Tuesday 2 August 2011

Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón / Pepi, Luci, Bom and other girls on the heap (Pedro Almodóvar, 1980)

Alaska, Eva Siva and Carmen Maura
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Carmen Maura, Alaska, Eva Siva, Félix Rotaeta
Synopsis: When Pepi (Maura) is raped by a policeman (Rotaeta) she vows revenge -she ropes in her rock star friend Bom (Alaska) to help compromise (and liberate) the policeman's seemingly docile wife, Luci (Siva). 

This is not one of my favourite Almodóvar films, but despite its crudity (in form and content) it nonetheless has moments of infectious fun. Stylistically there is little to connect this to the director's later work, but his sense of humour (a combination of the outrageous and the mundane) is in evidence, and what would become the recurring theme of female friendship and solidarity is also apparent in the relationship between Luci and Bom.