Bad Education

Starring: Fele Martinez, Gael Garcia Bernal Original UK Premiere: 2004 Dvd Release: 27th December, 2004 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Subtitled, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding Subtitled In: English

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Bad Education is a 2004 film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar about two reunited childhood friends in the vein of an Alfred Hitchcock murder mystery. Sexual abuse by Catholic priests, transsexuality, drug abuse & a film-within-a-film are also important themes & devices in the plot. Enrique, a successful film director, is visited by a stranger in his office, an actor looking for work who claims to be Enriques boarding school friend & first love interest Ignacio. Ignacio has brought a short story with him that is about their time at the Catholic school together & the physical & sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Father Manolo. It also includes a fictionalized account of their reunion after all those years. Enrique remains skeptical, for he feels the Ignacio he loved & the Ignacio of today are totally different persons. He drives to Galicia to Ignacios mother & has to learn that the real Ignacio has been dead for four years & that the man who came to his office is really Ignacios younger brother, Juan.

This is a beautifully made film, with the dry, dusty landscape reflecting the coarse education & subsequent evolution of the two central characters. Fine performances are put in by Fele Martinez & the current darling of international cinema, the handsome Gael Garcia Bernal, who uses his elegant features to fine effect, spending much of the movie in drag. The film certainly offers up some thought provoking issues on the abuse of power, & some delicately shot scenes suggesting the young love between the two boys. However the middle section possibly concentrates too much on looking good & not enough on advancing what is a strong & engaging plot, which is unravelled rapidly at the end. Overall this is an intriguing, stylish movie which will both tug at the heart & invoke rage simultaneously, however it may be 15 minutes too long.

Gael García Bernal is a Mexican actor. Gael García Bernal has starred in some of Mexicos most celebrated films. Beginning with Amores Perros, then 2001s Y tu Mamá Tambien & El Crimen del Padre Amaro. It was his debut as the working-class street thug in Oscar-nominated Amores Perros that first grabbed Hollywood s attention. Like a Mexican Marlon Brando, García Bernal transmits vulnerability beneath a bad-boy sexuality. He started acting as a one-year-old & spent most his teen years starring in soap operas. But just as he became a soap heartthrob, at age 19, he left Mexico s television world to study acting at the Central School of Speech & Drama in London, England. His mother, Patricia Bernal, is an actress & former model. His father, Jose Angel García, is an actor & director. Gael García Bernal speaks Spanish, Italian, French & English. García Bernal is also a close friend of actor, Diego Luna. Posters Of Gael Garcia Bernal

Editors Choice: Bad Education, Dot The I, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Motorcycle Diaries, View DVDology

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