The movie is entertaining up until the piece-meal ending. Oh...and the subtitles do not translate everything that is being said, which was disappointing though luckily I understand enough Spanish to fill the gaps. Nuns on acid and heroin and a tiger only get you so far...
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that was well said....the subtitles truly don't translate everything, and from the minimal Spanish that i know, i recognized that some of the translations really did leave something to be desired. The charm of this movie is simply its unpredictability and uniqueness. The tiger, and the heroin, and acid, and the nuns, and the kabob stick thing throught the cheek, etc etc makes for a fun movie, worth watching once or maybe twice just for the change in perspective and for the shock value. But this is the limit to this film. Its plot and ideas, really aren't enough to carry it successfully into being a great film, worth much repeated viewing.
yeah... youre right about the subtitles. The Wellspring DVDs for this and What Have I Done To Deserve This? are pretty low-budget, so the translation job was sloppy, but keep in mind that sometimes translators also change some lines to make sure the story gets across as well in English as its native tongue, and all movies have parts where this is done.
shareOverall good-spirited humor - not as shocking as much as funny to see nuns shooting up, or writing softcore, all while giving advice. My personal favorite is whenever the nuns leave the abbey and warp the locals' perception of how they should behave. The ending is in line with Almodovar's love of melodrama... and, if viewed with the rest of the film (including the beginning), isn't supposed to be tragic, per se, but more circle-of-life c'est la vie type fare...
shareI noticed too how bad the subtitles were; worse still is that with my copy you coudln't switch them off, very annoying.
shareNuns on acid and heroin and a tiger only get you so far...Far enough as far as I was concerned, i.e. 8/10. share
Saying is a crappy ending it's just acting by your username... being snob.
This is not Almodovar at his best but the ending is pretty interesting... everything falls apart and the scream of mother superior it's the perfect ending for the debacle...
Man, I think you really have to think about what Almodovars hitting out against here. This films made like 14 years or so after the fall of the franco regime, it pretty radical for that time! If your not farmilar with that then shove franco into google and you'll see that it was an incredibly repressive regime. Most of Almodovars early works try and hit out at all the franco domga that was hanging in the air. After years of repressing I think Spanish filmaking was intitled to go a little crazy and break some moral/social/cultural/religous bondries.
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And as things fell apart, no one paid much attention.
Regardless how bad the subs might be, I wish I could have watched the R1 DVD because my R4 copy (sans-subtitles) contains one of the crappiest DVD audio-tracks ever. Halfway into the movie the audio goes out of synch, and from that point it's impossible to pay attention to the story because when some nun is speaking you see the other sister moving her lips! ahhh that's an utter annoyance!
I sent back my bad copy, received a refund and now I'm gonna buy the R1 DVD (the price is almost the same anyway). If the audio-track is not out of synch, I'll be more than happy. English subs could be helpful, too. Spanish is my 1st language but Spain's spanish (aka castilian) sometimes is hard to understand for non-spaniards.
It is a flawed movie for sure, but I also think it's underrated. Maybe I'm just sensitive but I was quite touched by the ending, something that quite a few deem a cop-out.
I thought the cinematography was very interesting - some extreme low angles, track shots, etc. were very beautifully executed.
The moment when the Mother Superior and Yolanda both sing out the lyrics of the Lucho Gatica song is one of my favorite moments in cinematic history. Just beautiful.
And seriously, how often do you see nuns shoot up even in these times?