Broken Embraces
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Broken Embraces
Plot
A follow-up to Spanish enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar's 2006 arthouse sensation Volver, Los Abrazos Rotos finds the filmmaker re-teaming with actress Penélope Cruz and working on a canvas much broader than those of his previous outings, in terms of genres covered, narrative scope, and duration. Lluís Homar stars as the former Mateo Blanco, a screenwriter and ex-director who changed his name to Harry Caine after losing his sight in an automobile accident. A past scandal suddenly resurfaces when the news arrives that the producer of one of Harry's old movies ("Girls and Suitcases"), a corrupt stockbroker named Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez), has died. For mysterious reasons, this makes Harry's ex-production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) nervous; then Ernesto's son, Ray X (Rubén Ochandiano), turns up and asks Harry to help him write a vindictive script to get back at his vile father. The film subsequently flashes back to the early '90s, when Martel became involved with his secretary, Lena (Cruz), but Mateo also began to develop feelings for her, and auditioned her for "Girls and Suitcases." In response to Mateo's interest in Lena (and her burgeoning interest in him), the jealous Martel commissioned Ray to make a documentary about the making of "Girls and Suitcases" as an excuse to spy on the director and star. This enabled him to watch Mateo spiriting off with Lena right under his nose, and set the stage for the wily producer's elaborate revenge against Mateo. As this synopsis suggests, Almodóvar uses a tricky structure laden with flashbacks to both comment on and explain the events of the present; he also interweaves a noirish sensibility throughout the picture that marks something of a first for this director. ~ Nathan Southern, RoviReview
Pedro Almodóvar has never been afraid of playing with timelines, and his ability to articulate how the past holds sway over the present infuses his work with a noir-like sensibility. Broken Embraces not only continues this exploration of guilt, and how it weighs on relationships, but also feels more personal than many of his other works.The intricate story concerns a blind former film director named Mateo, who now goes by the name Harry Caine (Lluís Homar), the pseudonym he used on all his screenplays. Harry still makes his living as a screenwriter, and gets help in his day-to-day and business affairs from his loyal friend and longtime collaborator Judit (Blanca Portillo), as well as her son, Diego (Tamar Novas). One day, Harry learns that successful businessman Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez) has died. Not long after that, a young man named Ray X meets with Harry to pitch a script about a son who gets revenge on the memory of his father. Harry passes on the job offer, but quickly pieces together that Ray X is, in fact, Ernesto's son. This leads to Harry sharing with Diego the tragic story about his final movie, a shoot that grew complicated because of a love triangle between Harry, Ernesto (who produced the film), and Ernesto's mistress Lena (Penélope Cruz) that led to life-changing decisions for everyone involved.
The actual series of events that led to Harry's blindness are laid out with such fiendish ingeniousness that it would be unfair to spoil how adroitly Almodóvar handles his narrative. He cooks up a melodramatic tale that is equal parts Paul Auster meta-narrative and James M. Cain noir, but he stays clear of soap opera territory thanks in part to first-rate performances. Homar embodies an artist's restless desire to live life to the fullest, even when he can't see; Gómez could turn his antagonist into a moustache-twirling baddie, but instead he lets his intensity come out in frightening dead-eyed stares; and Cruz is able to be disarmingly sexy and in emotional turmoil at the same time -- something that has made her the key onscreen collaborator for Almodóvar throughout the second half of his career.
Almodóvar fills the movie with his typically gorgeous cinematography, and he's still unafraid to tackle highly emotional situations and characters -- like the flamboyantly gay son trying to win his father's approval -- without letting them devolve into camp. He's perfected a visual style that borrows equally from Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock, but he's synthesized them into a filmmaking approach that's entirely his own.
