Sony Pictures Classics has been so kind as to offer one lucky Film Experience reader the latest beauty from my favorite living filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) is the labyrinthine memoir of a blind screenwriter (Lluís Homar) who was once a film director who fell madly in love with a kept woman turned actress (Penélope Cruz) on the set of their movie... (which happens to look and sound exactly like Almodóvar's international breakthrough Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).This contest is open to all readers -- just bear in mind that the DVD will be in the American format so you'll need an all region player if you're watching it elsewhere -- so if you want it, send an email by Friday March 19th with "PEDRO" in the subject line. Include:
- your name
- your shipping address
- a sentence describing one thing you love about either Cruz or Almodóvar
I've been anxiously awaiting the DVD release of Broken Embraces (tuesday) myself just so I could give the movie another go. Fact: Almodóvar movies are better the second time around. He always overstuffs them you see and the second viewing becomes a confirmation of what you thought was great the first time through along with the discovery of hidden treasure: sneaky touches, graceful plot curves and deeper characterizations.
It's no secret that this particular one is not (yet) among my favorites. [Editor's note: For what it's worth I consider his masterpieces to be (in chronological order) Law of Desire, Women on the Verge..., All About My Mother, Talk to Her and Volver] Yet, though I found it slightly impenetrable in its self-reflexivity and chatterbox qualities, it was breathtaking to look at. Impossibly, Pe is even more voluptuous than she was in Volver, Nine or Elegy. If she gets any more beautiful someone is going to launch a thousand ships Pedro's way, to steal her. The movie war would rage for years.
