|
| 2/3 As a budding film-maker, Pedro Almodóvar was entrenched in the frivolity, promiscuity, and flamboyance known as the Movida Madrileña. In his earlier works Almodóvar presented to the audience this seedy underbelly of Madrid in a light and playful tone, and the viewer was taught to laugh (if uncomfortably) at heroin addiction, incest, gender distortion, and uninhibited sexuality. Almodóvar’s ability to force the viewer to adapt a completely non-judgmental vantage point in regard to these motifs has become something of a signature. However, his techniques in achieving this goal have matured greatly throughout the years. With years of experience Almodóvar has perfected techniques in cinematography and screenwriting that now allow him to present both a moral ambiguity and a real weight in regards to those themes characteristic of the Movida.
Anti-Catholicism was a popular sentiment during the Movida. After years of compulsory religious education, film-makers and artists of this generation lashed out against the hypocrisy of Catholic dogma. Almodóvar was no exception. His first major reference to this theme occurs in Dark Habits (1983), and his latest major reference in Bad Education (2004). There is a distinct difference in the way that Catholicism and clerics are portrayed in each of these films, though. Heroin addiction, LSD experimentation, homosexuality, and authorship of trashy novels are not qualities one normally associates with a Catholic nun. In fact, they are qualities completely incongruous with what one might expect a nun to behave like. Yet, in Dark Habits we are presented with nuns possessing just these traits. Almodóvar dresses five women into habits, and then, throughout the film, proceeds to do all that he can to strip them of their formal religious titles by presenting truly outrageous plot elements. What results is an outlandish melodrama. These outrageous plot elements, these nuns who raise tigers and repent for their sins by walking barefoot on broken glass, are presented quite matter-of-factly. Almodóvar’s comment on the Catholic church is simply thus – they, the clerics and nuns, are no different from you or me. For, although the qualities of these women are completely incongruous with what one expects from a woman devoted to God, they are quite consistent with what one expects from any typical female character in an earlier Almodóvar film. The church’s transgressions—the LSD, the heroin, the masochism—are not transgressions at all, but are typical examples of real human behavior which is merely hidden away in a convent, underneath a habit.
This is in stark contrast with the way that the church’s indiscretions are dealt with in Bad Education. Almodóvar presents us with priests and dramatizes their behavior as illicit men of God. Emotions are stirred when young Ignacio is physically violated by Father Manolo, or when Enrique and Ignacio first experience their sexuality in the darkness of the Cine Olympo. Characteristic of the director, though, is the unique way in which these emotions are stirred. During the molestation of Ignacio, the camera pans over the slow-motion innocence of young schoolboys enjoying a warm day in the river set to a sweet Spanish rendition of “Moon River.” During the sexual exploration of Enrique and Ignacio, the audio picks up the unsettling muffled sounds of two small boys arousing eachother in a dark theater. Each scene is thoughtful and elicits a real emotional reaction from the audience. The way that the seemingly despicable molestation is set to a beauty and innocence, and the way that an innocent sexual exploration of two curious boys is constructed to be disconcerting and uncomfortable implies a great moral ambiguity that Almodóvar is famous for. Therefore, here he is able to dramatize their behavior as atypical, while still challenging the audience’s common conceptions of morality. Yes, what goes on in this scenes is strange, but how “wrong” is it?
