IMDb plot summary: After leaving jail, Víctor is still in love with Elena, but she's married to the former cop -now basketball player- who became paralysed by a shot from Víctor's gun...
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Starring Javier Bardem, Francesca Nero, Liberto Rabal, and Ángela Molina.
(Mild spoilers.)
Several reviews call this out as one of Almodovar's more restrained films, which perhaps allows this to work a little better for me than most of his others have. I was really struck by the characterization in this. While I couldn't for the life of me figure out who I was actually supposed to be rooting for (Clara maybe? Victor by the end?) it actually improved my opinion of the movie because it felt here like a result of nuanced characters rather than a muddled worldview. And every dramatic twist seemed to be genuinely tied to their characters, rather than a curveball thrown in my fate, allowing me to follow the characters' arcs. I admit the political angle is lost on me here -- I can't figure out how the title card detailing loss of civil rights in 1970s Spain connects to the rest of the story -- but at least the strictly narrative pieces here felt less inscrutable than my previous Almodovar's. I'm making progress!
How it entered my Flickchart:
Live Flesh > The Stalking Moon
Live Flesh < Gremlins
Live Flesh < Wonder Man
Live Flesh > Phantom Thread
Live Flesh < Ice Age
Live Flesh > Limitless
Live Flesh < Notes on a Scandal
Live Flesh > The Master
Live Flesh < You Can Count on Me
Live Flesh < My Favorite Year
Live Flesh < Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)
Live Flesh > Alice (1990)
Final spot: #1313 out of 3147.
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