#111: All About My Mother
Part of the Top 150 Films series
All About My Mother used to be in my top 10 films of all time. That it has “fallen” in these arbitrary rankings says more about my changing tastes and less about the film itself. Brash, abrasive, hilarious, Mother is Almodóvar’s id and idiosyncratic style writ large in bold typeface, flamboyant colours and through larger than life characters. Cecilia Roth towers above the sexually fluid hurly-burly with an air of dignity and authority not often found in Almodóvar films; indeed, I’d place Roth’s Manuela up there with the greatest performances committed to celluloid. Almodóvar deservedly crafts the film to be all about Manuela, but doesn’t skimp on anyone or anything else, giving plenty of attention to the ego-starved oddballs in the cast, the eye-popping production design and especially Affonso Beato’s under-heralded cinematography. A treatise on life, faith, theatre, relationships, and empathy, Mother is everything Almodóvar does best and even more.
