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TALK
TO HER
Hable con ella
The
story centers on two men who are caring for comatose women. One
of the issues found in this film is what it means to be alive. It
also deals with hope and hopelessness.
Review by Darrel Manson
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CREDITS
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 Directed
by Pedro Almodóvar
Screenplay by Pedro Almodóvar
Javier Cámara .... Benigno
Darío Grandinetti .... Marco Zuloaga
Leonor Watling .... Alicia
Rosario Flores .... Lydia
Mariola Fuentes .... Rosa
Geraldine Chaplin .... Katerina Bilova
Pina Bausch .... Herself
Malou Airaudo .... Herself
Roberto Álvarez .... Doctor
Elena Anaya .... Angela
Lola Dueñas .... Matilde
Adolfo Fernández .... Niño de Valencia
Ana Fernández .... Lydia's Sister
Chus Lampreave .... Concierge
Loles León .... TV Presenter
Fele Martínez .... Alfredo
Helio Pedregal .... Alicia's Father
José Sancho .... Niño de Valencia's Agent
Paz Vega .... Amparo
Produced
by
Agustín Almodóvar .... executive producer
Agustín Almodóvar .... producer
Michel Ruben .... associate producer
Original Music by Alberto Iglesias
Cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe
Film Editing by José Salcedo
Casting by Sara Bilbatúa
Production Design by Antxón Gómez
Art Direction by Antxón Gómez
Set Decoration by Federico G. Cambero
Costume Design by Sonia Grande
MPAA:
Rated R for nudity, sexual content and some language.
Runtime: 112 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
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TRAILERS
AND CLIPS
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CD
SOUNDTRACK
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Talk
to Her (Score)
Alberto Iglesias
Continuing the rewarding collaboration begun on 1995's The Flower
of My Secret, composer Alberto Iglesias infuses director Pedro Almodóvar's
2002 meditation on love, obsession, and loss with a score of quiet,
sophisticated grace. It ranges from the evocative Spanish guitar,
violin, and vocal flourishes of "Hable con Ella" (showcasing
contemporary flamenco stars Vincente Amigo and El Pele) and Brazilian
vocalist Caetano Veloso's gorgeously spare rendition of the international
hit "Cucurrucucu Paloma" to the Latin classicism of Ellis
Regina and Tom Jobim's "Por Toda a Minha Vida" and a slate
of moody string-driven, autumnal orchestral cues. The eight-minute
"El Amante Menguante" for string quartet features compelling,
almost playful modern flourishes while tracks like "Trincheras/Decadence"
and the tense "A Portagayola" suggest a rewarding Spanish
take on Hitchcockian romance and suspense. That it all meshes almost
seamlessly with Purcell's closing "The Plaint: O Let Me Weep"
is ample testimony to the transnational flavor and ever-subtle mastery
Iglesias brings to bear here. --Jerry McCulley
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AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD
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SYNOPSIS
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 The
curtain of salmon colored roses and heavy gold fringing which covers
the stage is pulled back to reveal a Pina Bausch spectacle, "Caf?
M?ller." Among the spectators, two men are sitting together by chance.
They don't know each other. They are Benigno (a young nurse) and Marco
(a writer in his early forties). On the stage, filled with wooden
chairs and tables, two women, their eyes closed and their arms extended,
are moving to the music of "The Fairy Queen," by Henry Purcell. The
piece is so moving that Marco starts to cry. Benigno can see the gleam
of his chance companion's tears, in the darkness of the stalls. He'd
like to tell him that he too is moved by the spectacle but he doesn't
dare.
 Months
later, the two men meet again at "El Bosque," a private clinic where
Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession,
has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking
after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student.
When Marco walks by the door of Alicia's room, Benigno doesn't think
twice before speaking to him. It's the start of an intense friendship...
as lineal as a roller coaster. During this period of suspended time
between the walls of the clinic, the lives of the four characters
will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all
of them towards an unsuspected destiny.
 "Talk
to Her" is a story about the friendship between two men, about loneliness
and the long convalescence of the wounds provoked by passion. It is
also a film about incommunication between couples, and about communication.