In Dark Habits, by creating an outlandish melodrama, seemingly degenerate acts are treated lightly. The fact that these women are nuns is almost an afterthought – it may have a bearing on the plot, but has little bearing on who these women are. Father Manolo’s priesthood, however, has a great bearing on his actions throughout the film, and his religious identity is contrasted against his sexual identity in real concrete terms. When the elder Enrique addresses him as “Father Manolo,” he responds by saying that he’s no longer a father, not even to his own children. The ex-priest, once in love with Ignacio, has since become a sickly old man, coughing every sentence or two, too ashamed of his former actions to continue with his former profession. This is all presented in such heavy terms—should one now feel sorry for this pedophile? Is his murder by the hands of Juan something to be mourned? The senescence and death of Father Manolo make him a truly pitiful character. In Dark Habits, there is no moral declaration because no ethical questions are raised in the first place. In Bad Education, there is no moral declaration because ethical questions are raised on every side of every issue in the film. No one character’s interests and intentions are left too vague, because the behavior of each person in this film is the result of a real human consciousness that the audience is likely to empathize with on some level. Father Manolo did not intend to hurt Ignacio when he touched him, he was in love with this boy. There is little explanation offered for the behaviors of Sister Rat or Sister Manure, however.
If compulsory Catholicism was something that those of the Movida were ready to free themselves of, sexuality was definitely an aspect of life they were ready to embrace after an oppressive Francoist regime. Almodóvar’s films express sexuality in most every sense of the word. One ethically troublesome aspect of sexuality whose portrayal has changed dramatically in his work is that of rape. Again, in initial films we see a lightness associated with what would normally be considered an emotionally heavy issue. In Matador (1986), after Angel confesses to the almost-rape of Eva, she and her mother refuse to press charges, and her mother jokingly confesses that rape has been a common issue in their family, and it’s become the least of their worries. In Labyrinth of Passion (1982), we find that the character Queti is raped every night by her father, but is able to shrug it off as something that one simply gets used to. In the more recent film, Talk To Her (2002), however, rape is a central issue of the plot and used as an emotive device. In both Matador and Labyrinth of Passion, rape is used to advance the plot, but the films do not linger on its emotional or moral implications. The characters remain curiously unaffected by the act. In this way, we are left with a morally ambiguous discussion of rape, but also a vacuous one.
In Talk To Her, the implications of Alicia’s rape are profound. The rape itself is responsible for two things: overtly sexualizing the otherwise asexual Benigno, and awakening the comatose Alicia. If anything, Benigno is more dislikable before the act is committed. As a man with a “very special” adolescence, this stalkerish character has achieved his dream of watching over his beloved all day and night. He may very well be seen as an asexual and impenetrable creature forever hovering over the vulnerable girl Alicia. After the rape, he is revealed as a weak and vulnerable human, susceptible to sexual impulses as are any of us. And this communion, this faltering in his duty as nurse and caretaker, this is what shocks Alicia from her living death. From these observations one can infer that these lapses in moral consciousness are what actually give a person depth and real life. Benigno, formerly a shallow and stagnant character, now possesses some real human flaws that dramatically change him and the world around him. And Alicia, formerly comatose, is awoken from her deep sleep, shocked back into reality by the seemingly horrible violation that Benigno has committed.
In previous films, there is little to no sense of violation or moral injustice on account of rape. There is also little to no sense of a natural human desire as moral justification in rape. Women get raped. Men rape women. And, sometimes fathers rape their daughters. These things happen. Rape is presented bluntly and without question. The rape in Talk To Her is presented tenderly. Just as Father Manolo’s molesting young Ignacio is hidden behind the slow-motion children swimming and playing, the rape committed by Benigno is hidden behind two different images—the “shrinking lover” disappearing inside his love forever, and the fluids of a lava lamp slowly colliding with eachother. The first of these images is slightly disturbing if not also touching in an off-kilter sort of way, whereas the second is soothing if not also sexually suggestive in an ambiguous sort of way. Through these images, interpretation is left completely up to the viewer—one isn’t even sure that a rape has been committed until later on—and no judgements on Benigno’s actions are made. This is a man in love with a woman, who wishes nothing more than to remain by her side forever. This is a woman who is at the mercy of a man, powerless to protect herself against his advances. This is a rape, and these things happen. | | |
| thoughts on death and the afterlifei was just studying special relativity on the first floor of the thomas cooper library, several feet underground. annnnd i left because i had one of those random moments where everything in my life seems completely trivial. you know, when you realize that you will die some day and there is nothing you or anyone can do to stop it, and your consciousness will cease to exist, and you will feel nothing anymore, and a darkness will overcome you. i actually was listening to the flaming lips on my ipod and looked up at my surroundings thinking about how easily a disturbed student could go on a shooting rampage, starting with me, down in the depths of the library.
