Underrated
Added 4/24/2009
Almodovar's work seems to follow a progression. It seems to me that The Flower Of My Secret actually marked the beginning of a new stage. As opposed to his previous movies, this one leaves off most of the comedy effects to focus on the intricacies of a writer's life, Leo (short for Leocadia), who struggles to find her way in a life that everybody insists to keep her sheltered from: Her husband doesn't love her, her best friend keeps a shocking secret from her, and even her maid and the maid's son keep a double life behind her back... All this under the excuse or assumption that she is too fragile to deal with it, though that is also a way of covering their own selfishness. When the truth finally surfaces, she is forced to create a new life out of the old one with the help of her sort of crazy family and her new boss.
One of the curiosities of this movie is how it contains the seeds for two other movies Almodovar will make later:
- The scene on the transplant seminar (played by Kitty Manver as a coach nurse in this movie) will be reprised at the beginning of All About My Mother (with Cecilia Roth in the same role).
- The story that Leo delivers to her horrified Romantic Novel editors, about a mother who hides the corpse of her husband in a freezer after he rapes his stepdaughter and is killed in self defense, seems to be the original idea for Volver, that Almodovar will film years later.
Though certainly it might be said this movie is not the best Almodovar ever filmed, especially when he is always trying to top himself, it is well above average, with a complex character development, and well plotted. Definitely, an underrated movie.
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Charming two hours in Spain
Added 11/20/2008
The Flower of My Secret is a charming surprise about a middle-aged, Spanish romance writer who is devastated when her husband leaves her. The plot is actually fairly predictable. What makes this movie so enjoyable is the main character, Leocadia, who is beautiful, talented, and flawed. In fact, it is her flaws (her penchant for melodrama and booze, to name two of them) that endear her to the viewer. This movie is the perfect way to spend a rainy weekend afternoon.
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Abandonment and recovery
Added 9/4/2008
"Flower of My Secret" is a more reflective, less manic film than viewers of Almodovar have come to expect, and I for one am glad. One of his favorite themes, the fluid elusiveness or complexity of personal identity, comes through here loud and clear. There's a lot going on in the film--way too much, as a matter of fact--but Almodovar followers have come to expect this, too. But this film is easier to navigate than many of his movies (such as the dreadful "Kiko"), and it has its genuinely sweet moments.
The film focuses on Leo (wonderfully played by Marisa Paredes), a romance novel queen whose life is falling apart. She's too dependent on Paco (Imanol Arias), a husband who's lost interest in her and too fixated on her own grief. She's not an utterly self-centered woman; she takes good financial care of her sister (played by the ever-good Rossy de Palma) and mother. But she's too clingy, and her inability to hang onto Paco is leading her to despair, drink, and a botched suicide attempt.
Enter Angel (Juan Echanove), editor of a newspaper who falls in love with her and in the utterly selfless way that we expect of angels helps her to recover from her sense of abandonment and recognize that life must be taken as it comes.
This exploration of romantic abandonment would've been quite enough for one film. But Almodovar's fertile imagination just can't hold back from cramming lots more into the movie. So there's the theme of authorial integrity and identity that serves as a subplot (Leo insists on writing her romance novels under a pen name, but has come to despise them--the fluidity of identity theme), a bit but not totally distracting (and it serves as the occasion for Leo meeting Angel). Much more distracting, however, and totally unnecessary is a subplot--again, typically Almodovar--of a flamenco performance.
Watch the film for Paredo's performance--and the flamenco is beautiful. But keep in mind that it's got all the messiness that one usually finds in Almodovar.
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Not Almodóvar's best, but it presaged his great stretch
Added 5/9/2008
I'm a big Almodóvar fan and of Marisa Paredes, too. But to get right to the point: Skip this one. Chronologically, 'Flower' came right after the dreadful Kika (the Almodovar Collection) [Region 2 Import, English Subtitles] and while it's a step up from there, it's a far cry from the incredible string of four films starting with 1999's All About My Mother.
Wikipedia says that 'Flower' "remains one of the director's humblest films." That's a euphemistic way of saying "this is dreadfully boring stuff." Four years later, Almodóvar turned on the jets with All About My Mother, followed in succession by masterpieces Talk to Her (Hable con Ella), Bad Education (R-Rated Edition) and Volver. He can put that quartet up against any director in history.
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Pain and life . . .
