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| Pedro Almodóvar (L): The master craftsman of Hispanic cinema Photo credit: Cynthia licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
A stellar and visual treat
Talking of films, if you are keen on acquiring the Spanish of the peninsula, you don’t want to miss Hable con Ella (Talk to Her) no matter what. The most celebrated filmmaker Spain has ever produced, Pedro Almodóvar, created this comedy-drama in 2002 and made the box offices jingle on both sides of the Atlantic. The film collected no less than 25 awards and 8 nominations which is no small feat. The wins include heavyweights like the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, and the Oscars.
Basically, this movie has every ingredient of being a star member of every Spanish enthusiast’s collection and the incredibly engaging direction and storyline are only an added bonus. Packed with some of the most famous names in the Spanish cinema, the star-cast is what strikes you first. Then you have the bullfighting, the dancing, and some of the most stunning locales in Spain, all teaming up together to present to you the culture of Spain like you never knew before.
A celebration of human emotions
The film is all about the communication gap between the sexes, the die-hard love, the melancholy, and the accompanying intimacy. Benigno is a private nurse to a beautiful and comatose ballet student, Alicia, at a private clinic while Marco is a travel writer whose girlfriend, a famous matador by the name, Lydia is also comatose in the same clinic. It is this clinic where, while attending to their respective ladies, the two men start developing a bond and recount their respective stories to each other.
The entire film tracks these stories in flashback and shows some incredibly intense and deep-rooted human emotions shared by the four characters in some of the most extreme circumstances faced by ordinary men and women. It is also revealed that Marco had actually fallen in love with the famous bullfighter during an official interview and later she had an accident where after being gored by a bull during an event, she went into a coma. Benigno, on the other hand, had actually fallen for Alicia, who had gone comatose after a car accident, while caring for her at the clinic. It is this one-sided love that the film attempts to track with all the usual bells and whistles of Spanish culture thrown in along the way.
As the story develops, Marco is shown to have left for Jordan where he is writing a travel guide and reads in a newspaper that his girlfriend has died while in coma. Meanwhile, Alicia gets pregnant and Benigno is charged with raping her and is sent to a jail in Segovia. Eventually, he is shown to have died after ingesting a lot of sleeping pills in a desperate attempt to escape his fate. The film moves through several emotional twists and turns and eventually ends with Marco and Alicia together, apparently a couple.
The compelling storyline will captivate you regardless of your level of Spanish and that is what makes it such an easy watch. You can watch this film over and over again, as many times as required without ever getting bored. This is the power of compelling storytelling that Almodóvar is so capable of. Of course, you stand to absorb best if using Spanish subtitles instead of English, if at all any.
Speaking of subtitles, Spanish is your best bet only because you must develop the knack to instantly recognize the language first-hand, both written and spoken. English subtitles would mean your mind will never learn to interpret Spanish without first translating in the background. If you wish to master the language, you must wean yourself away from English in every possible thing you do and subtitles are no exception. So, no English subtitles and absolutely no English dubbing. Treat everything English like the plague. Stay assured, this sacrifice will pay off.
Know Spain like never before
This film captures the essence of the Hispanic culture like few others have done in the past. From the icon of Spain’s machismo, bullfighting, to the legendary flamenco, every aspect of the Castilian lifestyle has been captured with incredible accuracy. The film’s realistic, authentic dialogs ensure that you enrich your Spanish bit by bit each time you watch it and the stunning cinematography ensures you feel compelled to watch it in endless loops.
Then there is the evocative music that celebrates love, obsession, and the effervescent Spanish charm with sophisticated flamenco guitars, violins, and vocal flourishes. This is one of the most awe-inspiring musical interludes in any film in recent memory, we must say. If you are looking for one single film to understand everything that defines Spain, this is definitely it.
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