All About My Mother [DVD] [1999]

After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mothertraces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colours and melodramatic plotting. However,All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy and grief as much as kindness, courage and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret Fetzer

All Esteban wants for his 18th birthday is for his mother to tell him about his father.

DVD Special Features

Languages: Spanish Feature Length: 97 mins
Ratio: 2.35:1
Original Theatrical Trailer

MAGNIFICENT...this is one you just don't want to end.

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: Spanish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance, becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover, and she becomes Rosa's caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, 'All About Eve,' and 'Streetcar Named Desire,' the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, British Independent Film Awards, Butaca Awards, Camerimage Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Ceasar Awards, Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain, David Donatello Awards, European Film Awards, Golden Globes, Goya Awards, Oscar Academy Awards, San Sebastian International Film Festival, ...All About My Mother ( Todo sobre mi madre ) ( Tout sur ma mère )