Talk to Her
US theatrical release poster
Directed byPedro Almodóvar
Written byPedro Almodóvar
Produced byAgustín Almodóvar
Michel Ruben
Starring
CinematographyJavier Aguirresarobe
Edited byJosé Salcedo
Music byAlberto Iglesias
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Sogefilms
Release dates
  • 15 March 2002 (2002-03-15) (Spain)
  • 30 April 2002 (2002-04-30) (Telluride)
Running time
112 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish
Box office$64.8 million[1]

Talk to Her (Spanish: Hable con ella) is a 2002 Spanish psychological drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosário Flores. The film follows two men who form an unlikely friendship as they care for two women who are both in comas.

The film was a critical and commercial success, with singled out praise towards its direction, performances and specially its screenplay, winning the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film while Almodóvar won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, marking one of the few times where a non-English speaking film won this category. It is generally regarded as one of the best films of the 2000s,[2] one of the best films of the 21st century, as well as Almodóvar's magnus opus.

Plot

The story unfolds in flashbacks, giving details of two separate relationships that become intertwined.

At a performance of Café Müller, a dance-theatre piece by Pina Bausch, Benigno Martín and Marco Zuluaga are seated next to each other. They are strangers, but Benigno notices the tears on Marco's face at one point.

Marco is a journalist and travel writer who sees a TV interview with Lydia González, a famous matador. He thinks that an article about her would be interesting and contacts her in a bar, where she asks him to take her home. The news that she has broken up with her boyfriend "el Niño de Valencia", another matador, has been all over the tabloids. When Marco confesses that he is a journalist who knows nothing about bullfighting, she becomes angry and abruptly exits his car outside her house. He starts to drive off but stops when he hears a scream from inside her house. Lydia rushes out and gets into his car: Marco goes inside to kill a snake, an act that leaves him weeping. They become friends and, later on, lovers. Marco attends a wedding and is surprised to see Lydia there. The wedding is that of Marco's former fiancée, Ángela, who had the same phobia of snakes as Lydia. Lydia says that she has something important to say, but she prefers to wait until after the bullfight that afternoon, during which she is gored and becomes comatose. Marco remains by her side at the hospital and befriends Benigno, who recognizes him from the theatre performance. A doctor tells Marco that there is no reason for him to remain hopeful about Lydia.

Benigno is obsessed with Alicia Roncero, a beautiful dancer whom he watches practicing in the studio that he can see into from the apartment where he lives with his invalid mother. To care for her, he became a nurse and a beautician. After his mother dies, he finds the courage to talk to Alicia when she drops her wallet on the street. As they walk to her house, she talks about dancing and her enjoyment of silent black and white films. When she enters her building, Benigno notices that it is also the office of Dr. Roncero, a psychiatrist. As a ruse to gain access to Alicia's apartment, Benigno makes an appointment to see the doctor. In response to the doctor's questions, Benigno talks about the years he cared for his mother and says that he is lonely and a virgin. Afterward, a shocked Alicia sees him leaving her room, from which he has taken a hair clip. That night she is struck by a car and becomes comatose. In the hospital, where Benigno is assigned to care for Alicia, he talks to her as if she were awake and brings her dancing and silent film mementos. He tells Marco that he should talk to Lydia because, even when in a coma, women understand men's problems. In response to Dr. Roncero's questioning, Benigno says that he is gay, presumably so that the doctor will not be suspicious of his intimate care of Alicia.

"El Niño de Valencia", whom Marco finds in Lydia's room one day, tells Marco that Lydia and he had reconciled, which she had planned to tell Marco before the goring incident. He also says that, now that he has recovered from his own injuries, he should be the one attending to Lydia. Marco goes into Alicia's room and starts opening his heart to her. When Benigno appears, he tells Marco that he always thought Marco and Lydia would separate. A nurse expresses concern that Alicia has not had a period in two months and appears bloated. In the hospital parking lot, Benigno tells Marco of his desire to marry Alicia. Marco is taken aback, pointing out that Alicia cannot express her will in any way. Benigno remains unpersuaded.

The hospital staff discover that Alicia is pregnant because she was raped. Further investigation reveals that her chart does not indicate her missed period. Benigno admits to falsifying the chart and claims that he did this so as not to alarm anyone, as other comatose patients have also missed their periods. Another orderly reports having overheard Benigno's conversation with Marco about wanting to marry Alicia.

