La Mala Educación - Schlechte Erziehung

One of the most consistently great directors I've come across continues to amaze me with his wonderful blend of surreal and artistic beauty within a narrative you'd expect from a soap opera or trashy romance novel. Brilliant storytelling interweaving back and forth between past and present and a masterful way of bringing the truth to light. Gael García Bernal gives a world class performance and the rest of the cast follows suit. A truly fantastic and terrifyingly mesmerising film.

It is a very good film, although not as absolutely great as "Todo sobre my madre" and "Hable con ella"... Maybe because "Mala education" is sadder and darker than the previous Almodòvar films, the theme (the child abuse during college years) is disturbing and depressing, of course.

Almodòvar chooses this time a "noir" story. Enrique, a young movie director, looks for ideas for his next film. By chance he meets Ignacio, an old fellow of the college and his first love. Ignacio gives him a tale written by him, about the sexual abuses on him made by a priest during his childhood, in the college. This will be the inspiration for Enrique's movie, but the director will discover another dramatic truth...

In this film the gay element -which exists in all the Almodòvar's movies- comes back, stronger than in his last films. But above all there's the child rape problem, this is one of the most delicate themes the Spanish director has ever talked about. And naturally "Mala educacion" is one of his most tragic films. Whereas in the previous movies Almodòvar always let a place for hope, with this film it's not the case. That's why it is a very difficult tale to watch.

Cinematography is excellent, the music as well (with many recalls to the Sixties songs). Actors are also very good. For Gael Garcia Bernal (we saw him recently in "Motorcycle diaries") this is another solid effort. He portrays Ignacio, he enters the Almodòvar world with all the ambiguity required.

In "La Mala Educación", Almodóvar is very serious and too dark and tragic, when comparing to his previous movies. There are many usual elements, such as the attack to the Catholic Church, gays, travesties, homosexual intercourse, child abuse etc., but not in his common ironical, colorful and funny way; instead, the story is developed in a very bitter context. The screenplay magnificently discloses the plot, with a story inside another story, mixing "reality" with fiction; the direction of Pedro Almodóvar is excellent as usual; and Gael Garcia Bernal proves his versatility as an outstanding actor. Although being a great film, I do not dare to recommend "La Mala Educación" for any audiences. However, fans like me of this great Spanish director will certainly like it a lot. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Má Educação" ("Bad Education")

With 'La Mala Educación' Pedro Almodóvar has surpassed himself. It's a very intelligent film with wisely-chosen actors. Gael García Bernal is simply magnificent in portraying three very different characters. This goes to show that he's not only got looks but also a great talent. It couldn't have been easy for him, especially when doing the role of Zahara! Fele Martínez is also very good as Enrique, Ignacio's beloved childhood friend. A round of applause goes to the young Ignacio as well. One can see the anxiety in his eyes when Father Manolo approaches him. The latter's frustration is very clearly brought out in the direction of certain scenes by Almodóvar. Definitely not a film to miss!

This is a difficult film to write about. For one thing, to describe the plot would be to give away the twists and thus spoil its surprises; but for another, it's impossible to take a great work of art and put it into words. That said, here goes:

Truth be told, it was the promise of Gael Garcia Bernal (whom I've loved since "Y Tu Mama Tambien") in drag that piqued my interest in seeing "Bad Education." The only other Almodovar movie I'd seen before this was "Talk to Her," which I was on the fence about, but if Gael Garcia Bernal was involved, I was happy to give Almodovar another shot. (Interestingly, "Bad Education" has given me a new appreciation of "Talk to Her." The two films share a lot of themes -- false identity and self-creation, the willful self-deception and fantasy of falling in love, the spiritualization of aesthetic beauty -- not to mention a hypnotic use of music, an indifferent attitude towards women, and a few actors I recognized.)

Almodovar's genius in both "Bad Education" and "Talk to Her" is his ability to set the scene, stringing the audience along, lulling it into a sense of comprehension and security, and then suddenly turning the tables with a twist of such dizzying magnitude that the mind, reeling, forced to give up on trying to understand, must just relax and allow the movie to take over -- miraculously, all without leaving the audience feeling manipulated. In "Bad Education," he takes this device to breathless, upper-atmospherical levels, for with each twist, the film takes on a new genre.

It begins as a tender coming-of-age story, interspersed with boarding-school flashbacks reminiscent of such French fare as Louis Malle's "Au revoir, les enfants" and François Truffaut's "L'argent de pôche," although I sensed a lot of Fellini in the mod outfits, feathery hairstyles, and picturesque bicycle-strewn streets. Probably the most romantic segment of the film, it alludes even to "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (Henry Mancini's "Moon River" hasn't been employed so creatively since last year's "Angels in America"). Indeed, the performances are so endearing, the cinematography so warm and luminous, that this segment of "Bad Education" could easily exist as its own self-contained movie. I was fully prepared to embrace it and love it as a sincere period romance.

But without warning, the film turns itself upside down and becomes an exhilarating meta-commentary in the vein of Charlie Kaufman's "Adaptation" (complete with crocodiles). Romance turns to farce and tragedy to comedy as the self-consciously cinematic style gives way to the silliness of a movie-within-a-movie.

Unlike "Adaptation," though, "Bad Education" goes on, and in this way it retains its heart and soul. Further twists are introduced, and the movie metamorphoses into a mystery, a thriller, a dark rain-soaked noir -- by the end, I felt as though I had just lived through a hundred years of cinema history, all condensed into less than two rich, glorious hours.

So what holds it all together? The answer is Gael Garcia Bernal. He is a true movie star -- divinely beautiful, dazzlingly charismatic, with that all-important aura of mystery -- and though he virtually plays five characters as his character transforms along with the film, his strikingly calm blue-green eyes and sensual mouth provide a steady center for the madness around him. Despite the rumors of his abusive treatment on set at the hands of Almodovar, Garcia Bernal has a dignity (without which "Bad Education" would collapse under the weight of its own intelligence) that no amount of makeup, wigs, dresses, induced anorexia, or fake Spanish lisping can mask.

"Bad Education" was one of the most intense movie-going experiences I've ever had, and if its future doesn't hold critical acclaim and recognition as a classic, then there's no justice in the world.