Alexandr Beran & Danielle Eberhand: All about my Mother

Pedro Almodóvar begins the film All About My Mother by introducing us to the boy, Esteban, who aspires to become a great writer and to learn about the father his mother, Manuela, never told him about.  The viewer gets a look at the 17 year old and how him and his mother live a familiar life where birthdays and TV dinners together are top priority. On Esteban’s seventeenth birthday, after seeing the play A Streetcar Named Desire, he is run over while attempting to chase down the taxi driving the play’s star actress for an autograph.  Dealing with the trauma, and watching as the nursing ward she works in gives away her dead boy’s heart, Manuela moves back to Barcelona from Madrid to pursue Esteban’s father and to reunite with the wild group she left to raise her son eighteen years ago.

There in Barcelona, Manuela meets back up with Agrado, a transvestite involved in the prostitution culture and we quickly see where the roots of our strong central character developed. Manuela is thrust back into lives in need of guidance.

Almodóvar visually does a wonderful job in telling this story.  The locations are beautiful and no shot is left meaningless.  The use of red is one that can easily be seen through out the film; be it the clothes the characters are wearing, the décor in the background or more prominently, the HIV that affects the blood of several of our central characters. It seems to be a type of Rhythmic montage.  You get use to seeing red in every shot and when red isn’t present it’s almost as if the music haults.

           

            At the end of the film Almodóvar leaves us with the message ‘To all actresses who have played actresses. To all women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother’.  The film is clearly dedicated to those who go through hardships no matter what their walks of life may be, and that these people need a mother character, regardless of relation; and that mothers can be those that are strong only in appearance, as if acting for the benefit of others.  We may not need to see the text on screen, but hey, who doesn’t love a message written in stone?

            All About My Mother is a wonderfully made film with dynamic characters and a story line that forces you to see the journey all the way through.  You want Manuela to find Lola and tell him about their son. When she does, it becomes apparent that Lola’s character, while made almost villainous by how he touched the lives of those we come into contact with throughout the film, is just as vulnerable and empathetic as those we have made the journey with.

In terms of how it was shot, All About My Mother appears to be a Spanish soap opera made for the big screen, yet so successful that you wouldn’t even know it is one.