Unaware of Alicia's pregnancy, Marco leaves for Jordan to write a travel book. Months later, he reads in a newspaper that Lydia has died without awakening from her coma. When he calls the hospital to talk to Benigno, a nurse tells him that Benigno is in prison for Alicia's rape. Benigno, who has been denied information about Alicia since his imprisonment, asks Marco to find out what has happened to her. Marco stays in Benigno's apartment, from which he sees Alicia in the dance studio doing rehab exercises with her teacher, Katrina. From Benigno's lawyer, Marco learns that Alicia had a stillborn baby. The lawyer urges him not to tell Benigno about the baby or Alicia's recovery.

Marco receives a voicemail from Benigno saying that he cannot live without Alicia and has decided to "take off.” Marco rushes to the prison, where Benigno has left him a farewell letter: Marco visits Benigno's grave and tells him about the stillbirth and Alicia's recovery.

The film ends in the theatre where it began, with Alicia and Katrina sitting a few rows behind Marco at the dance performance. Marco is seen turning back to look at a smiling Alicia and, echoing a caption that had appeared for the couples "Marco y Lydia" and "Benigno y Alicia," the words “Marco y Alicia” appear on the screen.

Cast

Music

The music was composed by Alberto Iglesias.[4]

A scene shows the Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso singing "Cucurrucucú paloma" (in Spanish) at a party.[5]

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $9,285,469 in the United States and $41,716,081 internationally for a worldwide total of $51,001,550.[1]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a "Certified Fresh" approval rating of 91% based on reviews from 137 critics, and an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus states: "Another masterful, compassionate work from Pedro Almodóvar".[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[7]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it four out of four stars and wrote: "Combines improbable melodrama (gored bullfighters, comatose ballerinas) with subtly kinky bedside vigils and sensational denouements, and yet at the end, we are undeniably touched."[8] A.O. Scott of the New York Times named Talk to Her "The best film of the year".[9]

Accolades

Talk to Her was not submitted as Spain's pick for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Mondays in the Sun was selected instead.[10]

Wins
Nominations

Legacy

In 2005, Time magazine film critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel included Talk to Her in their list of the All-TIME 100 Greatest Movies.[11] Paul Schrader placed the film at #46 on his canon of the 60 greatest films.[12] Sight & Sound magazine included the film in its list of "30 great films of the 2000s".[13] In a 2016 BBC poll, critics voted the film the 28th greatest since 2000.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 Talk to Her at Box Office Mojo
  2. ↑ "TSPDT - 21st Century (Full List)". 7 March 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  3. ↑ "Pedro Almodovar talks about Pina Bausch's influence on his films". Sadler's Wells. 2005. Archived from the original on 29 May 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2015. When I finished writing Talk To Her and looked at Pina's face again, with her eyes closed, and at how she was dressed in a flimsy slip, her arms and hands outstretched, surrounded by obstacles (wooden tables and chairs), I had no doubt that it was the image which best represented the limbo in which my story's protagonists lived.
  4. ↑ "Talk to Her (2002) - Soundtrack.Net". www.soundtrack.net. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  5. ↑ Torres, César Albarrán (2 December 2003). "Caetano Veloso seduces us in Almodóvar's Hable con ella (2002) – Senses of Cinema". Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "Talk to Her". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  7. ↑ Talk to Her at Metacritic
  8. ↑ Ebert, Roger (25 December 2002). "Talk to Her movie review & film summary (2002)". Chicago Sun-Times.
  9. ↑ "Film: the year in review". New York Times. 29 December 2002.
  10. ↑ Armada, Alfonso (21 January 2003). "Almodóvar monta al cine español en su Globo de Oro a la mejor película extranjera". abcplay. ABC.
  11. ↑ Corliss, Richard (23 January 2012). "Talk to Her | All-TIME 100 Movies | Entertainment". Time. Archived from the original on 11 March 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  12. ↑ Anderson, Jeffrey M. (14 November 2006). "Paul Schrader's Film Canon". Moviefone.com. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  13. ↑ "30 great films of the 2000s". bfi.org. 17 January 2020.
  14. ↑ "The 21st century's 100 greatest films". BBC. 23 August 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
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