#283 Talk To Her

(2002, Pedro Almodovar)
Hable con ella

“Love is the saddest thing when it goes away”

Based on this week and last week, it seems that Thursday is now Spanish movie day, so expect Spanish movies both this week and last week, and then never see another Spanish movie for months. Hurraaaaay!

Anyway, Talk To Her is a movie from arguably the most critically-acclaimed director from the nation, Pedro Almodovar. It focuses on two intertwining relationships, one about a reporter, Marco (Dario Grandinetti), and his relationship with bullfighter, Lydia (Rosario Flores), and the other about a nurse, Benigno (Javier Camara), and his comatose patient Alicia (Leonor Watling). The two men cross paths after Lydia is hospitalised, and Marco gradually learns of the unusual relationship between Benigno and Alicia.

#281 Open Your Eyes

(1997, Alejandro Amenabar)
Abre los ojos

“Open your eyes”

In 2002, Cameron Crowe made a movie called Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. It got mixed reviews, and it did reasonably well, telling a very strange tale of romance with a bit of good old-fashioned mindfuckery thrown in for good measure.

It was also a remake, which not many people know. You see, Cameron Crowe took the entire storyline from a Spanish movie from the nineties called Abre los Ojos, aka Open Your Eyes. He also swiped one of its main cast members (Cruz) and put her in the same role as the original. Today, we’re looking at that movie, and ignoring Vanilla Sky entirely because that’s not on the list. Sorry about that.

Open Your Eyes is a hard film to describe. It’s about a man named Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) who is a rich, good-looking kid living in Madrid. He’s known for womanising and generally being a bit of a smug bastard about how good-looking he is. We switch between him going about his day and enjoying his life to him sitting in prison and talking to a psychiatrist (Chete Lera) while wearing a prosthetic mask.

During the course of the movie, Cesar flirts with a woman named Sofia (Cruz), who happens to be the girlfriend of his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martinez), while simultaneously trying to avoid a crazy, jealous former fling named Nuria (Najwa Nimri). During the course of the movie, Cesar climbs into a car with Nuria, who then immediately crashes the car, horribly disfiguring him. And then things kinda go a little bit haywire…

#25 Pan’s Labyrinth

(2006, Guillermo del Toro)

“Life isn’t like your fairy tales. The world is a cruel place”