print this article

ARCHIVES . Articles

February 12–19, 1998

movie shorts

Live Flesh

Like a teenager wriggling inside his first new suit, Pedro Almodóvar hasn't taken well to maturity. Even his most ardent fans have noted the flagging passion of his recent movies, particularly last year's DOA The Flower of My Secret. Live Flesh, which takes its involved plot from a Ruth Rendell novel, restores the director to technical form, and it isn't a bad movie if you're not expecting the kind of wholesale audacity that characterizes flagship Almodóvars like Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown. Instead, Live Flesh slackens the pace and takes more time with characterization, aiming more for the furrowed brow than the dropped jaw. Liberto Rabal is Victor, whose unusual birth on public transit opens the movie in attention-getting fashion and forecasts for him "a life on wheels," a prediction that comes true in spades. Thrown in jail for accidentally shooting a police officer in the home of a heroin-addicted Italian consul's daughter to whom he has just lost his virginity, Victor emerges determined to win back the daughter (Francesca Neri), even though she's cleaned up her act and married the policeman (Javier Bardem), now a famous wheelchair athlete. The policeman's ex-partner and his adulterous wife are also involved in a plot that twists and turns around themes of jealousy, dedication and betrayal. Rabal bears more than a superficial resemblance to Antonio Banderas, and his borderline-sociopath character is not unlike the obsessive fan Banderas created in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! The difference is that Live Flesh doesn't have the earlier film's anarchic giddiness, so rather than being one more lunatic in a crazy world, Victor comes off as genuinely unstable, which makes it hard to sympathize with him as much as the film wants you to. Watching Live Flesh, you get the sense of two different films at war with each other, of an artist struggling to forge a new style but unable to relinquish his past.

Join the
City Paper
Mailing List

Recent Comments

Genevieve on

Trailer!: Salt

`I agree with you. I read the Salt script while it was still about a male - Edwin Salt. It's probably still online. It was very gripping and I didn't stop ` »

Ron Blount on

`I like to echo Todd's remarks on how this article comes across. This recession started with the flatlining of workers' wages across the board. The middle ` »

Todd Wolfson on

`Hey Isaiah Thanks for this article and bringing attention to the very real and important struggle of the TWA. They are in a hard battle to win some ` »

Meat Head on

Psst: Quickie peek inside Percy Street Barbecue

`I sure hope they'll have baked beans as a side!` »

platedoctor on

`To bad the deev had a bad experience because mine was awesome. The pork belly buns are off the hook and can say by experience that they rival David Changs ` »

ICDogg on

Get Lit: Win a copy of David Plouffe's The Audacity to Win

`Did you ever get your car back?` »

Mithras on

NOW OPEN: Joey's Stone Fired Pizza

`Got a small, one topping pizza from them today. $13, which I think is a lot for a 12 inch pizza on South Street. It was pretty good. Can't say I would ` »

Anonymous! on

High Point Cafe

`Delicious baked goods, but SLOW and horrible service. Most people who work there seem confused and there is no coordination between workers. At peak ` »

M on

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH: Our new street fashion column, at Temple University

`Ben H is not stylish, he looks at the pages of urban outfitters. That is not style, that is just being another hipster. He is a wanna-be, fake, and ` »

Fuel

Great Migration

THEATER REVIEW: Coming Home

"Pedal to the Side"

BYOTY Book Fair

Sat., Oct. 17, noon-6 p.m., free, Little Berlin, 119 W. Montgomery St., 610-308-0579, littleberlin.org.

Popular Articles

The Nutter Special

We're not so different from the Iron City.

There's slightly demonic stuff everywhere you look.

In a Class by Itself

THEATER REVIEW: The History Boys

Know Your Enemy

You, NewFan, have got problems.

The Milkmen Cometh

From the barely edited journals of Rodney Anonymous

CP Photostream

User Photos
Submitted Through Flickr.

Submit your image to
the CP Flickr Pool

Cafe Nola | Paddy Whacks Irish Sports Pub | Cheerleaders Gentlemen's Club | Cream and Sugar | Hot Hands Studio: Massage, Skin Care & Body Treatments | Bermuda Tans: Platinum 5 Session Package | UniverSoul Circus: 11/11/09 Performance. Free with shipping! | UniverSoul Circus: 11/07/09 Performance. Free with shipping! | Theatre Exile: Hunter Gatherers, Two Tickets! | Optimal Sport Health Club (GOOD FOR ANY SERVICE GYM OFFERS)

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

Advertisements

Search Restaurants

Search Classifieds

Category:
Keywords:

Search Real Estate

Search Happy Hours

Today's Big Deal:
$20.00 for $50.00 at Paddy Whacks Irish Sports Pub

This deal is available until 10 a.m. on November 9, 2009

Shop Our
Regular Catalog

Submit Your Event

Where Do You Want It?

Request City Paper at your favorite location.

ADVERTISEMENT

Join the Mailing List

Half Off Depot

Primer

Dish 2008