Movie Summary of Broken Embraces by Michael the Moviegoer.
BROKEN EMBRACES = ***
“Almodovar Breaks It Down For Us”
Movies about making movies are usually filled with “in” jokes that appeal to a limited audience of people who work in film. Robert Altman’s “The Player” nearly transcended that by setting a relatively standard murder mystery inside the movie industry. Similarly, Pedro Almodovar’s latest film “Broken Embraces” deals almost exclusively with characters who make movies. There is romance and mystery filled with passion, desire, betrayal and death. A triangle emerges between three main characters. A film director, a producer, and the actress starring in the movie-within-a-movie played to perfection by Penelope Cruz.
The story is told in flashback by the film director who once had his pet project stolen from him, poorly edited and released by the producer. More than a decade later, the director now has an opportunity to re-edit the film. This kind of story is of interest to film fans and historians when older films with this background find new life in a DVD release. The documentaries and commentaries about the restoration can be quite astonishing. And history is littered with films that studios messed with and ruined like “Blade Runner” or “Once Upon A Time In America” only to have the restored versions become fan favorites.
Perhaps Almodovar has a similar personal history with one of his older films. I don’t know. But he approaches this film as if it were a highly personal project. In the on-going war between art and commerce, Almodovar is obviously taking a pro-artistic stand and it comes off feeling like joyous revenge.
Cruz, who also starred in Almodovar’s previous film “Volver”, proves that her Oscar win for Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” last year was no fluke. She is a strong actress with a striking screen presence. A movie star in two languages! Where in last year’s “Elegy” she played a college student in love with her three-decades older professor, in “Broken Embraces” she seems repulsed at her affair with the much older film producer. Her performance is breathtaking.
DVD Double Feature: In 1963, Jean-Luc Godard also made a movie about making movies called “Contempt”. Although the business was different back then, the differences between art and commerce were much the same. Godard’s film stars Bigitte Bardot, Jack Palance and director Fritz Lang playing himself. This is a hilarious “in” joke about international filmmaking that seems to show Godard holding the system itself in contempt.
Michael The Moviegoer
