Bad Education - Pedro Almodovar

If Jeunet is the quintessential creative genius of French Cinema, then Pedro Almodovar is his dashing, charismatic-buccaneering Spanish counterpart. He treats every subject so delicately, dexterously and comprehensively that one is left to wonder how could one man know the most well hidden, unfathomable details of the human psyche so intimately – it’s almost as if he’s experienced it all in just one lifetime. True, his own experiences with religion and his inquisitions into the education imparted by the church reflect in the movie, however, either a very intuitive genius, or a teleporting mind-walker could untangle the strands of emotional DNA in disparate idiosyncratic characters and present them with individual simplification.

A reputed Spanish director (Enrique), going through a creativity drought, is looking for scripts for his next film, when, out of the blue, walks-in a man, claiming to be his childhood obsession, Ignacio. Like a Godsend, Ignacio, who now calls himself Angel, presents a script to Enrique, and expresses interest to be the lead in his next movie on the condition that he be cast as Zahara – the salacious transvestite looking to blackmail his molester for money. Initially hesitant, Enrique goes through the script, and peeps into his locked away past that the script walks him through. The recall is shown as a part of the movie within the movie. As love blossoms between two innocent boys studying in a Spanish Christian school, the head priest – Father Manolo – develops a forbidden obsession with Ignacio. As the love between the two boys threatens his own pedophilic adventures, he has Enrique expelled from school. As they grow up, a changed Ignacio becomes a transsexual by the name of Zahara, luring young men, and stealing their paraphernalia with his accomplice. Zahara spends a night with a young man only to discover that he is none other than Enrique himself – his childhood love from whom he was deceptively separated.

The movie then goes back to reality as Enrique finishes reading the story, and senses that something is not right. Convinced that the Ignacio he met is not the Ignacio he loved – he plays detective and goes to his house, where his mother informs him that he has been dead for four years. He finds out the real identity of the imposter – he is none other than Ignacio’s brother Juan.

However, he plays along with the façade to know the real motives of Juan, and commences the movie with Juan cast as Zahara. The sequence showed earlier in the movie is actually a part of the movie made as per the script. In the new script, Father Manolo is blackmailed by Ignacio to extract money out of him for his sex change surgery, who has him murdered. (Intent on seeking revenge and revealing the hideous truth about Manolo, Enrique modifies the script in order to pin the blame of Ignacio’s death on the Manolo.)

Father Manolo, now married and with a new name (Berengeur) visits Enrique, and tells him that the real truth is that it was not he alone who murdered Ignacio. His accomplice was none other than Juan himself, with whom he had a torrid, but ephemeral affair. An enraged Enrique confronts Juan, who offers weak explanations for his act, and storms out. Juan hands over an incomplete letter to Enrique, written by Ignacio just before his death.

The film constantly sways like a pendulum to the extremes – sheer evilness at one end, and pure innocence, and unadulterated love at the other, blatant sexuality to subtle conservatism. As characters drown in the quicksand of psychological conflicts, one truth emerges – pristine love doesn’t get blemished by the depredation caused by sheer evilness, it withstands every blow and achieves a certain exaltation that puts it beyond anyone’s reach.

In his film noir “bad education”, Almodovar has resorted to the use of close-up shots of his characters, to emphasize the character’s feelings and emotions in order to make the audience empathize with them. Perhaps that is why the audience feels a connection with the characters even though this is not a mundane subject by a far shot and Almodovar captures intimacy and relationships with a conspicuous lack of emotions. With its use of myriad, albeit garish, colors and blatant sexuality, and controversy revolving around sacrilegious promiscuity and pedophilia rampant amongst clergy, it transcends the unfathomable chasm between mindless cinema, to become a ground-breaking piece of art in a seamless way, owing to its deft treatment of the subject of love, passion, innocence (or loss of it), moral corruption and relational complexities. “Bad education” it may be from the perspective of the protagonist/antagonist, “Good education” it is for all the viewers!

Check out Gael Garcia Bernal in his multi-dimensional role of a lifetime. You’ll figure out what the fuss is all about!