado is not a mother at all but a transgender male prostitute well on the way into womanhood. Oddly enough, this also describes Estaban's father, Lola. (Lola is clearly played by a man but the part of Agrado is inhabited by Antonia San Juan, a woman playing a man who is "playing at" being a woman - a dazzling performance.)
If all this sounds bizarre and confusing, it should. But Almodovar loves these characters and never uses them as stereotypes or punchlines. There's more to motherhood than bringing life into the world, and All About My Mother shows that what we think of as motherhood, that is, being the heart and soul of a family, comes in more forms than we are brave enough to imagine. You will not forget this movie.
DVD Review: Beautifully weaved Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Almodovar's "All About My Mother" is perhaps the most beautifully written and acted film I have ever seen. In typical Almodovar fashion, the film is full of symbolism, vibrant colors, inter-connected story lines, and an ending that brings the entire film full circle without being cliche.
After her son dies in a tragic accident in Madrid, Manuela embarks on a personal hegira to Barcelona, where she not only takes a group of misfits under her generous wing, but she finds herself along the way. Full of masterfully detailed relationships, honesty, and love, the film is genuinely moving. Not one to leave sorrow or mystery behind, Almodovar blends the mystery of the human condition with a concoction of humor and compassion brilliantly.
This is truly a pinnacle in a career full of cinematic highs.
Description of 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 (Pen?lope 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 Almod?var needn't fret--as always, Almod?var'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 Almod?var'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. Almod?var embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret FetzerGeneral DVDs
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