Talk to Her

“Almódovar’s most mature and mysterious movie. He’s looking for miracles, and he finds them in the most forbidden places.” – David Ansen, Newsweek Magazine

“A complex, beautiful film, one that people will be talking about for a long time to come.” – Glenn Kenny, Premiere Magazine

Talk to Her opens with choreographer Pina Bausch’s quietly stirring dance theater piece Café Muller. Two female dancers (including the choreographer herself), seemingly in their sleep, move unpredictably in a dance floor filled with random chairs and tables. A male dancer feverishly moves each obstacle along their paths to keep the women from getting hurt. A man sobs in the audience. This affecting opening sets the stage for a film about two men in love with two women in comas. One man commits a crime and both are left in despair in a story that is touching, sympathetic, and unnerving. Almodóvar won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

There’s no greater joy for a film programmer than to come across a totally original filmmaker, in complete command of his domain, whose work resembles no one else’s. Such was my elation at discovering the films of Pedro Almodóvar and programming them - for the first time in the U.S. - starting in 1984, year one of the Miami Film Festival. Today, he’s not only the most celebrated Spanish filmmaker, but one of the world’s greatest directors, period. Our series surveys ten classics made over the course of 25 years, and feature not only his famous ensemble, fondly referred to as chicos y chicas Almodóvar, but also actors like Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem who went on to international stardom.

CGAC Director of Programming Nat Chediak was founder/director of the Miami Film Festival (1984-2001).

Program notes adapted from MoMA’s Almodóvar retrospective.

Check out the rest of our Almodóvar: The Top Ten program!