Bad Education
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bad Education | |
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_movie.jpg) Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Produced by | Pedro Almodóvar Agustin Almodóvar Esther García |
| Written by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Starring | Gael Garcia Bernal Fele Martinez Daniel Giménez Cacho Javier Cámara Petra Martínez Leonor Watling |
| Music by | Alberto Iglesias |
| Cinematography | Jose Luis Alcaine |
| Editing by | José Salcedo |
| Distributed by | Spain: Warner Sogefilms United States: Sony Pictures Classics |
| Release date(s) | United States: September 5, 2004 Spain: March 19, 2004 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish Latin |
| Budget | $5,000,000[1] |
| Gross revenue | Worldwide $40,266,982 Spain €6,118,873 United States $5,211,842[2] |
Bad Education (Spanish: La mala educación) is a 2004 Spanish film directed by Pedro Almodóvar about two reunited childhood friends (and lovers) in the vein of a murder mystery. Sexual abuse by Catholic priests, transsexuality, drug abuse, and a metafiction are also important themes and devices in the plot.
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[edit] Plot
- The following describes the film's plot in a chronological manner, whereas the various elements actually fall into place for the viewer as the film progresses through flashbacks and also scenes from Enrique's own film based on Ignacio's short story in which Ignacio's brother, Juan, portrays the 1980 Ignacio.
Two school boys, Ignacio and Enrique, discover love, cinema, and fear in a religious school at the start of the 1960s. Father Manolo, the school principal and their literature teacher, is witness to and part of these discoveries. On discovering the two boys' affection for each other, the priest, who is himself engrossed with Ignacio, is jealous and threatens to expel Enrique as a 'bad influence'. In an attempt to prevent this Ignacio promises to do whatever the priest asks of him. After molesting Ignacio, the priest expels Enrique anyway.
The film starts in 1980 with the boys now young adults. Enrique (Fele Martínez), a successful film director is visited by a stranger (Gael García Bernal) in his office, an actor looking for work who claims to be Enrique's boarding school friend and first love, Ignacio. "Ignacio" has brought a short story with him that is about their time at the Catholic school together and the physical and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Father Manolo (Daniel Giménez Cacho). It also includes a fictionalized account of their reunion after all those years.
Enrique wants to adapt Ignacio's story into a film, but "Ignacio's" condition is that he play the part of Zahara, the transsexual lead. Enrique remains skeptical, for he feels that the Ignacio whom he loved and the Ignacio of today are totally different people. He drives to Galicia to Ignacio's mother and learns that the real Ignacio has been dead for four years and that the man who came to his office is really Ignacio's younger brother, Juan.
Enrique's interest is piqued, and he decides to do the movie with Juan in the role of Ignacio to find out what drives Juan. Enrique and "Ignacio" start a relationship, and Enrique revises the script so that it ends with Father Manolo, whom Ignacio was trying to blackmail to get money for sex reassignment surgery, having Ignacio murdered. When the scene is shot, "Ignacio" breaks out in tears unexpectedly.
The movie set is visited by Manuel Berenguer (Lluís Homar), who is none other than the real Father Manolo, who has resigned from Church duty. Manuel confesses to Enrique that the new ending of the film is not far from the truth: the real Ignacio blackmailed Manuel, who somehow managed to scratch together the money but also took an interest in Ignacio's younger brother Juan. Juan and Manuel started a relationship and after a while realized they both wanted to see Ignacio dead. Juan scored some very pure heroin, so that his brother would die by overdose after shooting up.
Enrique is shocked and not at all interested in Juan's weak vindications for what he did to his brother. Finally, before he leaves, Juan gives Enrique a piece of paper: a letter to Enrique that Ignacio was in the middle of typing when he died.
[edit] Cast
- Gael García Bernal as Ángel/Juan/Zahara. Bernal was required to display a convincing Castilian Spanish accent before being cast.
- Fele Martínez as Enrique Goded
- Daniel Giménez Cacho as Father Manolo
- Lluís Homar as Sr. Manuel Berenguer
- Javier Cámara as Paca/Paquito
- Petra Martínez as Mother
- Nacho Pérez as Young Ignacio
- Raúl García Forneiro as Young Enrique
- Francisco Boira as Ignacio
- Juan Fernández as Martín
- Alberto Ferreiro as Enrique Serrano
- Roberto Hoyas as Camarero
- Francisco Maestre as Padre José
- Leonor Watling as Mónica
- Agustín Almodóvar as Enrique's pool attendant (uncredited)
- Sara Montiel as Soledad (archive footage) (uncredited)
[edit] Production
According to Almodóvar, he worked on the screenplay for over ten years.[1]
[edit] Reception
The film received the honor of opening in the 57th Cannes Film Festival in 2004,[3] the first Spanish film to do so.
Overall, this film grossed $40 million worldwide.[2] The film grossed $5.2 million in the United States theatrically[2] - a brilliant success for a foreign-language film.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b De La Fuente, Anna Marie (2004-11-04). "Almodovar puts 'Education' to use". Variety. Archived from the original on 2009-06-20. http://www.webcitation.org/5hfXwKOEZ. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
- ^ a b c "Bad Education (2004)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=badeducation.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Bad Education". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4185283/year/2004.html. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- ^ Tobias, Scott (2004-11-19). "Foreign affairs". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000724461. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Bad Education at the Internet Movie Database
- Bad Education at Allmovie
- Bad Education at Rotten Tomatoes
- Bad Education at Metacritic
- Bad Education at Box Office Mojo
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