Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

press release: TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! (ÁTAME!)

Spain | 1989 | 35mm | 101 min. | Spanish with English subtitles

Director: Pedro Almodóvar; Cast: Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Rossy de Palma

Banderas stars in this flagrantly outrageous BDSM romance, one of Almodóvar’s most controversial creations. Freshly released from a mental hospital, a psychopath (Banderas) kidnaps a former porn star (Abril) with the intention of making her fall in love with him... and it kind of works. Only Almodóvar would dare make Stockholm Syndrome this sexy and funny. Initially branded with the pornography-associated X rating by the MPAA, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! was one of the main examples that led to the creation of the NC-17 rating in 1990.

Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar

For our Fall Sunday afternoon series at the Chazen Museum of Art, we will screen the beautiful and influential work of contemporary Spanish cinema’s best-known filmmaker, Pedro Almodóvar. A veritable industry onto himself, Almodóvar, as a writer, producer and director, has carved out a substantial slice of the international moviegoing audience for his classically told tales of offbeat lives and offbeat love. Almodóvar is an artist who does not hide his cinematic influences but every aspect of his work – from production design to storytelling techniques - always feels decidedly personal.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.