Released 1997
Stars Liberto Rabal, Francesca Neri, Javier Bardem, Angela Molina, Jose
Sancho, Penelope Cruz
Directed by Pedro Almodovar
With titles like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, and Kika, Almodovar has constantly challenged his audience about some of the essential themes of life: sex, love, and violence. He pushes the envelope in a way that many film makers are uncomfortable even attempting. Watch Tie Me Up! if you doubt this statement.
Now, however, there are indications that Almodovar is maturing. Live Flesh is a superb, sublime motion picture that uses a quintet of fascinating characters to examine a few of the director's favorite concepts. The five principals come together on one fateful night in 1992 Madrid. Victor has fallen for a woman, Elena, whom he had sex with a week ago. Elena, however, wants nothing more to do with Victor, and, when he shows up at her apartment, she uses a gun to scare him away. A shot is fired and the cops are called. Arriving at Elena's apartment are two partners, David and Sancho, who are in the midst of a crisis in their friendship. Sancho, a chronic, abusive drunk, believes that his wife, Clara, is having an affair, and he suspects David of being Clara's lover. What happens when the police break down the door to Elena's apartment sets off a chain of events that reverberate through time to a period four years later, when circumstances bring the characters together once again, albeit in a vastly different situation.
Summary by James Berardinelli