I’ve scoured the Internet for movie stills of the breathtaking cinematic moments in Pedro Almodovar’s Los Abrazos Rotos, (Broken Embraces) yet this image of Penelope Cruz channeling Marilyn Monroe is all I can find. This of course, is a beautiful shot, but it’s far from being the most captivating moment in the film. In this case, words cannot describe the experience as well as the imagery does, which is one of the reason’s why Almodovar is always a must see for me. With Almodovar, images are handled with care and executed as visual metaphors to support the story and points of view unfolding on screen - it’s nearly always perfection!
I’m not going to go into a full blown critique of the film, but I will say that I was mesmerized by a vibrant story about passion, filmmaking, obsession, desire, drive, motherhood, fatherhood and of course love. It also ended with a message which I’ll never forget. “You must always finish a film. Even if you do it blindly.” So poetic!
One other thing - if you enjoyed Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown you will get a kick out of how he brings back the story with the film within the film. Ah, It was an incredible honor to sit in the same theater watching Almodovar with Almodovar - I still can’t really believe it happened. I will never forget it.