Live Flesh

press release:  LIVE FLESH (CARNE TRÉMULA)

Spain | 1997 | 35mm | 103 min. | Spanish with English subtitles

Director: Pedro Almodóvar; Cast: Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Penelope Cruz

A single bullet triggers a web of trysts and showdowns in one of Almodóvar’s sexiest thrillers. Bardem stars as a plainclothes cop paralyzed by a gunshot on a domestic violence call. Six years later, he and the victim are married when the perp returns, newly released from jail. Future muse Penelope Cruz makes her first appearance in an Almodóvar movie as Victor’s mother in the film’s prologue. “Dazzling. Live Flesh has it all: irreverent political commentary, Buñuelian absurdities, the romantic fatalism of noir, and the juicy entanglements of the trashiest soap opera” (Scott Tobias, The AV Club).

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.