November 13, 2011
Madison Arts Cinema
with: Adrienne, fellow Gringa Spanish teacher
The first time I saw my mom lose it this way was in a Blockbuster video when I was fifteen. See why I miss the video stores?
She wanted the newest Pedro Almodovar film.
Pedro Almodovar? Who is that? For now, we will call him a Spanish film director.
His newest film at the time was translated to English as "Tie me up! Time me down!" In Spanish he had just called it "Tie me." Good Lord American Marketing Departments! They knew only a quarter of the population was going to go because it was subtitled. I think they thought those people wouldn't show up if they didn't give it a kinky title. Of course, we all know what women are reading now...
My mom is a Spanish professor at a University. She studied abroad in Madrid under Franco. We went into a Blockbuster and she asked for it. She was told that family stores don't carry porn.
Enter a full blown explosion about ignorance and bad translations...
The point is, we found a copy at an independent rental store. I was allowed to watch my first Almodovar after my mother explained three things. 1) The title was not correct. 2) When we love each other we are tied together and like it. 3) What Victoria Abril was doing in the bathtub. Thanks Mom, Pedro was better at explaining that than Judy Blume.
From there I saw three more in high school before my senior year: Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, High Heels, and Law of Desire.
Senior year of high school, April 1993, I was taking an honors Spanish class and we had to do research projects and presentations. You have no idea how hard I begged that woman to let me present on him. She said yes and I began to research. Research was so different then and I am so proud of all I found now. I couldn't just Google his name and then sift through the junk. I had to pull out these ridiculously fat volumes to scan for his name and then write down the titles of the magazines or periodicals for the librarian to go get out of the basement. The high school librarian hated to see me coming. You would think he would have encouraged me to research. I even found out about this really, really cool company from California that would order all kinds of VHS tapes for libraries. So by May of 1993 I had seen everything he had made except Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del monton. That was too much for California at the time...
I learned so much about him and this is what my 18 year old self remembers:
1) He was born September 24, 1949-I first read that from a movie magazine sitting on the orange vinyl couch in the Grimsley High school library. September 24th? September 24th? My birthday? I was born on Pedro's 25th birthday?!!!! No way...no way....we have the same birthday. I was sitting with a friend who by now was quite used to my hyperactivity.
2) He was from a small pueblo in La Mancha and he moved to Madrid and got a job with the telephone company. He had a dream and a vision and he started from zero.
3) He grew up under Franco but was able to go crazy with his film work later after years of censorship.
4) He was gay and it was all right. This was before Carrie Bradshaw had Stanford. This was before characters were openly gay on television. This was before Dawson's Creek. I had a gay friend and his name was Pedro. Two year's later I had a real gay friend. I love you Trent, but Pedro was my first.
5) He liked to be sarcastic, cynical, and pointed out hypocrisy. He loved to film dysfunctional families and crazy love/hate relationships.
6) I have never been so excited to present in Spanish before, but there were two guys that were jerks through the whole thing. I'm not naming names (Josh C, cough, cough Nate, bigger cough) but you better believe I remember them and I can only hope one is a miserable adult-probably on his third wife.
In spite of all of this, until last November, I had never seen Pedro on a big screen. Ever...I'd seen him on many a couch, but never a theater.
First off, the great debate: Nobody in Spain really likes him. All right, well...how many Americans worship Kevin Smith, the Coen Brothers, or David Lynch? Even John Sayles... There is traditional, and there is non traditional. That is cross cultural. Some people like strange and some people don't. Pick your flavor and go with it.
I really like the other mom I went to see this movie with. We both studied abroad in Spain. We are what I lovingly call "espanolizadas." We are willing to be as Spanish/Latina as we possibly can. We also left a total of five kids at home mad that Mommy was daring to leave the house without them to see a movie. Anything for Pedro!
I don't know if other movie buffs feel this way, but seeing a director's latest movie to me is like a visit with an old friend. I recognized his camera work, his color schemes, his actors. His ability to put whatever he wants you to see in your face. Antonio Banderas was back where he belonged. Not in a Shrek cartoon, not running around the screen in a mask, but home, in Madrid, with the man that made him who he is.
This was for me, Pedro's creepiest movie, but also his most compassionate. This movie was about our grief and how we handle it. Sometimes loss drives the rest of the decisions we make-our careers, our family relations, our actions. This is the skin I live in-this is how I handle that skin. This is my pain and my loss. This is how I react to it. This is your skin and your loss-this is how you react to it. One loss is not going to prevent another one later in our lives. Your reactions are going to be desperate and no one should judge you for them, no matter how unethical or hurtful they are to someone else, you are only feeling and reacting to your pain.
I got it.
I get Pedro, I will always get Pedro...
And from now one, I will watch him on a big screen!
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