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All About My Mother
Overview
Cecilia Roth stars in this celebrated film from Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Distraught over the death of her teenage son, Manuela drives to Barcelona to find the boy's father, an itinerant transsexual named Lola (Toni Canto). While combing the city's less reputable districts, she also meets up with Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a sassy transvestite prostitute, and Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a pregnant nun on her way to El Salvador. She also becomes the manager for Huma (Marisa Paredes), the actress her son idolized, and helps her through a run of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Together these great ladies bond through various heartrending crises, enduring the pain and celebrating the beauty of being women (or almost women). Considered to be one of Almodóvar's most fully realized works, this charming and unique film blends his earlier gender-bending irreverence with the mature grace and compassion of his later work, striking a perfect note of humor and pathos.
Awards:
1999 - Academy Awards - Best Foreign Language Film - Winner
1999 - Cannes - Best Director - Winner
Main Cast & Crew:
Pedro Almod var - Director
Pedro Almodovar - Director
Pedro Almodóvar - Director
Candela Pe a
Candela Peña
Eloy Azor n
Eloy Azorín
Penélope Cruz
Rosa Mar a Sard
Rosa María Sardà
Cecilia Roth
Marisa Paredes
Candela Pena
Details
- Format: DVD (Remastered, AC-3, Dolby, Widescreen)
- Run Time: 101
- Color Format: Color
- UPC: 043396332232
- Genre: FOREIGN FILM [DUB OR SUBTITLE]
- Rating: R (MPAA)
- Release Date: November 2009
Movie Reviews
Synopsis:
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's tender, intelligent drama follows the emotional journey of Manuela, an organ transplant coordinator who scours the back alleys and gutters of Barcelona in search of her errant ex-husband (a half-transsexual prostitute named Lola), saddled with the devastating news that their only child has died. Along the way she forges a unique bond of friendship with a similarly burdened and truly bizarre group of women, including a scandalized nun, a lesbian starlet, and her heroin-addicted lover. With intricate strokes both humanistic and humorous, Almodóvar weaves a touching, beautiful story about the strength of motherhood and the resilience of the human spirit.
Notes:
Theatrical release: November 24, 1999.
Filmed on location in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain.
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER won the 1999 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
The film also won the 1999 New York Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won that category the same year for the National Board of Review, the British Independent Film Awards, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
The film won the 2000 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Golden Satellite Award for that year in the same category, as well as France's Ceasar Award, the British Academy Award, and the Chicago Film Association Award.
Reviews:
"...Emotionally satisfying and brilliantly played....[The film's] witty script focuses on the characters' stoic resilience and good humor..." Variety, p.47
"...The best foreign movie of the year....A unique and unforgettable tribute to female solidarity..." - 12/09/1999 Rolling Stone, p.90
"...[The film] dramatises a general condition with formal elegance, nuanced observations and emotional resonance..." - 09/??/1999 Sight and Sound, p.40
"...Almodóvar's masterwork, a synthesis of the director's fabulous fetishes..." -- Rating: A - 01/07/2000 Entertainment Weekly, p.48
"...It weaves life and art into a rich tapestry of love, loss and compassion..." - 11/19/1999 New York Times, p.E14
"...Almodovar creates an impressively rich, evocative film replete with uniformly fine performances..." -- 4 out of 5 stars - 07/01/1999 Box Office, p.75
"...Mothers definitely get their due here....There is certainly an array of outrageous characters..." - 11/19/1999 USA Today, p.8E
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