Customer Reviews

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Widescreen Collector's Edition [VHS]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Pedro Almodovar followed up the success of his international hit, "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," with this wild, erotic comic fantasy starring his long-time leading man and soon-to-be Hollywood star, Antonio Banderas.

Fresh from his incarceration from an asylum in Madrid, Banderas plays a ex-lunatic who leaves in search of the object of his affection, a popular Spanish porn star (played by Victoria Abril).

After meeting, then kidnapping her, Banderas' character is more determined to make her fall in love with him, and does whatever he needs to do in order to win her love. However, Abril, refuses to love a man who has made her a prisoner of her own home. The title, which is a translation of its' original Spanish title, "Atame!," reflects the method Banderas uses to coax and subdue Abril's character in falling in love with him (he ties her up in her bedroom).

While the story seems far-fetched at times, the chemistry that Banderas and Abril emit makes the film work. Supporting actresses Maria Barranco and Rosie de Palma lend their unique comic talents in helping the director weave a tale of love and desire that only Almodovar can tell.

Upon release in the United States, this film was slapped with the newly created and feared NC-17 rating due to his sexual themes and minor violence. Compared to R rated films of the present such as "Basic Instinct" and "The Matrix," this film is tame. Refusing to edit his work, Almodovar criticized the MPAA for its' decision to market the film with an NC-17 rating. Due to this rating, the film did not do too well at the box office as expected.

This film marks Banderas' final film in Spain, before departing to the United States to start his successful career in Hollywood. The film contains glimpses of Banderas' backside, as well as a whole lot of Abril's figure, and the sexual scenes are soft-core porn quality. If you are offended by glimpses of the naked body or sexual themes, then skip this film.

"Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" is one of Almodovar's rare gems. As a true master of the Spanish cinema, his work truly reflects his gifted talent. A great film with a comic ending!

Perhaps Pedro Almodovars'most talked about film. This Video starring Antonio Banderas as a psychiatric patient obsessed with a former porno star / prostitute, played by beautiful Victoria Abril, is not one of Almodovars' best films, but definately worth a look.

Ricky (Banderas), recently released psychiatric patient, kidnaps Marina (abril) and is convinced that he can get her to fall in love with him. Banderas and Abril champion their roles, as the psycho who just needs love and the hooker with a big heart, which fits perfectly with Almodovars directorial style. Some viewers will consider this "over the top" while others, familiar with Almodovars work, will find it very entertaining, quite funny and a must see! The film is loaded with frantic, frenzied bondage scenes as well as finely exploiting the sexual tension between the leading actors. Sometimes wonderfully erotic and sometimes cartoonishly comic this film is a fun avant-garde romp. Oh yes and did I say Abril is a beautiful women - you can't keep your eyes off her. Oh and make sure you get the "unrated" version. You don't want to miss the controversial "bathtub scene" involving Abril and that naughty toy submarine ! Yep, that's right! ... Enjoy !

If you are easily turned off my dark humor, this movie is not for you. This movie can evoke strong feelings, so either you will love it or hate it. I am one on the I loved it side. This movie is by Aldomovar, a director that often pushes the normal limits of society. Where else can a drug addicted movie star, become kidnapped and fall in love with her captor (played by Antonio Bandaras). A very enjoyable movie for the right person.

This is definitely one of Almodovar's best films, it kept me smiling and laughing out loud throughout. In typical Almodavrian fashion, absurdism is used to disguise some fairly audacious statements:

1. Love = bondage, both men and women need to feel that they "have no choice" in being with and loving the other person.

2. Love = addiction/drug, if you don't have one you will inevitably substitute the other for it.

3. Love = inescapably absurd, and absurdly inescapable.

This could've easily turned into an over-the-top or overly bitter and cynical farce. Instead, in keeping with Almodovar's unique genius, he chooses an ending that is both hilariously absurd and irresistibly light and heartwarming at the same time. A sort of *romantic* black humor, if you will.

Victoria Abril and Antonio Banderas both put in world-class performances, backed by a strong cast peppered with some longtime Almodovar reliables. Too bad Banderas has sold his soul to Hollywood in the last few years, he did his best work in small European films like this.

Like all truly good films, this one only gets better with repeated viewings.

