Broken Embraces
Product ID: 3942515
Details
- GenreDrama
- FormatColor AC-3
- ContributorPenélope Cruz
- LanguageFrench Spanish
- Runtime2 hours and 7
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Product Description A luminous Penelope Cruz stars as an actress who sacrifices everything for true love in Academy Award-winning filmmaker (2003, Best Writing, Original Screenplay, Talk to Her) Pedro Almodovar's acclaimed tale of sex, secrets and cinema. When her father becomes gravely ill, beautiful Lena (Cruz) consents to a relationship with her boss Ernesto (Jose Luis Gomez), a very wealthy, much-older man who pays for her father's hospitalization and provides her a lavish lifestyle. But Lena's dream is to act and soon she falls for the director of her first film, a project bankrolled by her husband to keep her near. Upon his discovery of the affair, Ernesto stops at nothing to ruin Lena's happiness. .com Pedro Almodóvar continues to reinvent Hollywood's Golden Age for a new era with Broken Embraces. A blind screenwriter in the present day, Mateo Blanco, a.k.a. Harry Caine (Lluís Homar), reminisces about his favorite leading lady to his assistant, Diego (Tamar Novas). In 1992, when Caine met Lena (Penélope Cruz), stockbroker Ernesto (José Luis Gómez) had just made the cash-strapped secretary his mistress. First, Ernesto pays for her mother's medical care; then he supports her dream to act. In the process, Caine casts her in his screwball comedy and falls in love, and a passionate affair begins. Ernesto suspects something is up, so he hires his shifty son, Ernesto Jr. (the off-key Rubén Ochandiano), to film the couple surreptitiously, and a lip reader translates their conversations. Caine's production manager, Judit (Volver's Blanca Portillo), further complicates the scenario. By the end, Caine, whose name serves as a tip of the hat to hard-boiled author James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice), has lost his vision and his girl, and the culprit isn't as obvious as it seems. With Embraces, Almodóvar riffs on Tinseltown classics where greed and lust lead to death. If less successful than Live Flesh, a prior noir, his jigsaw storytelling remains just as riveting and his principal cast rises to the occasion, particularly Cruz, who plays a more passive character than usual and remains, much like Otto Preminger's Laura before her, a mystery that no one, not even the filmmaker, can ever completely solve. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Stills from Broken Embraces (Click for larger image)
E**A
Almodovar's latest love story
There has not been a film made by the Spanish director Pedro Almodovar that I have not seen yet. His latest film "Broken Embraces" has beautiful Penelope Cruz in a lead female role that she carries on well as always. Although the story is unique, it definitely is a typical Almodovar movie in which he employs many of his ideas from the previous films. Homosexuality, obsessive love, revenge and femme fatale are themes his fans will recognise quickly throughout the film.This is a story of two people who loved each other deeply and sincerely. Power, money and possesiveness got in a way of them being together and like most doomed relationships, this one was not to last. The mere impossibility of such love to exist makes this story so lovely and touching.Must see movie, regardless if this is the first film by this director you have ever seen, or one out of many.
D**L
Penelope, Audrey and Marilyn
"Broken Embraces" marks Almodovar's first self homage, moving from the overwrought melodramas of Douglas Sirk to the equally over-the-top telenovella style of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", quoted here as a film within a film. Starring Penelope Cruz, the director's resident muse, in a performance of dazzling physical beauty and deeply wrought emotionalism, Almodovar's film visually links her to both Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, in the process making the case for Cruz as one of this point in film history's reigning icons.Beginning with the positioning of a blinded filmmaker as his main character, Almodovar explores the themes of filmmaking, betrayal and parent/child relationships with vigor and imagination. After shout-outs to both Bunuel and Hitchcock, "Embraces" concludes with a son serving as his blinded father's eyes and father, mother and son working together to redeem both a family and a film. This is a filmmaker's and a film viewer's dream vision.
A**A
Penelope Cruz at her best
The screenplay is a little stretchy in my opinion, but not unbearable. Penelope Cruz is a star of the show from all angles. The drama evolves pretty routinely, the shocking ending is not surprising for Almodovar's production. Overall, time well spent, very lively conversations, face close-up master pieces are true gems of the film
B**F
Well Done! And a Flashback Treat for Pedro Almodóvar Fans!
My first exposure to Pedro Almodóvar was "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" back in 1988. I instantly became an Almodóvar fan.I was delighted to watch "Broken Embraces", although it did seem to get off to a slow start. And I was very delighted to see all the "call backs" to "Women On The Verge" in this film. From his signature "primary colors" sets to outright re-enactments of certain scenes in "Women", it was great acting and a lot of fun.
E**Y
YES!
a must see, love this movie so much 🩷
C**A
broken embraces
Penelope Cruz happens to be one of my favorite actresses. She played a very difficult roll, but as I see it she is like a good wine she keeps getting better and better with time. I enjoyed the film very much, It is an exellent film, the plot is a bit complicated but very interesting the caracters are very well chosen. Almadovar the Spanish movie Director is the best when portraying women's complicated lives.
J**E
It's great
Well done!
J**J
Defective product
Show kept skipping and stalling but soundtrack kept playing. Happened every 5 minutes until we gave up. Prime played fine on movie we switched to so must think this was damaged somehow. Forget it.
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1 week ago
2 weeks ago