Film Review
Although director Pedro Almodóvar has pretty well disowned this
film, partly because he considers it a commission piece rather than
something he would have chosen to make off his own bat,
Entre tinieblas (a.k.a.
Dark Habits) represents an
important milestone in his career, marking his transition from an
underground filmmaker with a small but loyal following in his own
country to an internationally renowned director. Made on a low
budget, the film lacks the polish and sophistication of
Almodóvar's later films, but it has many of the features that we
now associate with this director - his subversive blend of comedy and
melodrama, his daring use of colour and unusual camera angles, the
familiar anti-establishment subtext and, most evidently, his use of an
ensemble female cast made up of some very talented actresses.
Dark Habits is a witty and
provocative reflection of a society that apparently has lost its way, a
society in which tawdry material distractions have superseded religion
as the means by which most people find satisfaction and solace in their
increasingly meaningless lives. Deprived of people to redeem, the
nuns depicted in the film find themselves compelled to live like those
around them and they ultimately see nothing wrong with indulging in the
pleasures of the flesh, including drug taking, partying and secretly
lusting after members of the opposite sex.
The film has been described as an attack on the Catholic Church but it
would perhaps be fairer to say that it is a critique of our society in
general. What
Dark Habits
show us is the insidious effect of a collapse in moral values arising
from the growth of materialism and a complete breakdown of the old
traditions of family, community and religious instruction. In
such a world, seen here in the microcosm of a crumbling urban convent,
the Church has become pretty well redundant, and its passing can only
accelerate our descent into a moral and spiritual vacuum.
Almodóvar's portrayal of nuns behaving badly may shock and
offend some but there's no doubt that the film offers a sobering
reflection of where our society is heading, towards an abyss from
which there is seemingly no return.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Pedro Almodóvar film:
La Ley del deseo (1987)
Film Synopsis
When her boyfriend kills himself on an overdose of heroine, nightclub
singer Yolanda takes refuge from the police in a crumbling
convent. Here she is welcomed by the sisters of the Order of
Humble Redeemers, who have fallen on hard times. The dormitories
are empty, the nuns' patron has decided to withdraw her financial
support, and with no one to redeem the nuns have taken to some very
bizarre activities. The mother superior deals in heroine, one
sister has adopted a stray tiger as a pet, another sister writes trashy
women's novels under a pseudonym, another continually punishes herself,
and one sister devotes herself to making ornate costumes for the
convent's statues. Yolanda could not have come at a better time,
as she offers the nuns a chance not just to save her, but also to save
themselves...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.