Broken but mended

Almodovar is on top form. Again. I have to say I didn't like Bad education very much, if at all. And Volver was good, (the final scene with the mother accepting her fate as a 'ghost' forever hiding, going from one house to another in her village still haunts me) but there was something missing, I thought. I often call the thing that is missing: emotional involvement. I always say that I regard something as good art iff it moves me emotionally. A lot of people have criticized me for this (pseudo)definition but I think it's a great barometer, actually it's the only barometer. If something moves me-it's art, if not-it's crap. (Life doesn't move me, just like a movie, life doesn't move me.) I don't care if something is aesthetically perfect, well-thought, interesting, all this is good but not good enough. In needs to move me, I need to cry, be moved, think about life in different ways, I need to be affected.

So, when I saw the trailer of broken embraces, I though, good here we go again, Almodovar is going technically perfect with no emotion... And he's cashing in on Penelope's sex appeal. Again. (After the close-ups at her cleavage in Volver).

But I went to see the movie, because he is Almodovar after all, and I am his biggest fan (with Youkali of course). And I am so glad I did, so glad indeed. Because Broken Embraces is such a good movie. It's emotional, melodramatic, noir-ish, surprising, funny, all at the same time.

But most of it's all that AND technically perfect. I read somewhere that after the Amante Menguante movie within Habla con Ella, Almodovar became obsessed with the movie within a movie trick. He tried to replicate it in Mala Educacion, but failed miserably (perhaps because he should just accept the fact that he cannot have a successful movie without women) but here he masters it entirely. The final scene of BE, a scene replicated from Women on the verge of nervous breakdown, is genius. Although a funny scene might very well break up the dramatic ending, in some weird ironic way it supports it. And everything falls into place, Almodovar is in top form, Penelope is stunning, Broken embraces is perfect and the world is safe again.