Recovered Classic: All About My Mother


Having deservedly won an Oscar for best foreign language film, there can be no disputing the sheer quality of this exceptional movie. But, as is often the case, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people flocked to see it. To put it bluntly, you don’t know what you’re missing.

The 13th feature from Spanish genius Pedro Almodovar, while it is unashamedly inspired by All About Eve, the director puts his own unique stamp on what he describes as a film dedicated in part “to all women who act, to men who act, to men who act and become women, to all people who want to be mothers, to my mother.”

Paralleling the great 1940s Hollywood melodramas he so admires, Almodovar revisits the themes of female vulnerability and solidarity that underscored Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to deliver a poignant and at times comedic examination of women in intimate relationships.

The catalyst is Manuela (Cecilia Roth), a nurse and single mother whose son is knocked down and killed while chasing his favourite actress for an autograph after seeing her perform on stage. Devastated by his death, Roth heads for Barcelona to break the news to his estranged father, a chick-with-a-dick hooker who left town long ago, but not before robbing their oldest and closest friend (Antonia San Juan) and getting confused nun Penelope Cruz pregnant.

By way of bizarre coincidence, Manuela (once an actress herself) soon gets to meet the women who so fascinated her son and ends up working for her, the unfolding drama ricocheting between Roth’s eternal grief and the relationships she develops with Cruz, Parades, San Juan and Candel Pena, a junkie who is Parades’ fellow actress and constant companion.

A strikingly emotive movie which the director also dedicates to “actresses who have played actresses,” Almodovar’s grasp of female emotions is admirable and the skill with which he manipulates his fabulous cast is equally impressive, the story rebounding first one way and then the next as each character begins to take on a new relevance and importance.

Tinged with absurdist humour, the director also reshuffles the plot to keep things interesting and challenging for the viewer, blending camp and compassion with his trademark bright colour palette to stimulate on all levels.

The storytelling may be complex, but it’s never confusing, and in Roth, Almodovar has a wonderful actress to hold his film together, whose character becomes a sister to a drag queen, an assistant to an actress and a mother to a nun. All this while trying to come to terms with her own grief at losing her son. But the director strikes such a chord that you don’t just end up empathising with Manuela, you care with a passion about all the characters, an extraordinary achievement in a movie of any genre.

Essentially, All About My Mother is about women and the actress in all of them, and when you think about it, nobody could have given this movie as much impact as Almodovar. After all, as he’d already proved with Live Flesh and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, he can handle just about anything.

David Lichtneker

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of All About My Mother and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.