In terms of plotting, “Education” is Almodovar’s most ambitious project to date. reality and, as ever, truckloads of transvestites. This leads Enrique to Galicia in northern Spain, where he meets the school friend’s mother (Petra Martinez) and finds out the truth.Īlmodovar aficionados will be reassured that most of his later stylistic hallmarks are present and correct: abundant pop-culture refs in the form of cheesy Italian pop songs, nods to classic movies (including “Double Indemnity” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) and film posters a brief trip to a pueblo, which contrasts with the slick urban setting of the rest of pic games with identity and fiction vs. The latter storms off in a rage, but accidentally leaves behind his cigarette lighter, which has an address of a bar on it. Enrique is not sure about this, or even whether his pal is who he says he is. His school friend-cum-actor is keen to play the role of Zahara. The following scenes, which are film’s strongest, depict the priest’s frustrated love for Ignacio in parallel with Ignacio’s developing love for a boy called Enrique (Raul Garcia Forneiro).īack in the movie proper, Enrique decides to make the script his next project. Pic then flashbacks to the childhood of a boy called Ignacio (Nacho Perez), with Father Manolo playing the guitar on a river bank as Ignacio, in one of pic’s few nods to the kitsch Almodovar of old, sings “Moon River” for him. He attempts to blackmail the priest with stories about Father Manolo’s sexual abuse of a boy called Ignacio. Short of money, Zahara revisits the school, where he meets his former lit teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho). After Zahara picks up a character called Enrique (Alberto Ferreiro) - who falls asleep while they’re having sex - he realizes Enrique is his old lover from school. Transvestites Paca (Javier Camara, wonderfully mannered in pic’s sole comic turn) and Zahara (also Garcia Bernal) are treading the boards in a seedy nightclub. While going through newspaper clippings in search of inspiration, he’s interrupted by a wannabe actor and old schoolmate (Mexican thesp Gael Garcia Bernal), who gives Enrique a story he’s written, “The Visit.” This friend, it turns out, was Enrique’s first love at the school they attended, a strongly disciplinarian, Salesian Catholic institution.Įnrique reads “The Visit,” which then turns into a film within the film. Marketing will determine if and how this will affect the film’s commercial prospects.Ĭlassy, ’60s-style mock thriller credits, courtesy of Juan Gatti, open onto 1980 Madrid, and the office of youthful but blocked movie director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez). Its release comes at a time when revelations of abuse are shaking the foundations of Catholicism in the U.S. “Education,” as per every project by Europe’s premier arthouse helmer, comes with a scent of scandal.

Bad education 2004 full movie