Almodóvar Teases

The low ranking of Almodóvar's new film Broken Embraces in our "We Can't Wait" series caused bitter complaints from those who feel, like myself, that he's the best director the cinema has going. But never fear. I'll be following the Spaniard closely this year. Pedro Watch again you know.

Here is the teaser for Broken Embraces. Since it's a teaser it only has 30 seconds to sell you. It's mostly concentrating on spreading the notion that the film is about a doomed unstable romance and that its visually interesting (no surprise). Sold. It also wants to remind you how beautiful Penélope Cruz looks when her hair is all over the place in the Mediterranean style of leading ladies.



Synopsis read (to me) a little too 'thriller' or bizarre for Oscar play -- and Spain doesn't always submit Pedro anyway -- but you never know. Two readers Daniel and Ziyad also inform that Almodóvar recently made a new short film called La Concejala Antropófoga on the set of the new feature but it was pulled from the net before I had a chance to view it.

UPDATE here it is... thanks Holden



There were no subtitles but who cares? Truly cinematic auteurs are interesting without dialogue. Or maybe especially without dialogue. Then you can actually think about what the camera, production design, costumes, score and editing are doing without the distraction of plot and dialogue (the two things that are easiest to concentrate on). Sometimes you'll see a different movie altogether. I once had a friend who was positively raving about All About My Mother (before it's debut here in the States) after a summer trip to Europe in '99. I said to her "But you don't speak Spanish! Was it dubbed, subtitled?". "No. I barely understood a word," she said, adding incredulously "I saw it twice. It was wonderful."

My kind of girl.

This is old news by now but I was perusing Pedro's blog in preparation for this post (he hasn't updated in 2009 yet) when I found this hilarious bit on his birthday last September right after at trip to San Sebastian to see Antonio Banderas.

It was my birthday two days ago. I received lots of congratulations, some unexpected and original. For example, Meryl Streep sang Happy Christmas in Spanish to me over a friend’s cell phone, from San Sebastian, where she was receiving a tribute. Our mutual friend Chema Prado told her it was Happy Birthday, not Happy Christmas. Was she mistaken? I wouldn’t say that much. She was Meryl Streep and she could sing what she wanted. In the few words she sang in Spanish, you won’t believe it, she didn’t have the slightest accent.

What a great actress and what a delightful person!

Streep singing to Pedro? And the wrong words no less. Would that I could time travel and teleport to Spain in the blink of an eye.
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