What “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” proved to a lot of non-foreign film watching audiences was that Penelope Cruz could actually act and act something fierce. People who have watched spectacular turns in Pedro Almodovar films like “Live Flesh,” “Volver” and Spanish-language films like “Abros Los Ojos” already knew this, but you’re forgiven if you thought she couldn’t cut it, because — much like great actors who often are terrible when not speaking their native tongue, hello Antonio Banderas — in English language films, she’s generally a fish out of water.
Once again back in the bosom of symbiotic muse Pedro Almodovar, we’re expecting big things from “Broken Embraces,” one of our most anticipated films of 2009. The film noir has been kept under tight wraps for some time now and this trailer and its little synopsis elucidate more than anything has so far. “Los Abrazos Rotos“: A man writes, lives and loves in the darkness. He was the victim of a brutal car accident fourteen years ago. Not only did he lose his sight, but also the woman of his life, Lena (Penelope Cruz).
The 59-year-old Almodovar should have peaked probably sometime in the ’90s, but he’s been in full swing in the last few years, with “Talk To Her” and “Volver” as some of the best foreign language films of this decade (we don’t even want to qualify them as that, but for now…).We don’t put a lot of stock in list-happy EW’s lists (lists sell, this is why they do them, it’s proven easy content), but it is interesting to note that he’s the one of the few foreign directors on their 25 Greatest Active Directors lists and the only real Foreign-language filmmaker (Guillermo has moved on from that world). The wonderful score here is done once again by Alberto Iglesias, who some of the greatest composers in the world all agree was robbed when he did not receive an Oscar nomination at the 2006 Academy Awards for “Volver” (if it’s not obvious by now, that movie is amazing).
“Broken Embraces” comes out in France in May (and March for Spain) which leaves many educated guessers to speculate that the film will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. In North America, the film November 6 via Sony Pictures Classics.
Update: ComingSoon have an even better synopsis: “Broken Embraces is a four-way tale of amour-fou, shot in the style of ’50s American film noir at its most hard-boiled, and will mix references to works like Nicholas Ray‘s In a Lonely Place and Vincente Minnelli‘s The Bad and the Beautiful, with signature Almodovar themes such as fate, the mystery of creation, guilt, unscrupulous power, the eternal search of fathers for sons, and sons for fathers.”