About cinema as a subject of conversation. About how monologues before
a silent person can be an effective form of dialogue.  About
silence as "eloquence of the body," about film as an ideal vehicle
in relationships between people, about how a film told in words can
bring time to a standstill and install itself in the lives of the
person telling it and the person listening.
"Talk to Her" is a film about the joy of narration and about words
as a weapon against solitude, disease, death and madness. It is also
a film about madness, about a type of madness so close to tenderness
and common sense that it does not diverge from normality. "All About
My Mother" ended with a theater curtain opening to reveal a darkened
stage.
"Talk to Her" begins with the same curtain, also opening. The characters
in "All About My Mother" were actresses, imposters or women with an
ability to act on and off the stage; "Talk to Her" is about narrators,
narrators who recount their own lives, men who talk to whoever can
hear them and above all to those who can't. |
REVIEW
by
DARREL MANSON
Pastor,
Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch01198
Darrel
has an incredible love and interest in the cinematic arts. His reviews
usually include independent and significantly important film.
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 Talk
to Her is a story of love, loneliness, loss and life.
From the trailers I saw for Talk to Her, I feared it would
be fairly esoteric and surrealistic. However, it was a pleasure to
watch and easy to get into the story.
The story centers on two men who are caring for comatose women. Benigno
is a nurse who works full time caring for Alicia, a dancer who has
been injured in an accident. Marco is dealing with the recent injury
to his lover Lydia, a bullfighter who had been gored.
The film begins with the two men, who at that point, don't know each
other, sitting next to each other watching a dance program. They will
soon become friends as they each spend time with the women they care
for. Benigno has been caring for Alicia for four years. He tries to
help Marco maintain a relationship with the woman he loves.
 Watching
Benigno caressing Alicia while bathing or massaging her comatose body,
we see his love for her. We know that he is more than just a nurse
who has been hired to take care of her. He is gentle and kind. He
spends his time off going to dance programs and silent films (one
of her interests) and then comes back and tells her about them, even
though there is next to no hope that she will ever wake up. In all
this we see that he loves her.
 It
is only after we have gotten to the point of liking Benigno that we
begin seeing that there may be something less than pristine about
this love. Even when we begin to see the extent to his perversion,
we still like him. We understand that Benigno possibly is incapable
of having a serious relationship in any other way. He is an isolated
person who rarely makes significant contact with others. So to be
able to care for Alicia, whom he already obsessed about before her
accident, is for him a perfect situation. He could only rarely talk
or interact with Alicia in the normal world, but now he talks to her
continually.
 Marco
on the other hand is dealing with the loss of what was becoming a
beautiful relationship that was cut short when Alicia was gored in
the ring. The thought of never again being with her is hard for him
to come to grips with. As their relationship grew, Marco was able
to talk to her all the time. Now while she is in her coma, he can't
bring himself to talk to her, even though Benigno encourages him to
do so.
Both men suffer from loneliness, Marco from the loneliness of the
loss of his lover, Benigno from the loneliness of his life aside from
caring for Alicia. In their loneliness they develop a friendship that
lives beyond the situation.
 One
of the issues found in this film is what it means to be alive. Are
Alicia and Lydia alive because their bodies still function? Is Benigno
alive in the confines of his solitariness? Can he live a life vicariously
through his relationships with Alicia and Marco?
 It
also deals with hope and hopelessness. Why should these men continue
to stay with these brain dead women? The doctors admit to reports
of miracles, but discourage any expectation that either woman will
awaken.
It is unfortunate that those who put the subtitles on the film failed
to translate the song sung at one point, ?Cucurrcucu, Paloma.? What
few words I did pick up makes it clear that it is a song that involves
death and loneliness, and no doubt the song is an integral part of
the film.
It should be noted that the film has one of the most bizarre, imaginative
and humorous sex scenes I've seen in quite a while. But behind that
scene there is a serious issue involving rapes and violation of trust
and of security.
We know, of course, that in the end these people can never find happiness
in this situation. However, in the end, we begin to believe that there
is still happiness to be found in a surprising way. |
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PHOTOS
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