• Pedro Almodóvar’s most frequent collaborators in the 1980s- the great Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas- are back for Law of Desire.
  • This is Almodovar leaning into Hitchcock again with the heavy Bernard Herrmann- like strings during the opening credits. There are almost like this second set of credits- Almodovar (like Hitchcock- often like Fassbinder), clearly cares about his opening sequences. Here he freezes on neon titles, and then uses black and white- almost like a little film within a film.
  • Almodovar continues his stellar work in vibrant colors- often including stories about the creative process (writers with old school romantic typewriters).
  • At the 31-minute mark there is a mural behind the characters- an admirable focus on the background as well as foreground and narrative action.
  • Almodovar captures a sublime composition with the French doors open, flowers on the foreground on the terrace as Banderas dresses.

At the 37-minute mark at breakfast- Banderas and the Pablo character (Eusebio Poncela) are nearly enveloped at the table by a sea of green plants designing the mise-en-scene.

  • A strong graphic match on Pablo’s eyes on the tires.
  • The set-up is sort of like if Robert Walker’s character in Strangers on a Train (1951 from Hitchcock) was in love with Farley Granger’s character (it is not a stretch to read that as the subtext in that great film). There is jealousy, amnesia (the only one that knows the killer- this is Almodovar and melodrama after all). It helps create a great backstory for Maura’s monologue about the past (controversial content again from Almodovar as always- incest).
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1987