All About My Mother. Spain, 1999. 
Director and Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Cecilia Roth , Antonia Sanjuan, Penelope Cruz, Marisa Paredes
Subjects of interest: Transsexualism, machismo, lesbianism, prostitution
Synopsis:
Manuela loses her teenage son when he is hit by a car, just as he intended to reveal at last the boy his father's identity. The latter, which also know you have a child, changed his name years ago, Stephen, Lola and prostitute in Barcelona. Manuela goes there to tell the story, seeking to know the sister Lola Rosa, a young nun who distributed condoms among transvestites and hide an unexpected secret: Lola is expecting a child.
Comment:
After a series of films 
not very good results during the 90's, Almodóvar achieved with All about my mother than anyone expected: an international success and an even higher impact to those obtained with films of the past decade. It is true that this repeated itself largely in this film the outline of his masterpiece Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown . Both films are structured around a strong central female character who goes through a personal crisis that distract from the problems of other women that somehow you will be responsible.
not very good results during the 90's, Almodóvar achieved with All about my mother than anyone expected: an international success and an even higher impact to those obtained with films of the past decade. It is true that this repeated itself largely in this film the outline of his masterpiece Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown . Both films are structured around a strong central female character who goes through a personal crisis that distract from the problems of other women that somehow you will be responsible. These women Almodóvar as positive and able to help and be a guide for other women are emotionally vulnerable at the same time, so relationships have been unsatisfactory or even abusive. Lola, Manuela as has the worst of the worst a man and a woman, with women playing a very similar way as it did the lover who abandoned Pepa, the protagonist of Women on the Verge ... Interestingly, having become a woman he does not mitigate his conduct at all sexist and misogyny. Lola is an incarnation of evil and death (Manuela film says at the end of the appropriateness of being in a cemetery) that exorcised many ghosts while director normally present in his films, such as transsexuals, macho men that harm women, women with large breasts, paternity, etc.
Despite the stylized and unbelievable that it 
this character is precisely the great merit of film is told with all natural and simple a priori surreal plot and delirious transvestite pregnant nuns, theater divas lesbian girlfriends heroin users, truckers who operate and become prostitutes. Normal to live with all these situations because Almodóvar's expertise as a storyteller, that this film reaches its peak probably is what makes All About My Mother, without having to wear flags of any kind or give any explicit message, is all a plea for women, since men are completely secondary to the plot, and above all respect for diverse forms of life. One drawback
be blamed for the exaggerated postmodern director, who never hides his screenplay was inspired by other films, may cause some emotional disconnection in a drama that purports to be intense and torn. For example, the accident in which Manuela's son is killed while trying to get an autograph from his idol is directly copied, including its planning, Opening night, so the scene does not work emotionally, but only cinephile wink to the viewer who knows the John Cassavetes film . Likewise, in another point in the film a character reproaches Manuela is the same as Eve Harrington, the heroine of Eve, is a dialogue of the show himself a drag queen that of a female character drama.
this character is precisely the great merit of film is told with all natural and simple a priori surreal plot and delirious transvestite pregnant nuns, theater divas lesbian girlfriends heroin users, truckers who operate and become prostitutes. Normal to live with all these situations because Almodóvar's expertise as a storyteller, that this film reaches its peak probably is what makes All About My Mother, without having to wear flags of any kind or give any explicit message, is all a plea for women, since men are completely secondary to the plot, and above all respect for diverse forms of life. One drawback be blamed for the exaggerated postmodern director, who never hides his screenplay was inspired by other films, may cause some emotional disconnection in a drama that purports to be intense and torn. For example, the accident in which Manuela's son is killed while trying to get an autograph from his idol is directly copied, including its planning, Opening night, so the scene does not work emotionally, but only cinephile wink to the viewer who knows the John Cassavetes film . Likewise, in another point in the film a character reproaches Manuela is the same as Eve Harrington, the heroine of Eve, is a dialogue of the show himself a drag queen that of a female character drama.
Top Scenes:
- Manuela travels to Barcelona transvestites area looking for Lola. An overhead shot shows a huge, dangerous and quite gruesome scene of cars and high heels.
- The coincidence of Rosa, Huma Agrado and Manuela's apartment gives rise to a kind of party girls in the nun Rosa stating lets her hair down his fascination with cocks and nice finish counting trucker Human evolution a transsexual prostitute.
- private problems of Huma Rojo, the stage actress, and her lover Nina necessary to interrupt the function. Welcome offered to entertain the spectators who want to stay with a famous monologue that tells all operations that have allowed to become a woman.
Anecdotes:
- Its huge critical and commercial success of Almodovar's career up taking it to heights never reached so far by any English filmmaker. Among the major awards won by the film include the Oscar for best foreign film, the Goya for best film and director of the year and best director at Cannes, where he appeared before the press. Two and a half million viewers watched the film in Spain and nearly two million in France.
- The plot of the film is mainly borrowed elements Opening night, in which Gena Rowlands played an alcoholic diva drama that she appeared the ghost of a girl who had run over while trying to get his autograph, and Eva naked, about a helpful young man who tried to usurp the position of another star theater. The film's title is a paraphrase of All about Eve, the original title Eve. Almodóvar explicit these references at the end of the film, which focuses on all the actresses who have performed with other actresses in the movies, in addition to all mothers.
- Actress Antonia Sanjuan, who rose to popularity with the film playing Agrado, mate Lola profession, has always refused to confirm or deny the rumors about her transsexuality.
Pedro Almodovar was born in Calzada de Calatrava (Ciudad Real) in 1949. He moved to Madrid in his youth to work at the phone company. In the ca pital 
begins to carry out in their spare time a series of shorts, a prelude to what will be his first film, Pepi Luci Bom and Other Girls Like , held very precarious means. Fast becoming one of the most emblematic of the so-called Madrid nightlife commercial success in Spain and the acceptance by foreign critics are not wait. From the beginning, sex is one of the key ingredients of Almodóvar film. Facing down the old myths of English machismo, the director fills his films gay, transvestites, sexually liberated and dominant, and Iberian males are ridiculed. This blend of social criticism and grotesque intended amaze and attract attention, while claiming personal and sexual freedom in a country emerging from a dictatorship and an era marked by religious taboos.
begins to carry out in their spare time a series of shorts, a prelude to what will be his first film, Pepi Luci Bom and Other Girls Like , held very precarious means. Fast becoming one of the most emblematic of the so-called Madrid nightlife commercial success in Spain and the acceptance by foreign critics are not wait. From the beginning, sex is one of the key ingredients of Almodóvar film. Facing down the old myths of English machismo, the director fills his films gay, transvestites, sexually liberated and dominant, and Iberian males are ridiculed. This blend of social criticism and grotesque intended amaze and attract attention, while claiming personal and sexual freedom in a country emerging from a dictatorship and an era marked by religious taboos. Links:
