All About My Mother

April 16, 1999 0 By Fans
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Plot

Young Esteban want to become a writer and also to discover the identity of his father, carefully concealed by the mother Manuela.

Release Year: 1999

Rating: 7.9/10 (39,741 voted)

Critic's Score: 87/100

Director:
Pedro Almodóvar

Stars: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña

Storyline
A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, a wild yet caring transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, but instead finds out she is pregnant by Lola. Manuela becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired, by helping Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover. However, Agrado soon takes over when Manuela must care for Hermana Rosa's risky pregnancy. With echos of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.

Cast:

Cecilia Roth

Manuela


Marisa Paredes

Huma Rojo


Candela Peña

Nina


Antonia San Juan

Agrado


Penélope Cruz

Hermana Rosa


Rosa Maria Sardà

Madre de Rosa

(as Rosa María Sardá)


Fernando Fernán Gómez

Padre de Rosa


Toni Cantó

Lola


Eloy Azorín

Esteban


Carlos Lozano

Mario


Fernando Guillén

Doctor en 'Un tranvía llamado Deseo'


Manuel Morón

Doctor 1


José Luis Torrijo

Doctor 2


Juan José Otegui

Ginecólogo


Carmen Balagué

Taglines:
Part of every woman is a mother/actress/saint/sinner. And part of every man is a woman. (English trailer)



Details

Official Website:
Sony Pictures Classics |

Release Date: 16 April 1999

Filming Locations: A Coruña, Galicia, Spain

Opening Weekend: £99,533
(UK)
(29 August 1999)
(22 Screens)

Gross: $8,264,530
(USA)
(9 July 2000)



Technical Specs

Runtime:



Did You Know?

Trivia:

Agrado's monologue was based on a real life event. When the electronic system of an Argentinian theater failed, the director suspended the show. Actress Lola Membrives decided to give the news to the audience and make them an offer: if they'd stay, they could listen to the narration of her life.

Quotes:

Huma Rojo:
But can you act?

Manuela:
I can lie very well, and I'm used to improvising.



User Review

A VERY PRIVATE UNIVERSE

Rating: 8/10

Very few directors, since Bunuel, Fassbinder, Lindsay Anderson and Roman
Polanski, have been able to translate their own, very private universes, to
the screen.
That is why, it divides audiences in such a radical way.

You love it or you hate it.
I think, that is the final objective of an artist, to express their view, to
give us their own version of the world we live in. It enriches us, it makes
us more aware of the million faces of human nature.
Thanks to Almodovar we're allowed to feel identified with, what we may
consider, marginal characters.
What a different experience is to sit through an Almodovar film and a Ron
Howard film for instance.
Almodovar remains, becomes part of us, Ron Howard's vanishes as we're
leaving the movie theater.