Directed by:
Pedro AlmodóvarScreenplay:
Pedro AlmodóvarCinematography:
José Luis AlcaineComposer:
Alberto IglesiasCast:
Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lluís Homar, Javier Cámara, Alberto Ferreiro, Pau Poch, Leonor Watling, Petra Martínez (more)Plots(1)
First screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Pedro Almodovar's powerful and passionate semi-autobiographical melodrama follows the intertwining stories of two boys, Enrique (Fele Martinez) and Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), who fall in love at an abusive Catholic school and are parted by a jealous paedophile priest. Sixteen years later, Enrique, now a successful filmmaker, is casting about for an idea for a new film when a young cross-dressing actor, claiming to be Ignacio but known as 'Angel', approaches him with a short story based on their schooldays together. Enrique decides to use the story, and casts Angel in the film's lead role, despite his discovery that Angel is not in fact Ignacio, who died three years earlier shortly after completing the story, but his younger brother. Enrique's film also includes scenes in which the grown-up Ignacio tracks down the Catholic priest who abused them as boys, and these scenes soon become mirrored by real-life events. Almodovar moves away from his trademark quirky comedy with this dark and brooding drama, using a complex 'film-within-a-film' structure to create a noir-like sense of mystery and blurred identity, and to explore the relationship between fantasy and reality. (Pathé Distribution UK)
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Reviews (3)
A homage to the Master of Suspense? Maybe... Although more than a crime story, it is another expert study of atypical but authentic relationships from the perspective of Pedro Almodóvar. A definite plus are the actors headed by the fabulous Bernal. The biggest negative is the screenplay, which has an interesting subject matter, though the way in which it is presented in the movie is not so interesting.
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A perfect notch in the movie set list for the US Patriot Corps or the White Aryan Resistance. However, I can finally say with my fourth Almodovar film that my dislike of his work is not just subjectively due to his choice of themes that keep repeating themselves and don't really interest me. He's also a pretty incompetent director, you know? For example, his editing skills are equivalent to my elementary school crochet works in home ec classes, so you can see that he wants badly to get at least a C, but you can't light it, it's dead wood. And the camera again keeps trying. Here, for example, he conjures up an impressive shot with mise-en-scene and leaves it in front of everyone's eyes long enough for them to realize how much the cameraman was messing with it. But narratively, it's meaningless. It's like a fishbowl without the fish. And that good script? Like where Satan comes in ex machina at the end and Clarissa explains it to us in 20 minutes of dialogue? Have you seen Rambo lately?
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Movies by Pedro Almodóvar are not for everyone. The selection of characters and situations in which they find themselves is influenced by his sexual orientation, so homosexuality, transvestitism, and various sexual deviances are more than common in his work. In Bad Education, his personal experiences and fantasies play a crucial role. The destinies of four men are intertwined, and although the film starts slowly and the viewer is left guessing about the personal motives and behavior of the main characters, the whole film is effectively concluded with a clever and impactful point. The excellent acting of all involved, especially Gael García Bernal, is a strong point. Bad Education is not so much a detective story as it is a psychological drama with a somewhat similar tone to Woody Allen's famous drama Match Point. Overall impression: 80%.
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