Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón

All the energy put in Pepi... is enough to go and see it. That a young director show so much enthusiasm is a litmus test to see if he really loves his story, his actors... and the medium, cinema at large. Far from all those neurotic self-centered so-called authors who will only deal with their obsessions through intimate and intricate tales.

Sure, Almodovar gives so much in the first half (i.e. till Luci leaves her home) that the following is not so surprising and exciting. But he learnt later to build up his stories mastering pace all along. As for then he steps out from underground flicks yet displaying great skills.

He will be back.

Felix Rotaeta rapes Carmen Maura. She decides to get even by getting his wife to leave him.

Pedro Almodóvar's second feature is full of kinks and weirdos in a Spain where Francisco Franco is dead. Yet I find a naivete to this one that I didn't in his next movie -- his first feature is not readily available. There's plenty of drugs and non-normative sex, with sado-masochism and lesbianism and people rutting in punk rock clubs. Yet there's a tentative attitude to the way the director handles it, as if he's an anthropologist observing the natives, not yet ready to draw any conclusion. There's plenty to shock a conservative audience, but it lacks the deliberate, in-your-face offensiveness that he would later assume. The characters are wearily ironic about the situations they find themselves in.

This is the power of filmaking. It proves that passion for an art can outstand the difficulties. It might be cheap (it looks cheap) but the redeeming value is the hilarity, the originality of the ideas, the true passion of a true artist.

Director/writer Almodovar, in this first full length, presents us with his absurd unreal world. This is partly a relentless satire of S/M personalities, but intentionally unrealistic and much more. A world where lust is orgasmic and corruption of ethics and loss of dignity are ... funny! This is by no means for those who are offended easily. This is a movie which disregards ever good manner, every culture's rules. Almodovar humour is heretic. If you're up for something different, weird f##ked up humour, then come and join, welcome to Almodovar world. This is not quite recommended to "Talk to her" fans. But if you like early Almodovar, it is essential to search for this, to see how everything started.

'Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)' is Pedro Almodóvar's first commercially released film. Shot on a shoestring budget equivalent to about only 3000 euros, this transgressive affair took around a year-and-a-half of weekend work from a volunteer crew to come to life. Concerned principally with being as taboo as possible, the piece is still boundary pushing even when viewed through a modern lens; just imagine how shocking it would have been when it first released a mere handful of years after Spain's infamous dictator Francisco Franco finally kicked the bucket and the country could (at least attempt to) progress past his fascist rule. It serves as a reminder that the people it depicts, with all their socially unacceptable appearances, desires and otherwise unexpected kinks, have always existed even when those that despise them seek to stamp them out. The plot-light picture may have its flaws, but at its best it's a celebration of sex and freedom and a disregard for restrictive tradition that sizzles with a punky energy and is already a strong indicator for what sort of stories interest its director the most. Indeed, it's pretty fully formed in terms of being unmistakably Almodóvar, even if it is rough around the edges and doesn't even come close to the heights of later entries in his repertoire. It's a shocking, trashy feature by design, but its need to be shocking and trashy often outweighs its aspirations of being cohesive and compelling. Some of it is rather off-putting in its flippancy, with sexual assault and domestic violence being portrayed in a way that just feels a bit poorly handled. That the characters don't react to these things the way we expect them to doesn't mean the movie is condoning them, but it doesn't do enough to condemn them either. Ultimately, though, this is the sort of transgressive experience that appeals to a specific sensibility and primarily serves as an act of rebellion. It's dodgy at times and it isn't massively compelling overall, but it's also relatively entertaining and admirably disinterested in so-called good taste. If you know what you're getting into, you might just have a good time.

Actually this is my favorite Almodóvar film because he wasn't trying to please or appease anyone with this movie, he just says what he wants to say and does it in a very original and (at the time) provocative way. A bit dated now but still a brilliant deconstruction of Spanish culture with zany characters taken straight out of a John Waters movie. It's also the only one of his movies where Almodóvar (looking VERY young) makes an appearance himself (as the judge of a penis size competition no less).

Considering that this movie was made in less than a week with a budget of around $5,000, it's actually quite well done. The cinematography is probably the weak point but the story is great and the characters a parody of everything good and bad about Spain in the 80's. It is full of in-your-face-irreverent kind of humor as well as great little cultural bits and references that only native Spanish speakers or people familiar with Spanish culture will get. One of my favorites is the song "Murciana Marrana" that Alaska and her punk rock band sing as an ode to her new found lesbian lover and repressed house wife - hilarious lyrics and pure 80s punk rock at its best. The movie itself is really genius and despite some technical shortcomings, it's a real gem.