so yeah i picked up my stuff and left because i had no interest in physics anymore and was completely utterly lost, looking for something to grab hold to, because if we are really just lumps of flesh with a complicated network of electric signals firing off in our heads then what am i supposed to do with my life, if i can even call it that? i thought, how lucky to be steeped so far into a belief in god and an afterlife that your entire eternity of life is guaranteed, because whether or not you end up in heaven or hell you at least are allowed to remain as SOMETHING forever. so yeah, but i can't buy that. i'd like to, but i can't. and the only thing i could grab onto for some inkling of hope is the fact that, well we do exist. we exist because of chemical interactions that occurred on this planet. this planet exists because of swirling dustclouds in our galaxy that created our sun and this solar system. this galaxy exists because of swirling dust clouds in this universe. and this universe exists because--? well ok, phew, that's a bit of a relief. there must be something there, something that can't be explained, that REQUIRES faith. scientifically requires faith. seriously, infinity isn't real folks, it can't be experienced in blunt and practical terms, it can only be experienced through faith that it exists.
OK SO, there's something all powerful there. so what? that still doesnt' solve my fear, it just sort of makes me feel a bit calmer. ok so i'm searching for something that could keep me from being absolutely horrified and terrified by the prospect of death. and then i remember this quote from an OK movie that you maybe saw. Waking Life. it was a good movie, not amazing, but i enjoyed it. so this one scene in the movie talks about how after you die, when your heart stops beating, you still have this period of brain activity. i forget how much, but it's there. and so this guy goes into how when you dream at night, your dreams in reality don't really last so long, but they can last for several hours in your mind. so in this long period of brain activity post-mortem you could basically live your life again (like they say, your life flashes before your eyes etc.) or even another life. and this period of brain activity can stretch for years and years, and end with yet another death. so here we are, at another death yet again, period of brain activity, life flashes, and another death approaches, ad infinitum. so i figure this sounds good to me. this comforts me. because it just so happens that i was just reading all about the relativity of time in different inertial reference frames. so it seems to me that in each of these parallel lives lived, you somehow enter this new frame and time slows down just a bit more. just as in Einstein's famous Twin Paradox, the one twin returns from a space journey looking younger then his brother. we continuously enter a new reality of alternate inertial reference frame where time runs just a bit different and in the period of what seems to be several minutes to your previous body, you live an entire lifetime. and this process repeats and repeats as we live lifetime after lifetime in an even shorter amount of time (when i say amount of time, i'm talking about time in the original reference frame) until we reach that ever faithful infinity... and time stands still... and life is stretched forever before us.
so anyway just thought i'd share. because i really freaked myself out earlier and this helped. and yeah i realize the several mintues of brain activity theory doesn't necessarily with someone who is, say, killed by a bullet to the head, but who's to say that process i described doesn't simply just speed up exponentially? anyway it's not as crazy as soem religious theories i've heard on life after death. | | |
| hep catsXanga is the new retro that hasn't happened yet. w3rd?
| | |
| I beat Resident Evil 4
I need more bongos and more people to play Donkey Konga with
I skipped both my classes today
I'm going home this weekend for my birthday on Sunday
I'm not going to be a WUSC staff member anymore..
..maybe next semester..
..or next year - whenever I can next try to be on it
I always pick the worst people to meet off the internet, and last night was no exception
Life is alright, but I choose to be pretty unsatisfied with it
I really have to pee, and Dane just got out of the shower, so I'm going to stop writing in this and catch you all later | | |
| I just totally cut tyler out of my life
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh | | |
|