While this is all comfortably familiar for an Almodóvar film, what sets Broken Embraces apart from his other movies are the unavoidable biographical aspects. Not only is the hero a director, but he name-checks such classics as Peeping Tom, Louis Malle's Les Amants, and most tellingly, Fellini's 8 1/2. The modern Spanish master is doing more than paying simple lip service to the artists and works that inspire him; he makes Broken Embraces a statement about what drives him to continue making movies as he gets older. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
Cast
- Penélope Cruz - Lena
- Blanca Portillo - Judit
- Lluís Homar - Mateo y Harry Caine
- José Luis Gómez - Ernesto Martel
- Ruben Ochandiano - Ray X
Credit
Antxon Gomez - Art Director, Victor Molero - Art Director, Luis San Narciso - Casting, Sonia Grande - Costume Designer, Guillermo Escribano - First Assistant Director, Pedro Almodóvar - Director, José Salcedo - Editor, Agustín Almodóvar - Executive Producer, Máximo Gattabrusi - Hair Styles, Alberto Iglesias - Composer (Music Score), Rodrigo Prieto - Cinematographer, Toni Novella - Production Manager, Agustín Almodóvar - Producer, Pedro Almodóvar - Producer, Esther Garcia - Producer, Miguel Rejas - Sound/Sound Designer, Marc Orts - Sound/Sound Designer, Pelayo Gutierrez - Sound Editor, Pedro Almodóvar - Screenwriter, Ana Lozano - Makeup Supervisor, Miguel Poveda - Musical Performer, Yuyi Beringola - Script Supervisor, Lola Garcia - Assistant to the Director| Broken Dreams (1933 Film), Broken Cord: Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris (1990 Film) | |
| Broken English (1981 Film), Broken English (1996 Film) |
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Broken Embraces
| Los Abrazos Rotos | |
|---|---|
 Original release poster |
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| Directed by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Produced by | Pedro Almodóvar Agustín Almodóvar |
| Written by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Starring | Penélope Cruz Blanca Portillo Lluís Homar Lola Dueñas Ángela Molina Rossy de Palma |
| Music by | Alberto Iglesias |
| Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto |
| Editing by | José Salcedo |
| Studio | El Deseo |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures International (Spain) Sony Pictures Classics |
| Release date(s) | 18 March 2009 |
| Running time | 129 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish English |
| Budget | $18 million |
| Box office | $30,991,660[1] |
Broken Embraces (Spanish: Los abrazos rotos) is a 2009 Spanish romantic thriller film written, produced, and directed by Pedro Almodóvar; a four-way tale of dangerous love, and was shot in the style of a hard-boiled 1950s American film noir,[2] or its descendant, the neo-noir genre. Many themes include noir references such as film posters in sets, angular, high contrast lighting and the characters' struggle with their illicit passions. However, like most Almodovar films, it is filmed in bright color rather than the black-and-white emblematic of noire. The cast includes many Almodóvar regulars such as Ángela Molina, Lola Dueñas and Penélope Cruz (her fourth film with the director). The film's soundtrack includes Cat Power, Uffie, and Can.
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Contents
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Plot
"Harry Caine" (Lluís Homar) is a blind writer who shares his life with his agent Judit (Blanca Portillo) and her adult son, Diego (Tamar Novas). Slowly, events in the present begin to bring back memories of the past. Harry hears that millionaire Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez) has died; a young filmmaker, Ray X, appears and turns out to be Martel's son, Ernesto, Jr. (Rubén Ochandiano). After Diego is hospitalized for an accidental drug overdose in a Madrid nightclub, Harry collects Diego from the hospital and looks after him to avoid worrying his traveling mother. The main storyline is told in flashback as Harry reluctantly tells Diego a tragic tale of fate, jealousy, abuse of power, betrayal, and guilt.
The first flashback is to 1992, which introduces Magdalena "Lena" Rivero (Penélope Cruz), Martel's beautiful young secretary, an aspiring actress. She becomes close to Martel, a millionaire financier, in order to find the money to help meet her dying father's medical bills. By 1994, she has become Martel's mistress. At this time, Harry is still living under his real name, Mateo Blanco, a well-respected film director. Martel is excessively possessive of Lena, but she is determined to become an actress and manages to win the main role in Blanco's film Chicas y maletas (Girls and Suitcases) by bringing Martel in as financier/producer. The fictional film is similar to Almodóvar's 1988 release, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, except that the Shiite terrorists have been replaced by a cocaine dealer; several of the cast of the previous film appear in the fictional one. Martel spies on Lena and Mateo by sending his inhibited, effeminate gay son, Ernesto, Jr., to videotape the production of the film, ostensibly for a "making of" feature, then hiring a lip-reader (Lola Dueñas) to interpret the conversations. Martel, seething with jealousy, screens the videos as the lip-reader narrates the furtive whispers of Lena and Mateo's passionate affair.
