Customer Reviews

Bad Education (Original Uncut NC-17 Edition)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the movie that confirms Gael Garcia Bernal's status as the most erotic male screen presence since Alain Delon doffed his shirt in "Plein Soleil." In this film he plays at least three characters, including Zahara, a drag queen, for which portrayal Pedro Almodovar, the director (who has a cameo in the film as a poolboy) has compared Bernal to Julia Roberts. Think sensuous lips. But most viewers, I believe, will prefer him as Juan, doing pushups on the floor of his brother's kitchen, or as Angel, diving into a swimming pool in his underwear. But even as Juan, in sunglasses at a museum in Valencia, Bernal may remind discriminating filmgoers of Barbara Stanwyck, in the famous grocery sequence in "Double Indemnity." Which brings me to an important point: Almodovar's film is many things--part autobiography, part exploration of sexuality--but it is above all a film noir, despite its bright colors, with Bernal as the "homme fatal." I think it works. Any fan of the genre will be familiar with its conventions: the reversals and betrayals, the characters who change names and even faces, the flash-backs and flash-forwards, the self-defeating ethical codes. Forget the Franco-era politics, if that's a stumbling block, and focus on the roller-coaster plot. And if the reappearance of the child-molesting Father Manolo as a sympathetic family man and victim of Juan's undeniable mystique bothers you, then do as the director and suspend judgment. This is topnotch cinema, by a master at the top of his form.

Gael Garcia Bernal, playing Juan/Angel/Zahara is the centerpiece, the place in which the heart of this film resides, for it is his broken damaged heart that sets the tone and the focus of Almodovar's "Bad Education"
And at the core of Bernal's tour-de-force performance is his shredded psyche: broken apart by years spent plotting revenge for the drug addiction and childhood abuse of his brother, Ignacio. Juan is one of the "damaged people" of whom Tennessee Williams so often writes. And Almodovar has chosen to make Juan not only a hero but also a heroine, the femme fatale, Zahara.
Almodovar, never one to be squeamish or afraid of censure, is out for blood in "Bad Education" as he slices open and excises the sexual mores in Franco-era Catholicism in which child abuse was accepted as the norm. (Unfortunately, nothing seems to have changed much)
Moviemaker Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) gets a visit one day from a man claiming to be Enrique's friend from school, Juan (Bernal) even though Enrique doesn't seem to recognize him as his Catholic school friend. Juan is very insistent that Enrique read a story he has brought with him. And it is this story that sets off a series of scenes into painful and disturbing memories about school, about love between boys, about hypocrisy among adults, about corruption in matters of the heart.
Almodovar has a very keen eye for the American movies of the 1950's and "Bad Education" is drenched with the dark, foreboding, and passionate colors of a Douglas Sirk film. But this is a film which acknowledges the past but whose mindset is of the Now.
Almodovar has made a thriller, a detective story but has done so with the heart of a romantic and he has used Enrique as his detective to try to solve the mystery that is Juan/Angel/Zahara. That Enrique finds out more than he bargained for is a given in an Almodovar film. That he unlocks a Pandora's Box of secrets, recriminations and corruptions and then quickly closes the lid to seal them up again signifies a filmmaker who is practicing the fine Art of showing rather than telling and explaining.

"Bad Education" is writer/director Pedro Almodovar's remarkably creative comment on sexual abuse among Roman Catholic clergy, but it is far from being straightforward or confined to one theme. The film weaves a complex tale of exploitation, deceit, ambition, seduction, and blackmail that places a story within a story and shifts back and forth in time. Sixteen years after they attended school together, Ignacio Rodriguez (Gael Garcia Bernal) visits Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), who was his closest friend when they were 10 years old. Enrique is now a famous film director in the midst of a minor creative crisis. Ignacio is an ambitious actor looking for a job, and he has brought a short story he wrote based on their childhood experiences for Enrique's consideration. The story, entitled "The Visit", tells of a female impersonator named Zahara who by chance meets his old schoolmate Enrique, whom he loved as a boy. Zahara is eager to see Enrique again, but after he has carried out an important errand: Zahara goes to the chapel at his old school to blackmail a priest, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), who abused him as a boy. Enrique the director thinks the story would make a splendid film, but he soon discovers that nothing is quite as it seems.

With Gael Garcia Bernal playing both a "real" character and a fictional character that is a representation of a real character who is played by someone else; a chain of blackmail that begins in reality, continues in fiction, and then invades reality again; a fictional murder that mirrors a real one; and everything that goes around seems to come around, "Bad Education" risks being too clever for its own good at times. All of these twists and ironies are orchestrated to create structural and thematic symmetry, but they are interesting and convincing. The film's vibrant purples, oranges, reds, and teals look fantastic. Almodovar has a rare ability to make bright colors leap off the screen without being at all overbearing.

