Dark Habits
MA15+
Spain, 1983
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Cristina Sánchez Pascual, Cecilia Roth, Laura Cepeda, Will More
What's it about?
Almodovar's black comedy satire of Spain's religious institutions tells the story of nightclub singer Yolanda who finds refuge in a convent after the death of her drug addicted boyfriend. She discovers that the nuns there indulge in their own private sins. One of them takes drugs, another is into self-mortification, a third keeps a tiger in the convent's garden, another writes sensationalist pulp literature... As the convent is having financial trouble, the nuns decide to blackmail an aristocrat who has withdrawn her funding.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
M
Spain, 1984
Spain, 1984
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Language: French, German, Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Carmen Maura, Ángel de Andrés López, Verónica Forqué, Chus Lampreave
What's it about?
Pedro Almodovar's black comedy stars Carmen Maura as Gloria, an overworked cleaning lady who, in order to get through her 18-hour days, and deal with her cranky husband and up-to-no-good sons, relies heavily on amphetamines. When her pharmacist refuses to sell her more drugs, Gloria explodes. To make matters worse, an accidental murder plunges Gloria's life into hell. A hilarious, yet poignant and incisive critique of a Spanish culture that dooms women to a life of servitude.
Pedro Almodovar's black comedy stars Carmen Maura as Gloria, an overworked cleaning lady who, in order to get through her 18-hour days, and deal with her cranky husband and up-to-no-good sons, relies heavily on amphetamines. When her pharmacist refuses to sell her more drugs, Gloria explodes. To make matters worse, an accidental murder plunges Gloria's life into hell. A hilarious, yet poignant and incisive critique of a Spanish culture that dooms women to a life of servitude.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
Source: SBS Movies
Law of Desire
MA15+
Spain, 1987
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Thriller, Mystery
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura, Eusebio Poncela, Miguel Molina, Manuela Velasco, Bibiana Fernández, Fernando Guillén, Nacho Martínez, Agustin Almodovar, Helga Liné, Germán Cobos, Rossy de Palma
What's it about?
When porn director Pablo reluctantly breaks up with his boyfriend, Juan, he encourages him to stay in touch. Juan moves away to live in a lighthouse and eventually writes his ex, but in the interim Pablo has taken up a psychotic new lover, Antonio. Antonio intercepts their correspondence and flies into a towering rage, terrifying Pablo but inspiring him creatively as he works on a play about his transsexual sister.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
MA15+
Spain, 1988
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Maria Barranco, Julieta Serrano, Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura
What's it about?
High atop a posh Spanish penthouse, three women have come to the end of their mental ropes: Pepa (Carmen Maura) teeters around atop her stilettoes as she obsesses over Iván (Fernando Guillén), the lover who just jilted her over the answering machine; her neurotic best friend Candela (María Barranco) seeks refuge at Pepa's place because she recently realised her lover is a Shiite terrorist; and Iván's ex-wife Lucía (Julieta Serrano) was just released from a 20-year stint in a mental institution. One of them is about to commit murder unless the other half-crazed femmes fatales can stop her.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
High Heels
M
Spain, 1991
Spain, 1991
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes, Miguel Bosé, Anna Lizaran, Cristina Marcos
What's it about?
High Heels is a murder mystery comedy centring on flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo and her daughter Rebecca, a television anchorwoman. After being estranged for 15 years, Becky re-enters Rebecca's life when she comes to perform a concert. Rebecca, she finds, is now married to one of Becky's ex-lovers, Manuel. The mother and daughter begin making up for lost time, when suddenly, a murder occurs...
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
Kika
M
France, Spain, 1993
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Verónica Forqué, Victoria Abril, Peter Coyote, Rossy de Palma, Àlex Casanovas
What's it about?
Kika, a young cosmetologist, is called to the mansion of Nicolas, an American writer to make-up the corpse of his stepson, Ramon. Ramon, who is not dead, is revived by Kika's attentions and she then moves in with him. They might live happily ever after but first they have to cope with Kika's affair with Nicolas, the suspicious death of Ramon's mother and the intrusive gaze of tabloid-TV star and Ramon's ex-psychologist Andrea Scarface.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
Talk To Her
MA15+
Spain, 2002
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Leonor Watling, Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Rosario Flores
What's it about?
The story of two men who worship two women, both of whom are in a coma. A tragicomic journey into loneliness, where one of the men urges the other to communicate with his beloved, to "talk to her", just as he is doing. The life of these four characters flows in all directions, past, present and future, leading all of them to an unexpected destiny.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
Bad Education
MA15+
Spain, 2004
Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Lluís Homar, Fele Martinez, Juan Fernandez
What's it about?
Young Spanish filmmaker Enrique (Fele Martinez) is paid a surprise visit by a young man (Gael Garcia Bernal) who claims to be his childhood friend from primary school, now looking for work as an actor. He goes by the stage name of Angel but Enrique knew him as Ignacio – his first lover. Angel has also written a screenplay, 'The Visit', which Enrique finds engrossing – a story based on their experiences at a Catholic school in the early '70s, where Fr Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) lusted after Ignacio. As Enrique shoots the film, the flashbacks reveal a more complicated story, as the lives of all concerned are unravelled.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 29 January:
Julieta
M
Spain, 2016
Genre: Drama, Romance
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Emma Suárez, Darío Grandinetti, Michelle Jenner, Priscilla Delgado
What's it about?
Julieta (Suárez) is a middle-aged woman living in Madrid with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Grandinetti). Both are going to move to Portugal when she casually runs into Bea (Michelle Jenner), former best friend of her estranged daughter Antia, who reveals that Antia is living in Switzerland, married, and with three children. Shaken by the first news she’s heard about her daughter in 12 years, Julieta cancels the journey to Portugal and moves to the apartment where she used to live with Antia, in the hope that her daughter will send her a letter.
Streaming at SBS On Demand from 1 February:
Wild Tales
MA15+
Argentina/Spain, 2014
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Language: Spanish
Director: Damián Szifron
Starring: Rita Cortese, Ricardo Darín, Liliana Ackerman, Luis Manuel Altamirano García, Alejandro Angelini
What's it about?
Directed by Damián Szifron this film was produced by Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar so it is definitely one to add to your watch list. The film features six independent tales, whose characters find themselves facing a reality that shifts and suddenly turns unpredictable, and crossing the divide between civilization and barbarism. A lover's betrayal, a return to the repressed past and the violence woven into everyday encounters drive the characters to madness as they lose control.
Streaming at SBS On Demand until 21 February 2021:
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