Alles über meine Mutter

Theatralisch verdreht, ungebändigt melodramatisch und überschwenglich bunt ... Almodóvar erzählt über das Leben wie über das Spielen von Rollen, der Rolle einer Mutter, Frau, eines Mannes- eine intelligente und konsequente Einheit mit einer charakteristisch geschmeidigen Handschrift (wie viel bedeutet doch für den Spanier die Musik von Albert Iglesias!). Ein Queer Film, der jedoch die Tür vor der Mehrheit überhaupt nicht zuschlägt. Ich persönlich weiß mir jedoch mit seiner bis gar komödialen Stilisierung nicht so recht zu helfen. Es scheint mir, als ob sich Almodóvar aus dieser Überempfindlichkeit der mütterlichen Peripetien in den Zerrissene Umarmungen einen Juchs macht. Seine selbstreflexive Maske eines Intellektuellen ist mir wahrscheinlich um ein Haar sympathischer als das pastellfarbene Feingefühl im Falle des Films Alles über meine Mutter. (08.02.2010)

Almodóvar this time missed the complexities of the human soul and for quite a while, it bothered me that besides the main character, I couldn't find even a little ordinary character with whom the viewer could identify. In the flood of prostitutes, transsexuals, or women with insurmountable prejudices, I got lost in the first hour and was bored heavily. That's why I was even more surprised by the final catharsis, which has a significant power and saves what can be saved. However, as a whole, it simply doesn't harmonize at all, no matter how much I would have wished for the opposite due to the popularity of the film. (09.02.2007)

Almodóvar has already received 4 stars from me in the past, and it would be interesting to compare these titles with the film All About My Mother, during which I started to have enough of Almodóvar and his film style. Filmmaking is undoubtedly in his blood, but what can you do when his film contains a lot of melodramatic twists, like from a cheap Latin American soap opera? It is theatrical, and the characters and their actions are as if from another planet. I am not such a puritan that I mind transvestites, homosexuals, and prostitutes, but other characters in Almodóvar's world hardly ever get in. Moreover, how he builds their relationships is very forced. Two women who have never seen each other before share very intimate and crucial information at their first meeting, which a person would probably prefer to keep secret and only confide in a very close and trustworthy person. I can't help it, but as cultured as Almodóvar is in revealing his sexual desires compared to, let's say, Pasolini, his desires and his entire world exhaust me, so I'm done with it. Overall impression: 45%. (24.01.2015)

Pedro Almodóvar doesn't become a director I love this time around either, but thanks to the Prague City theaters' production, I'm somewhat more comfortable with the Oscar-winning phenomenon All About My Mother. It really helped me to see both Penélope Cruz and Evellyn Pacoláková in the same role, because only in this way could Hermana Rosa become a real character in my eyes and not just a variation of a familiar face. And I could go on. All About Eve is better in the theatrical version, but the transvestite Agrado is obviously better in the film, because what Vladimir Marek does on the stage is a disaster. All in all, I'll try a few more things from the Almodóvar/Cruz collection, but I think we're done. His world exists on the completely opposite side of cinema from the one in which I exist. On paper, the story must have looked great - all the coincidences, transvestites, intersections with art, and cheeky one-liners - but in its final form, it's just about improbable situations, cinematic coincidences, and glycerine tears. (19.02.2015)

I got bored. Even though I was well aware of the acclaimed and positively reviewed film I was watching, even though I expected it to be slightly "different" than what I'm used to with the vast majority of today's productions, and even though I tried hard to keep up with the story and relate to the unusual heroines, the boredom weighed on me just as much as the indifference to almost everything those ladies had to go through. Almodóvar is undoubtedly a talented filmmaker and deserves admiration for his courage to bring emotion to the ranks of transvestites and prostitutes, but most of the time I was aware that we had sadly missed each other and even the seductive gaze of Penélope Cruz was not enough to bring us together. Maybe next time... :) 70% (10.08.2013)

Im Grunde mag ich Almodóvars Filme, doch hier habe ich mich mit dem spanischen Magier nicht getroffen. Die Geschichte passte nicht, ich habe nicht verstanden, was der Autor damit sagen wollte und warum sich einige Figuren so verhielten, wie sie es taten, außerdem waren einige von ihnen wirklich widerlich. Der einzige Silberstreif am Horizont war traditionell Penélope Cruz, ihre Figur war wirklich herzergreifend. (23.07.2017)

What Almodóvar deserves to be commended for is his ability to see into people perfectly, he can excellently portray characters that might otherwise bother the viewer. And I think that some people will be bothered, but those are simply prejudices. "All About My Mother" is a film about how life can be shitty, but there are still moments that you just can't replace. It's a story about how life isn't always beautiful, but that doesn't mean it's only ugly. It's up to us how we manage it and what we focus on, whether it's the past or the present. Beautiful, but definitely not for everyone. (17.04.2014)