"Bad Education" gets reflexive when the characters attend a film noir marathon and declare, "It's as if all the films were talking about us." The word "noir" pops up conspicuously in another scene as well. I don't know how that was intended, but it's probably a good thing that the reference comes across as funny rather than self-conscious. That's not to deny the film's "noirness". Gael Garcia Bernal is an inspired homme fatal. And "Bad Education" is unlike other Almodovar films in that none of the characters are empathetic, except perhaps the children.

With their requisite sex, drugs, and transsexuals, Pedro Almodovar's films aren't to everyone's taste. But, for Almodovar fans, "Bad Education" is a winner. It's a pleasure to watch this twisted tale unfold. In Spanish with English subtitles.

The DVD (Columbia Tristar 2005 release): Bonus features include 2 featurettes, 2 deleted scenes, a "Photo Gallery" of poster art, and an audio commentary by writer/director Pedro Almodovar. "Red Carpet Footage from the AFI Film Festival" (18 minutes) includes some interviews intercut with film clips as well as Almodovar's introductory speech at AFI Fest. "Making of Bad Education" is just 2 minutes of unnarrated behind-the-scenes footage. The audio commentary by Pedro Almodovar is quite detailed and interesting. Almodovar provides scene-by-scene and occasionally shot-by-shot analysis of characters, story, structure, themes, and many other details. The commentary is in Spanish with English subtitles and is among the most useful audio commentaries I have found on DVD.

I was shocked to see digital censoring of a scene in this movie.
In one scene, which was actually tame when I originally viewed it at the movies, was totally blurred digitally for about 1 full minute. This ruined the movie for me. Don't buy the R Rated version.

Homophobes beware, this unfortunately will make you physically sick or uncomfortable at any rate. But if you are comfortable with your own hetero sexuality, then you are in for a treat & a stimulating cinematic experience.

First a word about Sarita Montiel. How incorrect to compare her to Mae West. A better comparison would be equal parts Natalie Wood & Jennifer Lopez, both sexy & beautiful brunettes. Both her singing & beauty make it worthwhile to explore her music & film catalogue which are both extensive, if not in Amazon as far as films are concerned, then use google.com to find her rarer films, esp. the one which the boys are seeing when they have their "sinful" little moment, "Esa Mujer." "La Violetera" is an essential film of hers, as well.

Pray it isn't so, but if Almodovar never makes another film, his cannon will have been more than complete with this crowning masterpiece. It's almost as if Almodovar has been patiently making films about straight women & their day-to-day angst (Women on the Verge..., Tie me up, Tie me Down, & Kika). Or including everyone he can, straight men in love with silent women (Talk to her). Or impotent men obsessed with revenge (Live Flesh). Now that he has the international acclaim, he can make the film he wanted "Law of Desire" to be, but as he was then a relative unknown in world cinema, he had to wait 20 years for the time to be right for the audacity to make a film like this.

This is one to cherish for years to come as a funny, erotic, complex & thrilling film that will only leave you at dreamtime if you have conquered the dream-making machine itself.

What a really great film! Almodovar treats us to layers upon layers of stories and twists of plot. Everytime a new character enters the story, we see a whole new side of the story. The film also has wonderful twists of direction, for example when you realize the scenes of the drag queen robbing the church are part of a movie, starring one of the characters acting as himself, but who actually is his brother. SOund convoluted? It certainly is and you will enjoy trying to figure out this dark film.

So what is it about? I have to say that I think the film is about becoming different people to manipulate and survive. Yet, Almodovar also seems to be warning us that when someone becomes what we want, we should probably suspect blackmail and manipulation. If it is too good to be true, it probably isn't true.

Gael Garcia Bernal plays an actor, who gets to play himself, but actually it is his brother, whom he kills in reality and then plays in the movies. To move ahead he is 'seduced' by an ex-priest who years before molested his older brother. Now why would a beautiful young man film his older middle-aged trick during lovemaking, especially his face, unless it was to blackmail him later?

Gradually we see that Juan, the actor, becomes the lover of a famous director to win a role in a movie. However, the director, Enrique Godel, is so used to manipulating and using others that he has little trouble kicking out Juan in the end. Even though we see Godel having sex with Juan, we are still not convinced he is gay - he is too slippery to catch.

Almodovar realizes that to reinvent ourselves, we require a story, but just as important, to be manipulated, blackmailed, and exploited, you must fall into that story also. Pretty people create dangerous territory.

Pedro Almodovar has to be one of the most original and best film directors working today. His latest movie, BAD EDUCATION, is a joy to behold. The photography is stunning from the opening credits to the end of the movie. Shot in beautiful color, many of the frames literally are worthy of framing. Almodovar is one of those rare directors whose films are so visual that they would never translate to any other medium. I'm thinking now, for instance, of the aerial shots of the youngsters doing exercises where the pictures literally become works of art.