Furious, Martel confronts Lena, and when she threatens to leave him he pushes her down the stairs. But when she survives the fall, he relents and nurses her back to health. The filming completed, Lena and Blanco escape Martel's hold and go on holiday to Lanzarote. Lena takes a job as a hotel receptionist to pass the time. When she and Blanco read in El Pais that Chicas y maletas has received a terrible critical reception, likely the end of Blanco's directing career, they determine to start over together far from Madrid. Fate intervenes when Blanco is seriously injured and Lena is killed in a car accident, which ironically is immortalized by Ernesto Jr., who has been trailing them with his camcorder. Mateo loses his sight permanently. Judit, his long-time production assistant, and an 8-year-old Diego arrive to help Blanco pick up the pieces and return to Madrid, where he eventually writes screenplays in braille under the pseudonym Harry Caine, represented by his agent, Judit.
The story picks up where it began in 2008: Harry shares his birthday in a bar with Judit and Diego. Judit becomes drunk on gin and, stricken with guilt, confesses to Harry that she sold out to Martel in 1994 because of her fury at Harry for abandoning the film to run away with Lena; she also tells him of her involvement in providing Martel the phone number of the hotel in Lanzarote where Lena and Mateo were hiding. She confirms that Martel sabotaged the release of Chicas y maletas by using the worst take from each scene in order to destroy Mateo's reputation. The next morning she reveals to Diego that Harry is actually his father, a fact both men were unaware of. Having exorcised some of his demons, Harry decides to return to his life as Mateo Blanco. Though believed lost, the original reels of Chicas y maletas and Ernesto Jr.'s camcorder footage are recovered: Judit had ignored Martel's order to destroy them and instead hid them away. Mateo and Diego re-edit the film for its long-delayed release as the director envisioned it.
Cast
- Penélope Cruz – Magdalena "Lena" Rivas
- Blanca Portillo – Judit
- Lluís Homar – Mateo Blanco / Harry Caine
- Lola Dueñas – Lectora de labios
- Ángela Molina – Mrs. Rivas
- Rossy de Palma – Julieta
- José Luis Gómez – Ernesto Martel
- Tamar Novas – Diego
- Rubén Ochandiano – Ray X / Ernesto Martel, Jr.
- Chus Lampreave – Portera
- Kiti Mánver – Madame Mylene
- Mariola Fuentes – Edurne
- Carmen Machi – Chon
- Kira Miró – Modelo
- Alejo Sauras – Álex
Reception
As of March 2011, the film held an 81% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 138 reviews.[3] It currently holds a score of 77 (generally favorable reviews) on Metacritic.[4]
The film was accepted into the main selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or,[5] his third film to do so and fourth to screen at the festival.
It was nominated for the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Almodóvar's sixth film to be nominated in this category.
It was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Satellite Award for Best Actress for Penélope Cruz's performance.
It was nominated for the 2010 Vits Awards for "Best Directing" and "Best Original Script".
Soundtrack
The film includes an original soundtrack album entirely composed by Alberto Iglesias, which was released in Spain on CD format to coincide with the film's release. The film also includes two English tracks from American artists: "Robot Oeuf" by Uffie, and a cover of Michael Hurley's "Werewolf" by Cat Power.
See also
References
- ^ Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) at Box Office Mojo
- ^ http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/news/news=799
- ^ "Broken Embraces". Rotten Tomatoes. http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/broken_embraces/. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
- ^ "Broken Embraces". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/brokenembraces?q=broken%20embraces. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Broken Embraces". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/10889598/year/2009.html. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
External links
- Official website
- Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) at the Internet Movie Database
- Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) at Box Office Mojo
- Los Abarzos Rotos (Broken Embraces) at Rotten Tomatoes
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