Film Blog: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Atame)

I had a sudden urge the other night to watch an Almodovar movie, and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! was the only one that Netflix had streaming and not just on disk. The premise was a little odd (though his movies always are) but I decided to give it a shot. I was not disappointed. Similar to my experience with his hit film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, I was enthralled from the beginning – even with the subtitles that often loose me by the amount of attention I have to pay to a film. The characters were simple, but the story took twists that I could only follow with Almodovar’s superb directing. Ricky (Antonio Banderas) clearly had problems from the opening of the film. The fact that he was being “release” put me immediately on edge. The leading lady, both in the film, and within the film, Marina (Victoria Abril) was not your typical porn star – at least not by American standards. Putting the two together, along with Francisco Rabal as Maximo, the lecherous wheel-chair bound director, and Loles Leon’s Lola the not-as-pretty and overprotective sister, made for a typical crazy and hilarious Almodovar film where the unexpected was bound to happen. Like being kidnapped and tied up to your future husband.

From the beginning the imagery was absolutely captivating. The sudden change of ending of the ‘film’ that leaves Abril swinging like the hand of a clock from the balcony, seeming forever as the camera fades in and out and she just swings, as if to signify her biological clock ticking away. And Banderas, upon finding the bakery, his head revealed to be framed in the ‘O’ of the sign on the glass. Then there is the toy scuba diver. I nearly burst out laughing in anticipation of it swimming into her open legs. And then Almodover just let the camera sit on the image, as he does with a lot of the imagery, just sit and sink in. In addition the gorgeous production design (by Esther Garcia) of an apartment I could only dream of living in, Almodovar used this brilliantly to set up several perfectly balanced shots – mostly with Abril and Banderas splitting the screen right to left – which to me conveyed the power struggle and eventual union of the two as equals. Though unfortunately I knew the resolution from the synopsis, I was satisfied none the less by the journey there. The sisters approval though, that was a surprise. It’s almost like Almodovar is trying to say that there is no right or wrong, you just have to go and see what life throws in your lap.