Attache-moi!

Marina Osorio (Victoria Abril) is a soft-porno star kidnapped in her own apartment by Ricky (Antonio Banderas), a guy who has just left a mental institution. He wants to get married with her. The storyline in this weird love story recalls `The Collector', i.e., a man kidnaps a woman because he is in love with her. But on the contrary of the William Wyler's drama in a cold and isolate farm in an English countryside, the situations in Almodóvar's colorful movie in the center of Madrid are very erotic and funny. For example, the scene when Marina is having a bath in her bathtub is hilarious. This cult movie is certainly not one of the best in Almodóvar´s filmography, but it is mandatory for those who are his fan. My vote is seven.

After all I heard and read about this movie, I think this one of the most commonly misunderstood movies ever. It is not a comedy (although sometimes bizarre). It is NOT a glorification of violence. It is not about S/M or Bondage (which occurs between consenting parties). It's message is NOT that if you tie up and beat a woman, she will love you in return.

This is a movie about two people who are unable to master life on their own. This has led Ricky to the mental ward and Marina to being a drug-addicted porn star, who just happens to have a streak of luck because a movie director is completely obsessed with her. In the end, the two have found each other and it looks as if together, they can find the happiness and home they always were looking for. Beautiful...

Yes, Ricky's method of convincing Marina to love him is horrible and unacceptable. His attitude toward women and life in general is seriously twisted, and he just cannot think of any other way to get what he needs to fulfill his desire of living what he considers an ordinary life. Why does Marina fall for it? Probably because he's the first person who ever seemed to care about her. He fights to get her, he fights to help her. Even if his interest in her is ruthless and possessive, it is a genuine, deep interest and that is what she has been missing all her life.

I found Atame to be a fascinating and remarkable movie. Watch it open-minded and try to look beneath the pure surface of the plot, and you will be moved and captivated by its beauty.

As this film opens Ricky learns that he is to be released from the mental institution that he has been confined to for the last few years. Upon release he immediately sets about finding Marina, a woman he spent the night with after escaping a year previously. Marina is now a 'proper' actress but at the time she met Ricky she was a porn star with a drug problem. Ricky goes to the film set then follows her home; once inside her apartment he knocks her out and ties her up. When she awakens he tells her that it is his intention that she will fall in love with him.

I found this film to be a lot of fun; it is frequently very funny, occasionally very sexy and more than a little bit morally twisted! Victoria Abril and Antonia Banderas are really solid as Marina and Ricky making it is easy to believe their characters' rather different relationship. Early on there is a sense of menace as Ricky kidnaps and threatens Marina, this however is tempered by various more humorous elements such as them needing to get medication for her toothache and Ricky's disguises in a couple of scenes. The way the story is filmed is more in the way of a romantic comedy then anything menacing; lots of bright colours and an airy apartment rather than subdued tones and some stark grey cellar. Some may find the ending rather offensive but if you don't take the film too seriously it is easy to accept and enjoy. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody looking for a 'rom-com' with a twist; it won't be for everybody though thanks to the way our two leads get together.

These comments are based on watching the film in Spanish with English subtitles.

Pedro Almodovar's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" from 1989 is an earlier film from this quirky director. Almodovar's characters are inevitably off the wall and in bizarre situations. This film and its characters are no exception.

"Tie Me Up!" was given an X rating (later NC-17) for a couple of scenes and in the United States at least, it was quite controversial.

The story concerns a recently-released mental hospital patient, Ricky (Antonio Banderas) who kidnaps an ex-porn star, Marina (Victoria Abril) currently making a low-budget horror film. Though the title suggests S&M, there isn't any. Ricky ties her up when he needs to leave the apartment.

An expert in carpentry, locksmithing, and other usable occupations, Ricky had actually been leaving the mental hospital when he felt like it and then returning. During one of those times, he had a one-night stand with Marina.

Deeply in love with her, he stalks her on the film set and, when she doesn't speak to him, confronts her in her apartment, declaring his love and his intention of marrying her and fathering her children. Marina, of course, would like to escape him, but Ricky makes that difficult. A former heroin addict, Marina has a toothache and explains that nothing will help except strong medicine from her doctor up the street. So Ricky handcuffs her to him and they walk to the doctor's apartment, where Marina receives an injection and a prescription.

Later, when she needs more drugs, Ricky goes to the town square to score some and ends up beaten to a pulp. When he returns, Marina is horrified and begins to have real feelings for him.

Meanwhile, her sister Lola (Loles Leon) is worried, believing Marina to have disappeared.

There is a very long sex scene in this film that took 9 hours to film, with Almodovar using the last take.

"Tie Me Up!" launched Banderas in the United States, and this is his last film with Almodovar. He plays Ricky beautifully - as an innocent from a troubled background who will do anything to convince this woman to love him. Abril is a sexy and feisty Marina, and, like Ricky, she is a lost soul trying to find her way. Ricky is an orphan; Abril has a mother, sister, and nephew, but both of them are alone in their worlds.

Despite the title and the sex, this is actually a sweet tale with likable characters. Almodovar often has a bizarre way of telling a story and making a point, but the results, with few exceptions, are well worth it.

An unbalanced but alluring former mental patient (Antonio Banderas) takes a porn star (Victoria Abril) prisoner in the hopes of convincing her to marry him.

How can anyone deny the beautiful, almost dreamlike use of color in this film? Trying to find anything comparable is a challenge. The musicals of Jacques Demy? No, not even those.

"Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" comes from a strong pedigree, as it follows in the myth of Beauty and the Beast and the notion that the savagery of the Beast is, in the presence of Beauty, tamed by gentler feelings. This has been a recurrent theme in films like "King Kong", "Frankenstein" and "Tarzan the Ape Man". Some have even drawn parallels to "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" in that kidnapping can lead to romance.

The soundtrack was composed by Ennio Morricone in the style of a thriller and is reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". This music changes the whole tone. Some consider the film a "dark romantic comedy" and others even say there is a hint of horror in there. Much of the mood relies on the music -- with a lighter tone, this could just be an "offbeat" romantic comedy and not a "dark" one -- there is very little about the film that is dark besides the music.