Gael Garcia Bernal (Angel/Juan/Zahara) of THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES and THE CRIME OF FATHER AMARO also is a living, moving work of art reminding us that a thing of beauty truly is a joy forever. He's not a bad actor/actress either. As he does so often, Almodovar teases the viewer with female impersonators so real that we aren't always certain as to which sex we are seeing. Then there's the story/book within the film, the film within the film, mistaken identity and a swimming pool scene between Bernal and Fele Martinez who plays Enrique that is hotter than Kansas in August -- and perfectly natural-- and apparently the reason for the movie's NC-17 rating. (Only in America would a man's naked butt cause a film to get such a rating while we can see Nicole Kidman's beautiful naked front, back and both sides in a totally gratuituous scene in EYES WIDE SHUT for an R rating only.)

It is always exciting and so visually invigorating to see an Almodovar film. His latest is certainly no exception.

I can take or leave most early Almodóvar films, Atame, Qué he hecho yo..., Mujeres al borde..., etc. but since Carne Trémula (Live Flesh, 1997), I've enjoyed every one. His films during the eighties and early nineties were energetic diatribes rallying against Franco's repression, filling the screen with gaudy images of debauchery and violence designed to keep el Generalisimo revolving in his ornate tomb. In his most recent films the traditional leitmotifs of repression, sexuality, violence and revenge continue, but the desire to offend with graphic, almost cartoon, imagery has given way to a new-found subtlety in how societal taboos are confronted. And sometimes this subtlety can be even more powerful.

In Bad Education Almodóvar tackles paedophile priests and the tragic effects on one boy in particular. It's hard to describe the non-linear plot which has you trying to work out exactly what's real, what's fiction, and who's who, without giving too much away. Half the fun of the film is piecing the parts together. But it's gratifying to know that by the final scene it all gels together perfectly.

Gael Garcia Bernal is the centerpiece here and he turns in astounding performances playing several characters including Sara Montiel impersonator, Zahara, and abuse survivor Ignacio (or is he?...). He's involved in pretty much every homoerotic scene in the film, which may or may not be a selling point. I don't think I could watch the Motorcycle Diaries in the same way again, having now seen Che Guevara in drag fellating a passed-out drunk in a motel.

Although abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church's finest isn't new cinematic territory, Almodóvar's direction and ability to evince career-making performances from his cast lifts this high above the norm. All non-homophobic lovers of dark tales of obsession, revenge and mystery will enjoy this film.

Pedro Almodovar is a master at what no other director can achieve, bringing out the simpathetic side of the most tragic and obscure scenes and characters.
If there is something this movie lacks is female characters and is a pity: no other director in the world can get inside of a woman's flesh the way he does and direct the most natural representations of women in all of their different facets.
Bad Education is about the trials and tribulations of an abused child, his cinical and damaged brother, a director hooked on an early infatuation and the priest who touches or destroys their lives. Gael Garcia confirms his strong perfomance, both as a tormented hetero forced to enter the homo lifestyle. Jimenez Cacho delivers one of the strongest and most haunting performances in cinema history representing a very rigid priest who gives in to his most obscure desires.
Almodovar ties strong perfomances, colorful characters, cartoonish sets and takes the viewer in a very noir trip to the sexual drives of a very damaged group, accomplishing what he always do, show the lighter and darker sides of the most terrible situations.

With All About My Mother and Talk To Her, Pedro Almodovar explored themes of love, loss and redemption. Almodovar continues to explore these themes in Bad Education, his first full-fledged gay themed film since Law of Desire. Bad Education is a loosely remade adaptation of Law of Desire. It uses similar characters and situations but tells a completely different story. Unfolding like an elaborate Hitchcock thriller, we're thrust into a world of lies, deception, blackmail, mistaken identities and murder. At the core of this film is a gay love story between two schoolmates, Enrique and Ignacio that is thwarted by jealous pedophile priest, Father Manolo but there are so many layers to Bad Education, stories within stories, that at times it's a swirling eddy of suspenseful tension that unfolds like a piece of origami. Another theme in Almodovar's last two films that is also explored in Bad Education is exposing the human aspects of despicable characters causing the viewer to sympathize in spite of everything. How can you not feel sorry for Father Manolo as he tearfully says goodbye to Juan in the pouring rain? Yes, he's a despicable character but he's also human, and that's what Almodovar shows us, the human element that drives people to do what they do. There is so much going on in Bad Education that I highly recommend a second viewing to absorb all of the nuances of yet another brilliant Almodovar film. Highly recommended but not for the homophobic.