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ESSAYS, ARTICLES, AND THEORIES ABOUT CINEMA
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| Friday, May 2, 2008
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Matador (1986) |
 Pedro Almodovar’s 1986 film Matador (1986) contains a lot to discuss. Almodovar himself has said if you think a coherent understanding of the film is met, then it is based on false pretense. In other words, there is not just one way to interpret the film. Although, in order to analyze the film, a small plot summary must be comprehended. “Matador” is a story about Angel (played by Antonio Banderas), a typical Spanish boy training to become a Matador/bullfighter. He proposes advice on getting women from his maestro, Diego. The advice he receives from Diego is to “treat women like a bull.” Angel attempts disproving the fact he cannot be with a women by raping Diego’s girlfriend, Eva. The next morning, Angel turns himself into the police and confesses to killing many other unsolved homicides in the previous month. Angel’s lawyer, Maria, ensures Angel’s innocence and goes on researching the case. Diego, after finding out about the rape, keeps a close watch on Angel, but is struck by Maria’s appearance. He follows her to a movie theater where King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946) is playing. Both characters in Duels in the Sun (1946) are killed and happily die in each others arms in the end. Diego and Maria are both infatuated by the cinematic catastrophe and are brought closer together. The two characters share interest in sadomasochism. While they share an erotic and violent affair, Angel is proved innocent for the reason he faints at the mere sight of blood. Although he identifies the bodies of the ones killed in Diego’s garden, he is released. Eva tries reconciling with Diego, but finds out that Diego and Maria are both the killers of the unsolved cases. She finds Angel and the police and they all search for Diego and Maria. When the two killers are apprehended, they are found dead by passionate mutual suicide. While the very extensive and enigmatic plot is clearly a roller coaster of violence, sex, betrayal, and mystery, one way to approach the film is first examining the themes, characters, and then attempt pulling everything together.
 After viewing the film, right away it is obvious “Matador” is deeply rooted with psychology. One of the major goals Almodovar achieves is this sense of placing taboos in an environment nonexistent to anything beyond the cultural norms. Almodovar takes the idea of sadomasochism and applies it to bullfighting. We see this through images of sex juxtaposed with images of bullfighting. Angel himself experiences what he calls a feeling of vertigo. Amodovar bases most of Angel’s psychological characterization on Scottie from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), where the character is afraid of heights, but in this case metaphorically.
 Angel is one of those characters that many can relate to on a sublevel. A lot of people are clueless to their capabilities. Angel is a young virgin, who is afraid of homosexual desires, so he proves his masculinity by raping Eva. Although grotesque and absurd, Angel comes to grip with reality afterwards. He does not prove his masculinity by raping Eva, but shows his licentious ignorance to making decisions. While Eva tries running away, she falls and cuts her head. She looks up at Angel with a broken expression upon her face and Angel faints from the sight of blood. While trying to show toughness, instead the only trait existent at that moment was weakness. With a guilty conscious, Angel even turns himself into the cops. After Eva comes to the police station, she insists that he did not technically rape her. This serves as a huge slap to the face of Angel, because he is turning himself in for a crime that he was proud of committing, now is being dismissed by the victim herself. The actions are justified within the film by his progression as the hero in finding the killers.
In the opening of the film, Diego pleasures himself to 80’s snuff films. The shock effect begins within the first three minutes of the film. Almodovar chooses this shock effect for a reason. If everyone made assumptions based on something at first glance, then society would condemn anything beyond ordinary standards set by society. And that is exactly what happens within the film and outside of the film with viewing audiences. Diego himself is an interesting character. While fascinated with the connection of sex and violence, he contains passion for bullfighting as well. Being an ex-bullfighting champion and maestro to Angel, he soon finds the love of fighting bulls slowly connecting to reality where the bulls transition into people. He later finds the only way to see through this is to give into his urges.
Maria appears in the beginning of the film when she kills one of the murder victims. The scene is eloquently juxtaposed with images of bullfighting and Diego’s lecture on how to make the kill. She also kills the victim the same way a matador kills the bull after the fight. She also never appears vulnerable. The character appears as the seductress, but only in her own bubble. It is ironic how she is the lawyer for the man convicted of the crime she committed. At first, she appears innocent, but once she breaks through that persona, her true self surfaces and takes control.
Religion plays a huge factor in the story as well. In a world where religion is easily confused for morality, the macabre becomes repressed more often. Angel feels like his mother continues demanding himl to live up to a religious standard. It is mentioned through dialogue that Angel’s father was a killer and went insane. She constantly badgers Angel to not act like his father and accept God. This theme exists in many of Almodovar films. Angel asks to speak with a psychiatrist, but his mother demands he see a priest. This serves as a constant struggle for his psyche until finally he allows instinct to take control. Angel even surrenders himself to the police for a crime he did not commit. He might feel the only way to escape his mother and the suppressed world is to incarcerate himself in order to dig deep inside.
 If anything, Amodovar handles the taboo themes delicately with no personal bias. He does not convey sadomasochism as negative or positive. He merely shows how it exists and affects the relationship between two people. The relationship between Maria and Diego is quite fascinating. When they kill each other, Almodovar retreats to classic cinema with symbolism giving homage to Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946). The film ends with the death of “the lovers.” Almodovar pulls from classic Hitchcock again with the body of the young man from the beginning hidden in the garden of Diego’s home. Hitchcock’s sense of irony, most famously depicted in The Trouble with Harry (1955)and Rope(1948) is present in this situation. In both films, a body is dead and is located somewhere conspicuous, where the audience knows, but the characters in the film, whom come across the spot many times, fail to notice. This is the case where Angel warns a man going through the garden not to eat one of the mushrooms for the fact they are poisonous. We find out the body is buried deeply underneath those very mushrooms. Even later on in the film, the detective, while questioning Diego, comes across the mushrooms. Almodovar gives notice to the objects more than once implicating reason. Not only does Almodovar symbolize well, but like always, he exemplifies in imagery. Take for instance the scene where Diego finds out that Eva knows the secret, it is beautifully shot where the camera follows Diego up the stairs, Diego puts his hands around Eva’s neck, and he swings her around where she’s hanging over the rail of the stairs. All of this is performed in one motion. Once again, Pedro Almodovar proves the world he is an excellent filmmaker.
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posted by Will Lewis 4:59 PM
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