A review of the classic Spanish film”All About My Mother” (1999)
Internationally, this was the breakout movie for the Spanish Pedro Almodóvar who both wrote and directed it. It won him the Best Director prize at Cannes Film Festival and it won Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Famously, Aldomóvar is a gay man who adores women. He was brought up in a household full of them and almost all the leading roles in his films go to women. In this particular picture, he explores different versions of motherhood as experienced by women, whether straight, gay or trans. It is an adult melodrama, but laced with humour, and exhibits the director’s trademark use of colour (especially red) and shapes (notably curves).
Set in Madrid and (mainly) Barcelona, much of the shooting is interior scenes with lots of dialogue and there is a lot going on – birth, death, sex, drugs, AIDS – in this richly-textured narrative that covers weeks, then months, and finally years. All the actors are excellent, especially established stars Cecelia Roth as Manuela, the mother of a 17 year old son, and Marisa Paredes as Huma Rojo, whose autograph Manuela’s son is seeking. Looking at the film now, one is truck by the early role for Penélope Cruz (as a pregnant nun!), who has since become an international star.