Pedro Almodóvar: The Ultimate Collection

Box Set

Running Time: 769

Genre: Feature, Foreign

Certificate: 18

Language: Spanish

Collection of seven films by acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. In 'Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down' (1990), Marina (Victoria Abril) is a soft-porn actress with two men in her life: one, the wheelchair-bound director of her films, is obsessed with her and leaves endless messages on her answering machine; the other, Ricky (Antonio Banderas), has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital and is determined to father her children. Ricky attacks her in her flat, holds her hostage and ties her to the bed until she begins to see him in a different light. 'Bad Education' (2004), follows the stories of two boys who fall in love at a Catholic school but are parted by a jealous priest. Sixteen years later, Enrique (Fele Martínez), now a successful film-maker, is searching for an idea for a new film when Ignacio, now called Angel (Gael García Bernal), approaches him with a short story based on their school days together. Enrique decides to use the story and casts Angel in the film's lead role, despite his discovery that Angel is not Ignacio, but is in fact his younger brother Juan. When Manuel Berenguer (Lluís Homar), the priest who abused Ignacio as a boy, visits the film set, dark secrets are revealed. In 'All About My Mother' (1999), single mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth) takes her seventeen-year-old son Esteban (Eloy Azorín) to the theatre for his birthday but he is tragically killed when he chases after a taxi carrying his favourite actress, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes). Consumed with guilt, Manuela decides to go in search of Esteban's father, who she discovers is now called Lola (Toni Cantó). Together with Lola and a group of new friends including Huma and Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a pregnant and HIV-positive nun, Manuela embarks on a painful journey of self-discovery. In 'Talk To Her' (2002), Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a housebound nurse who falls in love with a young dancer, Alicia (Leonor Watling), he sees rehearsing through his window. Marco (Darío Grandinetti) is a journalist who falls in love with a bullfighter, Lydia (Rosario Flores), after being assigned to interview her. When Alicia and Lydia are involved in separate accidents which send them both into a comas, Benigno and Marco meet at the hospital and unpredictable consequences promptly ensue. In the supernatural-themed comedy 'Volver' (2006), Penélope Cruz plays a Madrid mother and housewife of a drunk husband. She and her sister are orphans by dint of a house fire back home in rural LaMancha. When their sole surviving relative there - their mother's sister - passes on, her past habit of talking to the girls' mother as if she were still on the mortal plane takes on a new and chilling significance. In 'Broken Embraces' (2009), Mateo Blanco (Homar) is a scriptwriter who was in a car accident 14 years ago which killed the woman he loved, Lena (Cruz), and blinded him. Since then he has gone by the name Harry Caine, choosing to forget his past and the accident, which he never talks about. One night he is required to look after his production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo)'s son Diego (Tamar Novas), after he hurts himself. During the time they spend together, Diego asks about when Harry was called Mateo and so Harry decides to tell the boy the story of his painful past, presenting it as fiction in an attempt to keep Diego entertained. Through his recollections he explores the intense and complex relationships which existed between himself, Lena, Judit and Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez). Finally, in the revenge tale 'The Skin I Live In' (2011), Antonio Banderas stars as Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon whose attempts to cultivate a new form of human skin have led to years of experimentation on a live woman, Vera (Elena Anaya). But as the story of Vera's past emerges, it becomes clear that Robert has a questionable agenda of his own as he manipulates her face and body for his own purposes.