Added 11/6/2007
The wonderful achievement of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is his ability to take the material of melodrama and soap opera and with the lightest touch turn it into life affirming entertainment. This 1996 film set in Madrid has another of his women on the verge of a nervous breakdown - several, in fact - and follows her through a series of life crises to a happily bittersweet ending. Marisa Paredes plays the woman, a hugely successful romance writer, who has a tempestuous marriage to an army officer that's headed for divorce, a mother and sister who never stop berating each other, and a best friend who as a grief counselor could give them all lessons on how to give and take bad news but has some bad news of her own she's not revealing.
Add a faithful housekeeper and her son, trying to persuade her to return to a career as a heart-stopping flamenco dancer, plus a soft-hearted newspaper editor ready to come to the rescue, and you have most of the elements of a closely interwoven story that doesn't stop moving until the last breakable object has been thrown and the last tear dabbed away with a tissue. The music track ranges from tango motifs to Miles Davis; there are references right and left to other movies and literature; and the sets and costumes are all bright colors with an emphasis on red. No Almodóvar fan will be disappointed. The DVD includes a short making-of featurette, with interviews of the director and cast.
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Underrated
Added 4/24/2009
Almodovar's work seems to follow a progression. It seems to me that The Flower Of My Secret actually marked the beginning of a new stage. As opposed to his previous movies, this one leaves off most of the comedy effects to focus on the intricacies of a writer's life, Leo (short for Leocadia), who struggles to find her way in a life that everybody insists to keep her sheltered from: Her husband doesn't love her, her best friend keeps a shocking secret from her, and even her maid and the maid's son keep a double life behind her back... All this under the excuse or assumption that she is too fragile to deal with it, though that is also a way of covering their own selfishness. When the truth finally surfaces, she is forced to create a new life out of the old one with the help of her sort of crazy family and her new boss.
One of the curiosities of this movie is how it contains the seeds for two other movies Almodovar will make later:
- The scene on the transplant seminar (played by Kitty Manver as a coach nurse in this movie) will be reprised at the beginning of All About My Mother (with Cecilia Roth in the same role).
- The story that Leo delivers to her horrified Romantic Novel editors, about a mother who hides the corpse of her husband in a freezer after he rapes his stepdaughter and is killed in self defense, seems to be the original idea for Volver, that Almodovar will film years later.
Though certainly it might be said this movie is not the best Almodovar ever filmed, especially when he is always trying to top himself, it is well above average, with a complex character development, and well plotted. Definitely, an underrated movie.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Charming two hours in Spain
Added 11/20/2008
The Flower of My Secret is a charming surprise about a middle-aged, Spanish romance writer who is devastated when her husband leaves her. The plot is actually fairly predictable. What makes this movie so enjoyable is the main character, Leocadia, who is beautiful, talented, and flawed. In fact, it is her flaws (her penchant for melodrama and booze, to name two of them) that endear her to the viewer. This movie is the perfect way to spend a rainy weekend afternoon.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Abandonment and recovery
Added 9/4/2008
"Flower of My Secret" is a more reflective, less manic film than viewers of Almodovar have come to expect, and I for one am glad. One of his favorite themes, the fluid elusiveness or complexity of personal identity, comes through here loud and clear. There's a lot going on in the film--way too much, as a matter of fact--but Almodovar followers have come to expect this, too. But this film is easier to navigate than many of his movies (such as the dreadful "Kiko"), and it has its genuinely sweet moments.
The film focuses on Leo (wonderfully played by Marisa Paredes), a romance novel queen whose life is falling apart. She's too dependent on Paco (Imanol Arias), a husband who's lost interest in her and too fixated on her own grief. She's not an utterly self-centered woman; she takes good financial care of her sister (played by the ever-good Rossy de Palma) and mother. But she's too clingy, and her inability to hang onto Paco is leading her to despair, drink, and a botched suicide attempt.
Enter Angel (Juan Echanove), editor of a newspaper who falls in love with her and in the utterly selfless way that we expect of angels helps her to recover from her sense of abandonment and recognize that life must be taken as it comes.
This exploration of romantic abandonment would've been quite enough for one film. But Almodovar's fertile imagination just can't hold back from cramming lots more into the movie. So there's the theme of authorial integrity and identity that serves as a subplot (Leo insists on writing her romance novels under a pen name, but has come to despise them--the fluidity of identity theme), a bit but not totally distracting (and it serves as the occasion for Leo meeting Angel). Much more distracting, however, and totally unnecessary is a subplot--again, typically Almodovar--of a flamenco performance.
Watch the film for Paredo's performance--and the flamenco is beautiful. But keep in mind that it's got all the messiness that one usually finds in Almodovar.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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