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Actors: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Penélope Cruz
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about All About My Mother |
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Manuela (Roth), a medical transplant coordinator and single mom, takes her 17-year-old son Esteban to see a stage production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." After the show, they wait to see the star, Huma Rojo (Paredes), so Esteban can get her autograph, but he is hit by a car and killed. In mourning, Manuela decides to put her life in order, which includes a trip to Barcelona to inform the boy's unknowing father about the death. The father turns out to be an HIV-positive transvestite named Lola (Canto). Manuela also runs into an old friend called Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a transsexual who coincidentally becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo -- the actress Esteban admired -- and helps her manage her costar and lover Nina (Pena). Manuela also meets a young nun, Sister Maria (Cruz), who works in a shelter for battered prostitutes and plans to go to El Salvador, but becomes painfully pregnant. This 1999 Pedro Almodovar film is more richly emotional and sincere than many of his earlier, cartoon-like movies, and won an Oscar for best foreign film.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Todo sobre mi madre) is a movie written and directed by Pedro Almodovar in 1999. Academy award in the "best foreign language film" category.
Esteban, Cecilia Roth's son, dies in an automobile accident in Madrid. Cecilia then returns to Barcelona, looking for Lola, Esteban's father, whom she hasn't seen in 17 years. Lola is a drug-addicted transvestite who's just made pregnant Penélope Cruz, a young nun who takes care of Agrado, another of Cecilia's old transvestite friends. As Penélope Cruz discovers that she's also been infected with AIDS, Cecilia decides to take care of her and welcome her home.
A misanthropic movie.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of All About My Mother |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Romance/Love/Hugging
Yes
Kind of romance:
- Unprepared for birthing/child rearing
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Taboo Sex Story?
Yes
Kind of sex:
- tranvestites/cutting off their weiners
- LESBIANS!!!!!!
Lover is...
- physically ill or deformed
Coping with loss of loved one?
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 40's-50's
Hair color?
- blonde
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Hispanic/Latinic
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) very skinny
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Hispanic/Latinic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- general circumstances
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Spain
City?
Yes
Misc setting
- moving train
- theater
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Movie makes you feel...
- encouraged
- thoughtful
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references only
- impregnation/reproduction
- lesbians!
Non-American film?
Yes
What language?
- Spanish
Subtitles?
- Yes
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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