Broken Embraces
Film Title (Original): Los Abrazos Rotos
Film Title (Spanish): Los Abrazos Rotos
Film Title (In English): Broken Embraces
Country Of Origin: Spain
Year Of Completion: 2009
Running Time: 129 Minutes
Format/Color/Bw: 35mm Color, Widescreen
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: N/A
Rating: R
FILM CREDITS:
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Producers: Esther Garcia
Editor: José Salcedo
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Writer: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Tamar Novas, Rubén Ochandiano
Pedro Almodóvar (b. 1949, Calzada de Calatrava) was educated in a monastic school, from where he would escape to watch forbidden films. He lived in Madrid from the age of 17, where he became a leading figure of the underground movement “movida madrileňa”. His feature debut was the “punk” film Pepi, Luci, Bom and the Other Girls on the Heap (1980). He began to make a name for himself internationally with What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984), then enjoyed true worldwide successand awards with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1987), All about My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002)- won Oscars, Bad Education (2004), and Volver (2006).
Broken Embraces is a four-way tale of amour fou, stylishly shot in the style of American film noir. A man (Lluís Homar ) writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident, he didn’t lose only his sight, he also lost Lena (Penélope Cruz), the love of his life.
This man uses two names: Harry Caine, a pseudonym with which he signs his literary works, stories and scripts, and Mateo Blanco, his real name, with which he lives and signs the film he directs. After the accident, Mateo Blanco reduces himself to his pseudonym, Harry Caine. If he can’t direct films he can only survive with the idea that Mateo Blanco died on Lanzarote with his beloved Lena.
In the present day, Harry Caine survives on the scripts he writes and the help he gets from his faithful former production manager, Judit García (Blanca Portillo), and from Diego, her son, his secretary, typist and guide. When Diego has an accident and Harry is left to take care of him, Diego asks Harry about the time when he answered to the name of Mateo Blanco.
In his latest Cannes Film Festival competition entry, Pedro Almodóvar returns to the themes and motifs of his earlier cult films, once again casting his favorite actresses. Fans of Almodovar will get plenty of what they expect here - rich saturated colours, hyper plotting, stylistic pyrotechnics and off-centre comedy.
III Dominican Republic Global Film Festival - 2009
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Pedro Almodóvar (b. 1949, Calzada de Calatrava) was educated in a monastic school, from where he would escape to watch forbidden films. He lived in Madrid from the age of 17, where he became a leading figure of the underground movement “movida madrileňa”. His feature debut was the “punk” film Pepi, Luci, Bom and the Other Girls on the Heap (1980). He began to make a name for himself internationally with What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984), then enjoyed true worldwide successand awards with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1987), All about My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002)- won Oscars, Bad Education (2004), and Volver (2006).
