Agrado's Monologue (All about my mother - Almodóvar)

I loved yesterday. The weather was glorious as my friend Ruth and I drove to the PictureHouse to see All About My Mother

The famous 1999 movie by Pedro Almodòvar was on a rerun , presumably to celebrate Pride Month and I hadn’t visited it since the early 2000s when I think I had it on dvd. 

This film, because of its bold signature use of red , should be seen of the big screen. 

It’s a sumptuous looking drama set between Madrid and Barcelona and is a study of motherhood in all of its facets and complications. 

For those that don’t know, I will try to give you a flavour of the piece.

Manuela ( Cecilia Roth) is the loving single mother of 18 year old Esteban, a budding writer and theatre obsessive.On a trip to see aging actress Huma Rojo ( Marissa Paredes) in A StreetCar named Desire , Esteban  is tragically killed, after which Manuela goes of the search for Esteban’s father, who is a trans woman, called Lola, living the low life in Barcelona. 

On her travels, Manuela joins forces with a nun ( Penelope Cruz) made pregnant and HIV+ by Lola, a feisty trans sex worker Agrado ( Antonia San Juan) and Huma who is still appearing in Streetcar’s tour around the country. And the film explores how the quartet  ( and others) deal with issues such as motherhood, acceptance, and forgiveness  we see the lives of the women the piece with Hollywood  references not only to Streetcar but to All About Eve.

It’s showy, funny, loud and at times incredibly moving with great performances all round especially by Sam Juan , whose foul mouthed turn as the whore  who literally doesn’t give a fuck in incredibly brave and touching all at the same time.

This is a women’s film obscured by gay and trans issues, a tribute to Douglas Sirk from the 1950s and it’s glorious in every way.

As we came back out into sun shire we watched people dancing salsa outside the Chester Market which was an absolute joy

Then went for a lovely relaxed but ordered lunch at Hamayuu