I watched Banderas in his European movies before he became an American movie star. I really liked all of his work then whereas now his work is very uneven in quality. "Evita" is the only work of his I've admired since his "conversion." This film was his very best prior to his coming to America. I'll confess that director Pedro Aldomovar's 2 most commerical films, of which this is one, appeal to me more than his other films. The other is "Woman On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown." Perhaps this is because these two works involve heterosexual love affairs and are also comedic and satiric. They're broadly played but enjoyable for a bigger audience than Aldomovar's work normally gets. Banderas is incredibly sexy in this film as the patient fresh from a mental hospital who wants a regular married life and seeks to find it with a porno star woman. Bringing these two together for a black comedy was a stroke of genius. The Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down in the title refers to the woman's liking kinky stuff and Banderas's literally tying her up and down to the bed. This is a very sexy, romantic even, film and for those who feel Aldomovar's films typically are aimed to please only gays and not straights, this film should convert them to becoming fans of his considerable talent. It will also make them sad that Banderas decided to become an American movie star.

When originally writing this film, Pedro Almodovar asked himself the question "Can love be calculated or sketched the same way one could study for an exam?" This is certainly the conviction of the Antonio Banderas character who seeks to capture his former lover and eventually convince her of her love for him. Although one could initially interpret the theme of the film as overtly misogynist - man tries to physically force woman to love him - gender stereotypes are typically subverted in true Almodovarian fashion.

It would seem that the women are the figures of power in this film and both Ricky and wheelchair-bound film director Maximo are at a loss in trying to seduce the object of their desire in any conventional sense. They are both addicted to Marina, but the only thing she's ever been addicted to is heroin. By the end of the film the Antonio Banderas character is almost totally domesticated, making food, cleaning the appartment, making sure Marina has enough drugs etc.

There's also the reference to the Sacred Heart at the beginning of the film and masochism has often been perceived in some of the more archaic rituals of our Roman church.

None of these subtleties were apparantly noticed by the American classification board who initially wanted to give this film an 'X' rating because of playing with toys in the bath! (?)

Pedro Almodovar likes to shake and shock his audience. So, in TIE ME UP ! TIE ME DOWN !, we have a Victoria Abril giving up underclothes in her everyday life, the same Victoria playing in her bath with a little suggestive toy. We are also dealing with a doctor offering drugs to her patients and with an obsessed director in a wheelchair. But, curiously enough, we are not shocked at all.

We are not shocked because TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN is a movie about innocence. Antonio Banderas can steal cars, buy drugs and even kidnap Victoria, we forgive him because he does it not for his own sake but only to please Victoria Abril he's madly in love with. And the drug addicted and ... star Victoria does finally have a golden heart and will cry when Antonio will come back with blood all over his face after a fight with Rossy de Palma's gang.

Victoria's sister, the assistant producer of Francisco Rabal, has the difficult task to impersonate reason and reality in this fairy tale for adults I've liked a lot. Too bad there is only a trailer as bonus feature with this Anchor Bay DVD.

A DVD zone movida.

As an editorial columnist in my college newspaper, I constantly addressed feminist issues, particularly the depiction of women in music, television, and film. But Almodovar is my all-time favorite director and this film(one of the first to be rated NC-17) is a gem, controversy notwithstanding. It's hilarious fun with recovering mental-patient Antonio Banderas, recovering junkie porn star Victoria Abril, and a bit part by the inimitable Rossy De Palma as a drug dealer with an attitude. A twisted love story with a politically incorrect ending, this ranks as one of my Almodovar faves.

I've been a fan of Almodóvar for a number of years, since I watched Todo sobre mi madre when it was showing in the cinema in France.

This is typical Almodóvar fare: there is no black-or-white, there are no good guys or bad guys, just a bunch of characters with their various motivations, flaws, peccadillos, deviancies.

There are sad moments, tender moments and laugh-out-loud moments. And a bit of sex, violence, and drug use in an ordinary, slightly dysfunctional Spain of the 1980s. at one point the main character, Ricky, is turned away from a pharmacy where he is trying to get some prescription pain-killers for Marina's toothache. The pharmacist sends him to the drug peddlars of the town square "you can get anything from them"...

It's a good film and I would have given it four stars, but this DVD is a disappointment; the sub-titling is atrocious! In far too many places there are long bursts of Spanish, say 12 to 15 seconds, with absolutely no subtitling. Then another character speaks, and the subtitling picks up again... I now want to find another version of this, hopefully with French as well as English subtitling so that I'll be able to compare the two sets of subtitles... Three stars, then.

K.

This is an amzing movie, one of the best Almodovar's ever! And it is also worth seeing an Antonio Banderas from his 'pre-Hollywood' age, much, much better than now!