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Special Features
- 8 films, including: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Talk to Her, The Flower of My Secret, Live Flesh, Law of Desire, Matador, Bad Education
- Bonus disc with three exclusive featurettes
- 8 postcards
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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All About My Mother After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. ----Bret Fetzer
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Talk to Her
Writer-director Pedro Almodóvar makes another masterpiece with Talk to Her, his first film since the wonderful All About My Mother. Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is in love with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who is gored by a bull and sent into a coma. In the hospital, Marco crosses paths with Benigno (Javier Camara), a male nurse who looks after another coma patient, a young dancer named Alicia (Leonor Watling). From Benigno's gentle attentiveness to Alicia, Marco learns to take care of Lydia... but from there, the story goes in directions that deftly manage to be sad, hopeful, funny, and creepy, sometimes at the same time. The rich human empathy of Almodóvar's recent films is passionate, heartbreaking, intoxicating--there aren't enough adjectives to praise this remarkable filmmaker, who is at the height of his powers. Talk to Her is superb, with outstanding performances from all involved. --Bret Fetzer
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The Flower of My Secret
Pedro Alomodóvar made this misfired, rambling comedy about a romance novelist (Marisa Paredes) whose crumbling marriage has left her depressed and unable to work. At a low point, she writes a scathing indictment of her own books (which are penned under another name), with no one realizing critic and author are one and the same. Almodóvar ( Law of Desire) has the start of a great idea here, and for once, he's direct about his sympathy for a character. But nothing else about The Flower of My Secret is so clear. Despite its unusual allegiance to the straightforward "women's films" of the 1950s, this movie blows it by becoming needlessly complicated over extraneous junk, forcing one to grope in the dark for Almodóvar's point. -- Tom Keogh
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Bad Education
Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. -- Steve Wiecking
More Stills from Pedro Almodovar Classics Collection(click for larger image)
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 Songs of Almodóvar CD |  Volver |  The Films of Pedro Almodóvar |
Customer Reviews
Starting with films from the late 80s, Almodovar uses colorful imagery and melodramatic acting to create some very personal films about love, desire and sex. Often done in an over-the-top, almost soap opera style, these films are instantly recognizable due to Almodovar's distinctive visual flair. All three films from the 80s showcase a young Banderas. "Matador" is a sly black comedy featuring an ex-bullfighter who ties death and killing with sexual excitement. "Law of Desire" is a seriocomic look at sexual desire and obsession that crosses various gender lines. And "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" was Almodovar's international breakthrough (and Oscar nominee for Foreign Film) that manages to be a madcap and outrageous comedy and an insightful character study.
The middle films include "The Flower of my Secret"--perhaps my least favorite in the set--about a novelist who wishes to change her life at any cost. "Live Flesh" features Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz in a complex story of how violence and sacrifice can link people together. Both films are interesting, if not altogether successful.
And the last three films of the set showcase a more mature side of Almodovar. The Oscar winning "All About My Mother" starts with a son's tragic death, and takes the wonderful Cecilia Roth on a spiritual journey that redefines life and her place in it. "Talk To Her" tells the story of two men who bond while their girlfriends lie in comas--this won Almodovar an Academy Award for Screenwriting and a Directing nod, as well. And "Bad Education," with Gael Garcia Bernal, is an homage to Hitchcock examining the results of religious upbringing and sexual abuse.
Of course, anyone who knows Almodovar knows that these brief descriptions do nothing to highlight the complexity of these films. All of the films develop interesting characterizations and the way the various characters interact, combat, and collide is a showcase for the genius that is Almodovar's writing. Wildly funny, wickedly tragic, confrontationally sexual--Almodovar is an adult filmmaker working at the top of his game. Please treat yourself. Not every film is perfect, but this set in an excellent primer to the important work of a major writer and director. It's not to be missed. KGHarris, 01/07.
I'm most excited about this set due to the inclusion of 'Law of Desire', which I have never seen and have not been able to find a copy of locally.
Pedro's films are beautiful, messy, sad, hilarious and just about any other adjective you can think of.
Those who have seen his films will no doubt add this to their collection and understand my love of anything Pedro.
Those movie lovers who have not seen some or all of his work, will most definately want to add this set to their collection and I hope that they will introduce new fans to Pedro Almodovar's brilliant work!
peace :o)
Certainly one of the most lauded of international filmmakers, Pedro... Read more
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