Law of Desire (1987)
(La Ley del Deseo)
Country: SP
Technical: col 101m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Eusebio Poncela, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas
Synopsis:
A highly successful director is close to his actress sister (formerly brother) and her devout teenaged adoptive daughter. When his beloved moves away from Madrid for a spell, he anguishes over his love and unconsummated desire but is soon approached by an obsessed and highly possessive young fan.
Review:
Many typical Almodóvar ingredients (one scene with a priest is more or less resurrected in Bad Education) but one of the few films to deal more or less exclusively with homosexuality. Having said that, the central characters might as well be heterosexual for all the difference it makes (aside from the insignificant 'Laura P.' intrigue); it's all part of the transgressive, licentious aura with which the director likes to imbue his entertainment world types. Maura relishes her role as a transsexual - note one memorable scene in which she is hosed down in the street one sultry evening - but it is Poncela who strikes and whose sensitive, almost feminine physiognomy makes one wonder that Almodóvar did not use him more often. The dénouement, where Banderas either shoots himself or is shot, is however unforgivably confusing, and the whole film has a feeling of time being marked before the next breakthrough.
(La Ley del Deseo)
Country: SP
Technical: col 101m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Eusebio Poncela, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas
Synopsis:
A highly successful director is close to his actress sister (formerly brother) and her devout teenaged adoptive daughter. When his beloved moves away from Madrid for a spell, he anguishes over his love and unconsummated desire but is soon approached by an obsessed and highly possessive young fan.
Review:
Many typical Almodóvar ingredients (one scene with a priest is more or less resurrected in Bad Education) but one of the few films to deal more or less exclusively with homosexuality. Having said that, the central characters might as well be heterosexual for all the difference it makes (aside from the insignificant 'Laura P.' intrigue); it's all part of the transgressive, licentious aura with which the director likes to imbue his entertainment world types. Maura relishes her role as a transsexual - note one memorable scene in which she is hosed down in the street one sultry evening - but it is Poncela who strikes and whose sensitive, almost feminine physiognomy makes one wonder that Almodóvar did not use him more often. The dénouement, where Banderas either shoots himself or is shot, is however unforgivably confusing, and the whole film has a feeling of time being marked before the next breakthrough.
(La Ley del Deseo)
Country: SP
Technical: col 101m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Eusebio Poncela, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas
Synopsis:
A highly successful director is close to his actress sister (formerly brother) and her devout teenaged adoptive daughter. When his beloved moves away from Madrid for a spell, he anguishes over his love and unconsummated desire but is soon approached by an obsessed and highly possessive young fan.
Review:
Many typical Almodóvar ingredients (one scene with a priest is more or less resurrected in Bad Education) but one of the few films to deal more or less exclusively with homosexuality. Having said that, the central characters might as well be heterosexual for all the difference it makes (aside from the insignificant 'Laura P.' intrigue); it's all part of the transgressive, licentious aura with which the director likes to imbue his entertainment world types. Maura relishes her role as a transsexual - note one memorable scene in which she is hosed down in the street one sultry evening - but it is Poncela who strikes and whose sensitive, almost feminine physiognomy makes one wonder that Almodóvar did not use him more often. The dénouement, where Banderas either shoots himself or is shot, is however unforgivably confusing, and the whole film has a feeling of time being marked before the next breakthrough.