Directed by:
Pedro AlmodóvarScreenplay:
Pedro AlmodóvarCinematography:
José Luis AlcaineComposer:
Alberto IglesiasCast:
Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lluís Homar, Javier Cámara, Alberto Ferreiro, Pau Poch, Leonor Watling, Petra Martínez (more)Plots(1)
First screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Pedro Almodovar's powerful and passionate semi-autobiographical melodrama follows the intertwining stories of two boys, Enrique (Fele Martinez) and Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), who fall in love at an abusive Catholic school and are parted by a jealous paedophile priest. Sixteen years later, Enrique, now a successful filmmaker, is casting about for an idea for a new film when a young cross-dressing actor, claiming to be Ignacio but known as 'Angel', approaches him with a short story based on their schooldays together. Enrique decides to use the story, and casts Angel in the film's lead role, despite his discovery that Angel is not in fact Ignacio, who died three years earlier shortly after completing the story, but his younger brother. Enrique's film also includes scenes in which the grown-up Ignacio tracks down the Catholic priest who abused them as boys, and these scenes soon become mirrored by real-life events. Almodovar moves away from his trademark quirky comedy with this dark and brooding drama, using a complex 'film-within-a-film' structure to create a noir-like sense of mystery and blurred identity, and to explore the relationship between fantasy and reality. (Pathé Distribution UK)
(more)Awards
- Winner
- Nominations
Independent Spirit Awards
- 2005 - Pedro Almodóvar (Best International Film)
British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)
- 2005 - Best Film not in the English Language
European Film Awards
- 2004 - Pedro Almodóvar (Best Film)
- 2004 - Pedro Almodóvar (Best Director)
- 2004 - Pedro Almodóvar (Best Screenwriter)
- 2004 - José Luis Alcaine (Best Cinematographer)
- 2004 - Alberto Iglesias (Best Composer)
- 2004 - Fele Martínez (People's Choice Award Best Actor)
- 2004 - Pedro Almodóvar (People's Choice Award Best Director)
César Awards
- 2005 - Pedro Almodóvar (Best European Union Film)
Goya Awards
- 2005 - Best Film
- 2005 - Pedro Almodóvar (Best Director)
- 2005 - Antxón Gómez (Best Art Direction)
- 2005 - Best Production Supervision
Polish Film Awards
- 2005 - Pedro Almodóvar (Best European Film)
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
- 2004 - Best Foreign Language Film