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Product Description

Popular film director Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela) has found a new love in the form of handsome blue-collar Juan (Miguel Molina). Not altogether comfortable with his lifestyle, Juan decides to leave Pablo for a while to contemplate his future. Pablo insists that Juan keep in touch by sending him love letters. Ever the director, he plans to write the letters himself, and have Juan mail them back with his signature. If you think that settles things, you don't know filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. Among the many plot complications in Law of Desire is Pablo's subsequent romance with the possessive Antonio (Antonio Banderas, whose "gay kiss" in the film prompted front-page headlines in the Brazilian press), and Pablo's efforts to film the life story of his sister (Carmen Maura), who started out life as his brother.

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 2.20:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NC-17 (Adults Only)
Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches; 1.6 Ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ 5820726
Director ‏ : ‎ Pedro Almodovar
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 42 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ November 3, 2009
Actors ‏ : ‎ Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura, Eusebio Poncela, Miguel Molina, Rossy de Palma
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, French
Language ‏ : ‎ Unqualified
Studio ‏ : ‎ Sony Pictures Classics
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002M2T1U4
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #185,681 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #3,702 in Foreign Films (Movies & TV)
- #6,901 in Romance (Movies & TV)
- #20,294 in Comedy (Movies & TV)

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Top reviews from the United States

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Well worth looking at, Antonio is awesome.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 19, 2015

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A film by Almodovar! And it is an excellent one too. A screenwriter in Madrid (older man) is in love with Juan, Juan goes away because he doesn't feel the same, Older man meets Antonio Banderas (Super excellent) who obsesses about his new boyfriend to the point of being needy, obtrusive and his owner. Antonio finds out about Juan and well.....you have to watch to see it. This would have been 5 stars for me but for 2 things and they didn't feel right from the start. The screenwriters transgender sister, she just shrieked all the time...really is this how transgendered people have to always be portrayed? And some little girl no idea where she came from. Antonio is exceptional and troubled. Subtitles.

5 people found this helpful

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Adrian Thierry

Lo dudo

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2007

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Not being able to get most of the Almodovar films on dvd for playing on USA dvd players is obnoxious and the only subtitled vhs tapes you can manage to get are video store throw outs which mercifully appear not to have been rented out much. Why no one wanted to watch them is troubling because his films are marvelous- made by someone who loves women, film, writing, music and who champions those who, in the midst of profound societal oppostion, create themselves and the love they deserve and crave.

Law of Desire manages to break my heart and make me feel better about love and lust every time i watch it .When i first saw it, a friend of mine was dying from AIDS so the impact the film has made on me has been enhanced twofold. I try to make everyone I meet watch it and if they do not ' get it' I wonder if they've ever really been in that sort of crazed love that makes all things possible and impossible. As Elvis Costello said, "they say they'd die for love and then they live it out"- here's a story about being able to not live it out.

2 people found this helpful

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Moe Tapers

Early Almodovar

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 7, 2010

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Those familiar with Almodovar's "Bad Education" (2004) will be especially interested in his early treatment (1987) of the same subject. Once again a gay film director becomes sexually involved with a dangerous character played by a reigning stud-muffin---not Gael Garcia Bernal this time but the young Antonio Banderas. And, once again, homosexuality, the Church, modern Madrid, family relationships, transvestism and murder all play a part in the unpredictable plot. The fantasy-flashbacks of "Bad Education" are not present here but there are theater performances that provide their own heightened style. What's more, a number of subsidiary characters (mothers, cops, a doctor) add their quirky input, behaving as if this were THEIR movie and enriching its texture. Additionally, women have a stronger presence than in "Bad Education." Be aware that "Law of Desire" is as sexually explicit as the later film, particularly at the very opening. If memory serves, the English subtitles for the original theatrical release were better (sharper in tone) than those here, But it's great to have it on DVD. (It was previously in an Almodovar collection, but not available by itself.) For those not familiar with "Bad Education," I'd suggest getting both---they make an unbeatable double feature: dark, witty, knowing and obviously the expression of a master film-maker.

4 people found this helpful

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Sonoma's Davey

Didn't hold my interest

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 3, 2021

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This early film is of strong historical significance, which is why I bought it. But I found it uneven, and by the time I was halfway through, I was paying less attention to it. The romance isn't as passionate as it could be, the suspense was predictable, and the terror very muted. Interesting to see Banderas at the start of his career.

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Gizella Czene

My Favorite Almodovar Movie and beautiful love triangle

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 3, 2020

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I have this DVD but I still ordered it for someone else to watch. I love this movie. It's a love triangle with amazing performances by Almodovar's usual cast (sans Penelope Cruz). The music, the casting, the scenery, everything is beautiful. Sad. But it is always sad when love is not reciprocated.

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Caveat Emptor

LOTS and LOTS of Baby Antonio B. in tighty-whiteys might be enough for some . . .

