The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, October 5-11
All About My Mother (1999)
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Too often Almodóvar is linked to kitschy flamboyance, lively melodrama and sexual antics, always garnished with some colorful Spanish cliches and a dash of gender politics. Even though his 1999 drama might not be an exception, the intricacy of his female characters allows for some more nuanced complexity and heartwarming humanism. In All About My Mother, Manuela (Cecilia Roth), travels from Madrid to Barcelona in search of the father of her recently killed son. Manuela, who once lived an erratic past in the old city, finds help from some eccentric characters like Agrado (Antonia San Juan), an old friend from her days as sex worker, an aging theater diva, Huma Roja (Marisa Paredes), whom her late son (an aspiring writer) was enamored with, and a pregnant nun (Penelope Cruz) who has been diagnosed HIV positive after sleeping with Lola (Toni Cantó), Manuela’s transgender ex-partner and her son’s father. Just as Almodovar intertwines his characters’ plights and struggles, he layers some Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and All About Eve into the wild mix. Alejandro Veciana (October 8, 6pm at the Metrograph’s “Queer 90s”)
