"Talk to Her"听begins where the acclaimed "All About My Mother"听ended, with the camera framed upon a pair of gold and pink theatrical curtains.
We're at a听modern dance production, arranged by the German choreographer听Pina Bausch. Sitting next to one another听in the audience are two strangers, male nurse Benigno (C谩mara) and Argentinean travel听guide author Marco (Grandinetti), who's moved to tears by the spectacle.
Months later听the paths of the two men cross again at a private medical clinic. Benigno is devotedly caring for a comatose young ballet student Alicia (Watling), whilst Marco is visiting his bullfighter girlfriend Lydia (Flores), gored so badly in the ring that she has been reduced to a persistent vegetative state.
An unexpected companionship begins when听the strangely childlike Benigno suggests to the grieving Dario: "Talk to her".
Almod贸var's 14th feature is an effortlessly accomplished and richly resonant work.
It听explores the pain of听loneliness and loss, observes the difficulties of emotional communication between the sexes, but simultaneously celebrates the听joy of friendship and听art.
The film's听complex听narrative, which is divided into three unequal sections as well as听shifting forwards and backwards in time, is interspersed with听a number of scintillating sequences.
There's the eroticism of Lydia being听fitted into her ceremonial costume, the open-air, night-time recital of听Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso, and the clever seven-minute silent film "The Shrinking Lover", where the diminutive protagonist explores the contours of his lover's anatomy. (The female body belongs here to "Sex and Lucia" actress Paz Vega).
Shot in warm, vivid tones by cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, 听"Talk to Her"听is a film of听exceptional compassion and generosity.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Talk to Her (Hable Con Ella) (2002)
