Live Flesh (1998)

Far from Almodovar's best!

I really don't know how so many people love this film. I just watched it and it is by far Almodovar's worst film.

My biggest problem with the film is that he does not build the characters AT ALL! Why did Helena do what she did? Was she guilty or bored? I gues I can make my own back story to fill in the HUGE gaps in the film but in this one he is asking a lot.

Does not stand up to Talk to Her, High Heels, Women on the Verge..., or any of his other great films. April 16, 2008

great price

i haven't watched the film yet but it seems to be in great shape -- thank you! July 26, 2007

Almodovar's steamy spin on film noir . . .

British crime writer Ruth Rendell gets credit for the original story of this film. But it's hard to picture the kind of darkly original psychological study that director Pedro Almodovar started with because his stamp is all over this film - that unmistakable mix of melodrama, steamy scenes of passion, and quirky comedy. Beefy Javier Bardem comes on strong here as the Russell Crowe of Spanish cinema, graduating from smoothly suited cop to sweaty, muscular disabled basketball player in a wheelchair.

Meanwhile, his apparent nemesis is a young man who has served time for the shooting that crippled him and is now out of prison and settling old scores, which involves romancing two strategically selected married women. (Don't want to give too much away here.) This being an Almodovar film, the young man is handsome and sweetly charming. Even his schemes, when we learn them, are more poignant than ill-willed.

This is Almodovar's spin on film noir. Not as brilliant as "Talk to Her" and "All About My Mother," but definitely worth a watch. January 18, 2007

Amazing performance from the characters who collide with one another!

What's special about Almodovar films is that he is able to explore the naked-ness of humanity creating this "Othello"-esque scenario wherein people are exposed as people -- human enough to feel, be hurt and heal.

Almodovar starts off with a simplistic cliché scenario, which would slowly unravel to become a complex story of human relationships taking risks on impulsive choices. To condense an Almodovar plot would be futile. It isn't because I'm lazy but because if one would attempt to do so, it would be a risk in making the film gratuitous and simplified when it isn't. You need to look at every part of the shot to see the details he is giving to the piece. Look at the sexual scenes; the balance he achieves: it's not so strong, but not soft either. It's subtle. His way of directing the actors is amazing. He writes the movie, and knows it more than anyone, so you know he is there to tell the cast what to do, and help them obtain their amazing performances. It's a visual style with life of its own.

I said it. There's cruelty and honesty at the same time. There's passion. There's betrayal, lies, sex. You see it in the characters, in their words. For example- When David arrives home and sees his wife Elena in bed, and starts to touch her; she doesn't like it. "What's the matter?" he asks. "It hurts", Elena answers. "Why?" he says. And with a face that involves everything I'm talking about, she looks at him: "Because I've been having sex all night"

I didn't really have a specific favorite scene because each act builds up on each other. The present scene would portray the consequence of the previous scene. This is a film of cause and effect. Unfortunately, the choices of the characters tend to lean towards the romantic but when they finally decide to be rational, the result would tend to lead to more complications. Complications that in the end allows each character to collide with one another.

What Almodovar came to do was to simply entertain his audience. And he does. He fills time with entertaining plot twists, interesting character developments and enough metaphors to keep people like I glued to the screen.
March 4, 2006

Only in the Gifted Hands of Pedro Almodovar!

By now all movie buffs have been exposed to the singular genius of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and the numerous solid films he has placed before his admiring public. Though generally recognized as the maestro of zany, over the edge, ludicrous comedies, his later works have included such tender and truly gripping films as 'Talk to Her' and 'All About My Mother' and it is into this vein that LIVE FLESH falls.

The story is just as surreal as any he has filmed and certainly the quality of the filming, direction and acting is on a par with the best of his work, but LIVE FLESH deals with some fairly grim issues that in the hands of other directors might have become either ruinous parodies of the old films from the 1940s or as bloody boring and tired retreads. Herein lies Almodovar's magic.

Beginning in 1970 Franco's Madrid, a prostitute (Penelope Cruz) goes into labor and with the aid of what appears to be a transvestite fellow hooker gives birth to a son Victor (later played by Liberto Rabal) - on a bus! Flash forward to the 1990s and Victor is caught in a drug deal by two policemen David (Javier Bardem) and Sancho (Jose Sancho). In the ruckus David is shot in the spine resulting in paraplegia. Victor is imprisoned, David becomes a national hero as a paraplegic basketball player married to Clara who runs an orphanage and though she loves David, her sexual needs are only minimally met by David. Sancho has become an alcoholic macho cop.

When Victor is released form prison he pledges revenge on David and Sancho, falls under the influence of Clara from whom he learns his role as a sexual male and begins an affair with her, and when eventually David discovers Clara's 'betrayal' he is able to forgive for the sake of his love for his wife's plight at living with a paraplegic. Victor progresses toward being the decent human being capable of reform and the film closes in the circular manner of most of Almodovar's films: Clara is giving birth to Victor's son 'in transit' in 1996!

The actual story is, of course, much more convoluted and tightly profound than this too brief summary, but you must see the process by watching the film to garner all the beauty that is Almodovar's gift for story telling. Every member of the cast is superb and the action moves at such a fast pace, with just the right amount of sensual sexual encounters to keep in line with Almodovar's style, that this film seems very short. The vivid color palette and the completely appropriate musical score are also trademarks of this gifted director. Highly recommended! Grady Harp, March 05 March 13, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...