The Toy Diver


I remember when they showed this film on some channel overseas this scene was cut from the movie. What's Up With That?

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I thought that scene was pretty stupid anyway, what was the point of it ?

sometimes it seems the almo just throws in these pointless, usually sex related scenes cos he's just a bit of a *beep* wierdo or a perv

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This scene is great. Funny and beautifully filmed. You'll never see it in Hollywood and that makes it even better. Great shot.

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Yeah, I thought it was funny too. They don't make toys like the old days!

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The point of it was simple. It was a clever way to show that she was feeling lonely or she wasn't satisfied from her sex life etc. Also keep in mind that earlier in the film it was shown how she was perceived by the director and the journalist kindof as a sex object.

So he used that scene instead of showing the blunt truth of her masturbating which is almost impossible to pull off in a film. On top of that it was kinda funny so all in all it was a nice unique scene.

Good directors rarely do random stuff in good films, the fault is usually on ourselves that we don't get it.

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Actually it reminded me of that B&W scene in Hable con Ella, where the tiny man 'dives' into his lover's vagina, and get lost. it is probably an early interpretation or take on that idea.. seems like something Almodovar kept carrying with him, the idea of men being obsessed with P\/ssy... which IS a theme in many of his movies, like in Hable con ella the male nurse (kind of spoiler ahead>>>) risked and lost his life for. And so did the tiny man who got lost in his woman's vagina (and in both scenes, we see the woman's face filled with pleasure). Here the diver didn't enter, nor lost his life. But probably has to do with Banderas trying to force himself into this woman's life.
It's not pure or shallow symbolism, but a running theme.
Just my 2 cents.

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Ha! Film censors can't bear the idea that women pleasure themselves with weird objects! It's hilarious as a scene. The fact that it might have pushed up the rating in places like the US whereas the overall theme of a woman being kidnapped and held bondage might have got a lower rating is a f/cking hysterical commentary on society.

I'm a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl

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I thought that scene was hilarious. An innocent little child's toy being used for a private adult pleasure. (In reality though, it would have needed a lot more swimming force to have any effect) It shows Marina to be a sensual creature but without a partner to fulfill those desires. Trapped by toys and her film career, she finds pleasure through inanimate objects.

Anyway about the cutting, it was probably the one scene that earned the dreaded "X" rating in the U.S. Almodovar and the distributors pushed for the creation of a new rating, NC-17, which carried a lot less stigma at the box office, and which avoided X-rated movie prohibitions in effect at many theatres.


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"...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped."

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