January 11, 2005

Gael Garcia Bernal — So 'Bad,' It's Good

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Another meeting of the Gael Garcia Bernal fan club of two (aka Cinecultist and the Real Janelle) occured last week at a screening of Pedro Almodóvar's new film, Bad Education at the Sunshine on Houston. Fueled by some tasty wings and happy hour beers, we were so ready to take in some equally tasty Bernal. But of course, an Almodóvar movie is so much more than cute guy oggling (though surely the director wants us to indulge with him in this healthy past time too). At once a comedy of errors, a pastiche of noir elements, a biographical musing and a compelling narrative, Almodóvar's movie is a stunning work.

We'd been anticipating seeing this movie for a few years now, ever since Almodóvar came to town to promote the screening of Talk to Her at the New York Film Festival. At the time, CC had been working in the trenches of downtown cool at Paper magazine as an editorial intern, and one day glanced up from our fact checking to see the adorable Spanish director standing in front of our computer. He wanted to know where the restroom was. We pointed in that direction. He said thank you. It was a thrilling moment, no question about it. Almodóvar is a long time friend of Paper's publishers and conducted a long interview over lunch with their film editor, which CC had to transcribe a few days later. He spoke about his personal connection to his up coming project (ie. Bad Education) and the potentially shocking material in the story about priests and their students. From a transcriber's point of view, Almodóvar's accent is a little tricky to say the least, but from a film fan's his deep film love is easy to understand.

Our movie club, Cinema Ahh*some will be screening an early Almodóvar this week, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! which we're excited to see and discuss with our film buddies.

Posted by karen at January 11, 2005 9:10 AM