Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos)
Written and Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
A blind screenwriter (Lluìs Homar) used to be a film director working under the name Mateo. How did he lose his sight? Flash back 14 years to the '90s. Mateo is hired to direct a film and immediately falls in love with Lena (Penélope Cruz), the film's star who is also the mistress of the producer, an aging millionaire. As Mateo and Lena embark on a passionate affair, the producer hires his son to spy on them.
Member Reviews
The Spanish romance- thriller Soars! - movie_goer
"Pedro Almadovar and Penelope Cruz are magnificent, riveting and never cease to push the envelopes of filmmaking."
Broken Embraces is best viewed without reading the legend while keeping an openmind and plenty of patiences. The film moves like a person would hiking, slowly working its way to a climax and downwards suddenly and without warning. The classic chic of the fashion and backdrops seduces you to pine over Barcelona surrounding areas of Spains lush and goregous seasside shores.Broken Embarces - limerick
This movie is a tutorial on the subject of movie making. It has many themes: identity, life and death, what goes on in between for a group of professionals who make movies, how it enhances their lives but also requires much sacrifice. Perhaps making movies is a duty. One downside for them (as well as for their audience) is the necessity of being a voyeur. The actors must enjoy being exhibitionists and as in the case of the character, Lena, must be masochistic. With Penelope Cruz as Lena, you can't take your eyes off her, but her brilliance can only carry half the dead weight of the plot. The ending is a diversion toward the world outside of movie making, a recapturing of the value of ordinary family life and a cheerful slap on the back of the movie makers for a job well done.Pure Almodovar, hence pure enjoyment - RobBC
There’s really no point in trying to explain the plot of an Almodovar film as the pleasure lies more in the pageantry, not the resolution. Suffice to say it uses a series of flashbacks to tell the story of a love triangle between a director, a business tycoon, and the tycoon’s mistress who has dreams of becoming a movie star. Once again the Spanish master has created a whirling technicolour celebration that makes you fall in love with cinema all over again. From the richly embellished sets to the sharp savvy script there is very little here to disappoint. As usual, Almodovar populates his stage with beautiful men and women, sympathetically portrayed with all their faults and strengths intact as they try to make sense of their increasingly complicated lives. And of course the cinematography is brilliant; a huge still life overlooks a frozen relationship, a car drives through a lunar landscape of cratered dirt, and a couple makes passionate love while completely wrapped up in a sheet. In one particularly inspired scene the mistress delivers some distressing news to her benefactor using a combination of video footage and lip-synching. But the real delight in this latest offering is the many subtle nods Pedro gives to his previous works, culminating in an uproarious “remake” of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown".
Member Reviews
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The Spanish romance- thriller Soars! - movie_goer
"Pedro Almadovar and Penelope Cruz are magnificent, riveting and never cease to push the envelopes of filmmaking."
Broken Embraces is best viewed without reading the legend while keeping an openmind and plenty of patiences. The film moves like a person ...Broken Embarces - limerick
This movie is a tutorial on the subject of movie making. It has many themes: identity, life and death, what goes on in between for a group of professionals who make movies, how it enhances their lives but also requires much sacrifice. Perhaps making movies ...Pure Almodovar, hence pure enjoyment - RobBC
There’s really no point in trying to explain the plot of an Almodovar film as the pleasure lies more in the pageantry, not the resolution. Suffice to say it uses a series of flashbacks to tell the story of a love triangle between a director, a business tycoon, ...