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 24, 2017

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Law of Desire is quite possibly the worst of "middle period" Almodovar. Curiously, it was picked by the NYT Streaming column for their 2017 Gay Pride Whatever—which, to the Times, seems to mean when straight guys get off on two chicks making it. Other than Weekend, the best British GLBTQ flick ever made, the Grey Lady appears to be under the delusion that queer cinema = lesbian cinema, which is so seldom true as to be irrelevant. Reportedly, a substantial sampling of lesbians finds hardcore male-on-male sex stimulating. I wouldn't know. But with the exception of rare movies like Lisa Cholodenko's superb High Art that transcend all gender stereotypes, myself, I have yet to talk to the male homosexual who itches to watch two females engage in pornographic sex—a distinctly hetero male pre-occupation w/ ugly and exploitative implications.

The chief, perhaps only, possible pleasure to be gleaned from Law of Desire is a very young Antonio Banderas prancing about whilst clad only in tighty-whiteys. (Actually, make that medium-loose white briefs. There might be an insignificant flash of Antonio's bare arse, but a microsecond of the other dude full frontal, but generally, it all plays loike all-around dull, gay-for pay). The movie has precious little of the rough charm of earlier, ultra-low rent Almodovar and virtually none of the bittersweet insight to be gleaned in the virtuoso director's later work with real budgets.

This train wreck even has one of those dreadfully dated "one or more of the queers must die" endings. Fie on The New York Times! There are dozens of far braver GLBTQT world cinema achievements from unknown directors in far more need of attention than this mediocre, forgettable Almodovar.

Otherwise if Antonio Banderas in his undies is your fixation, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down is a movie with infinitely more vitality than this turkey.

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Amazon Customer

Probably one of Almodovar's best work.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 28, 2020

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Sensual, raw and provocative. Almodovar is a master at making you feel and emote in his wild and over the top storylines. He has perfected his color palette and music selections. While the plot may seem ridiculous, this movie still makes you dream.

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Top reviews from other countries

schumann_bg

lurid, but Almodovar pulls it off

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 9, 2015

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This was the film that established Almodovar's reputation abroad, and it has to be said it is a very daring melodrama shot with great verve. The story is tightly wrought, passions ride high, it is very homoerotic, and has a brilliant performance from Carmen Maura as the transsexual Tina, looking after the daughter of her lesbian lover, played by a transgender actor. This is just one of many playful meanings the film has, and it is beautifully shot, very Eighties in terms of clothes and lighting, interiors, the music played in clubs. the prevalence of pornographic comics, even. Every shot is exquisitely set up and lit, and the material is so strong, having a magnificent story to tell which builds and builds, and many passing pleasures along the way. Two standout moments are: Tina going into the church where she had sung as a boy, only to find the priest who implicitly had abused her at the organ, to which she sings along like a penitent Magdalene in full makeup and sexy clothes, painted nails etc - a moment of sheer fabulousness - and the famous scene where she is hosed down in the street and goes ecstatic as the jet of water is directed at her. But Eusebio Poncela is also very fine as the main character Pablo, a gentle film director whose films are a bit pornographic, but is sweetness itself, his lover Juan, another touching but sexually conflicted figure filled in in few brush strokes, and the obsessed Antonio, played by Antonio Banderas, who spends half the film is his underpants and looks very good like this, as well as having a number of steamy scenes the like of which you'd never see in Hollywood. It's not just a question of explicitness; the whole screen is suffused with an erotic charge right from the daring opening scene. Between these four roles, and the delirious emotions on display, it is impossible not to be wholly swept up by this, as long as one has no resistance to the themes, because Almodovar doesn't pull any punches, and the actors really put themselves on the line.

6 people found this helpful

dalroth5

One of a pair

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 28, 2016

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This film is often seen as a complement to Matador (written second but produced and released first): in the latter, Almodóvar writes about the relationship between a man and a woman, which although dysfunctional and ultimately deadly to both, is at least heteronormative. In Law of Desire, he instead writes about a gay male love triangle: also a murder / suicide story, but featuring what has become something of a stylistic signature for Almodóvar: a ciswoman actor (Carmen Maura, in a tour de force) playing a transwoman, and a transwoman actor (Bibí Andersen, akas in only a cameo) playing a ciswoman mother. A great film, very funny in places and very clever. Full marks.

One person found this helpful

M. FUSCO

great transfer of a great film

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 8, 2018

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A wonderful HD transfer of one of Almodovar's great breakthrough films. A stunning young Antonio Banderas plays an obsessed psychopath who falls in love with a well-known film director. The best transfer of this historic film available which puts all others to shame. Incredible in blu-ray. Full of the great director's humor, beauty, and humanity. I am so glad to have it available.

Jada

An Excellent Movie

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 6, 2013

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It's always a bit nerve racking when you buy a movie that you remember from many years ago, and thought was excellent. This one doesn't disappoint at all: excellent script, top drawer performances by everyone, and a superb restoration. Buy it!

One person found this helpful

Al

Law of Desire.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 4, 2011

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This was the first Almodova film I saw.
I've seen every one he has made since then,
for me this is still one of his best.
There is enough material in this film to keep
a soap opera going for a year.
Antonio Banderas was at his peak here,
as was Carmen Mura.

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Genre	Foreign, Drama, Romance, Comedy
Format	Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Contributor	Antonio Banderas, Pedro Almodovar, Carmen Maura, Eusebio Poncela, Miguel Molina, Rossy de Palma
Language	Spanish
Runtime	1 hour and 42 minutes

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Law of Desire

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