Los Amantes Pasajeros- Pedro Almodovar (2013)

Los Amantes Pasajeros- Pedro Almodovar (2013)

Two of my favorite movie directors of all time are U.S. John Waters and Germany Rainer Werner Fassbinder, as both of them have created disparate and anarchic universes all of their own, each of them based on the rebellious film work of the great Jean Luc Godard, both Waters and Fassbinder defied movie conventions and created mind boggling bodies of work that still these days are experimental, fearless and hard to digest, so let me add one more name to the list, besides Luis Buñuel, my other favorite Spanish director is Pedro Almodovar, a man whose directorial career has surpassed anyone’s expectative creating a body of work amazing and inspirational, a lot of years after he declared himself “The Spanish Fassbinder” Almodovar has demonstrated that he might be on the same level of the great Fassbinder, but in a league all of his own as a true original.

As some of us know Pedro`s career started in that significant moment in which Spain became a free country once after the death of dictator Francisco Franco and his oppressive regime, Spain became colorful and vibrating, specially its capital, Madrid, which was an eternal party at night and which proved to be an enormous inspiration to Pedro`s first adventures in film, Madrid`s rebellious nights gave Pedro the perfect context for his stories, which obviously took inspiration from Waters trashy epics, Fassbinder hysterical bittersweet dramas, and Godard`s off the wall and off the screen amazing stories, Almodovar early approach was the equivalent of lo fi recording, as his first movies were cheap and vulgar, with amateur actors, cheap production and primitive edition work, he wanted to re-create Madrid colorful and wild culture, and at the same time create characters that dwelled on the bizarre, living life to the extreme, but Almodovar aimed high and his ambition was enormous, as he started to experimented with unconventional dramas, and later screwball comedies, he started to develop his own style which started to get him out of the underground and making him a movie star and a figure of the mainstream, whether he liked it or not.

Of course Pedro kept his underground credentials, he has always been a rebellious figures making movies on his own, full of bizarre characters, funny drugs, maniacal women, gay men, crazy perversion and lots of kinky sex, and while he rode the popularity wave with honor, perhaps he feared conventionalism for him, was at the turn of the page, so he decided once again to derail the train, and after getting familiar with the Academy and with the Oscar, Pedro retreated to his bizarre drama and comedies in later years, even getting in touch again with his old cast of actors, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas and Cecilia Roth, La Piel Que Habito, his previous film was an obscure drama about a mad surgeon and “a women he created”, while this Los Amantes Pasajeros, his recent movie, is a screwball comedy in the vein of the infamous Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, full of insane characters, unusual situations, surprising secrets and yes, lots of promiscuous and ambiguous sex.  

Forget on this one about Pedro`s award winning dramas, this time Pedro gest risky and care less for the intense dramas, this time Almodovar is in full trashy comedy mode, just like his first fearless movies, and as Pedro calls it, Los Amantes Pasajeros is a dirty orgy taking place in the sky, as the bizarre passengers of a flight from Madrid to Mexico starts unveiling secrets once the engine of the plane starts to malfunction, we get a funny gay crew, a clairvoyant girl, a corrupt businessman, a woman who claims to have every important man on Spain filmed with escort business girl, and a man who is committed to kill her, but ends up having sex with her, Los Amantes Pasajeros reminds me a lot of Pedro’s raunchy debut, Pepi, Luci, Bom y las Otras Chicas del Montòn, as the situations are extremely bizarre and at the same time very funny.

Los Amantes Pasajeros is a big proof of Almodovar intact ability to shock and expert eye on getting the most from the most scandalous notes on the newspapers, Almodovar joyously runs true the red notes and creates a story full of shocking surprises that may take upset the fans of his more serious dramas like Todo Sobre Mi Madre o Hable Con Ella, but one thing is for sure, Almodovar is completely in control of his career, he still does movies to please himself and that the rebellious spark of his youth is still there, and the future still seems bright from him whether masses accept his regained sense of the bizarre.