Almodóvar has drawn a lot of flak recently (perhaps he always has) for being trivial in the face of Big Issues. Are pedophilia, incest, murder, trans-, homo-, and multi-sexuality — and, here, drug addiction and Stockholm Syndrome — fitting subjects for Pedro’s particolored soap operas?
There are many approaches to Almodóvar’s films, and not all of them require a serious engagement with the Important Contemporary Subjects that they address. (And of course, if you’re looking to cinema to address Important Contemporary Subjects, you’re probably a little lost already.) Still, ¡Átame! is a good example of how Almodóvar’s films function melodramatically: they seem, on the one hand, to be using an idea like drug addiction as a foil for emotional dependency of other kinds. But, on the other hand, this partly metaphorical use enhances (rather than deadening or distancing) your empathy for the character. By the same token, the ludicrous B-movie glimpses at the film’s outset is still a source of drama and emotion, and the pop sing-along at the end, silly though the song may be, is nonetheless genuinely touching. So, if Almodóvar seems consistently to trivialize weighty themes, he does so in the service of a kind of emotional therapy. This, it seems to me, is the essence of melodrama, which Almodóvar has always deployed with unique sophistication.
Oh yes, and I agree with Elia Kazan: the sex scene here is one of the best in cinema.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Image Entertainment DVD
12 Dec 2006 5:16 PM | Submit Comment