Queering the Oscars: Best Foreign Film 1999, "All About My Mother"

For Pride Month, Team Experience has been looking at LGBTQ+ related Oscar nominations. We've decided to extend the series for a few more episodes. Pretend it's still June for a bit!

by Eric Blume

It’s wonderful fun to revisit 1999’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner, director Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother.  Although it’s a beautifully textured, multi-layered tapestry of themes and emotions, it has to be one of the unusual films to ever win this big prize. The plot involves, among other thing: a nurse going onstage as an unrehearsed cover for Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire; a HIV-positive, pregnant nun; two heterosexual women united by giving birth to sons named Esteban from the same transgender woman; and numerous conversations and jokes about acquired tits.

That none of these unlikely and uncommercial plot strands feel forced or shocking is due to the artistry of Almodóvar. The Spanish auteur weaves stories together nobody else would think of in a million years, wrapped up in the boldest color palettes imaginable, with performances of sheer emotional force that rattle the roof...

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Cannes: The cowboys of Almodóvar

Elisa Giudici reporting from Cannes

Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke as lovers in "Strange Way of Life". © Sony Pictures Classics

After 25 years, two former hired guns meet again in a small town in the Far West. After crossing the desert, Silva (Pedro Pascal) arrives at Bitter Creek where his old friend and ex-lover Jake (Ethan Hawke) has become sheriff. The two share a dinner and then a night of passion, but as they make the bed together (a tender first time in Western movies history, according to the director) hidden meanings, old wounds, and possible hidden agendas on both sides emerge in a heated discussion.

As usual, 30 minutes of Almodovar can be more impactful and memorable than three hour from other auteurs...

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YNMS Double: "Dune Part Two" and "Strange Way of Life"

by Nathaniel R

In case you missed 'em, feast your eyes on newish trailers for two of the most anticipated films of the year. Denis Villeneuve and company return to Arrakis for Dune Part Two and Pedro Almodóvar making his second English-language short film (after the Tilda show The Human Voice), a gay western called Strange Way of Life. Please note that the poster for the latter is basically doing Johnny Guitar cosplay, even if we hadn't already been sold by Almodóvar + Gay Western...

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I'll Link to That

TODAY'S MUST READ Self-Styled Siren debunks myths surrounding John Wayne and Sacheen Littlefeather at the Oscars in March '73. Really interesting piece as it shows you how press and stars speak about charged incidents, how incredible stories get started, how they change over time, and how often they're accepted as gospel once enough time has gone by. (P.S. Personally speaking I have always disliked John Wayne but even so, I have had trouble believing this story)

More after the jump including a biography of an Almodóvar regular, funeral screenings for Batgirl, the cult of A24, Black Panther toys, and a couple of remakes. Question: why does the entire internet call all remakes (and even some sequels) reboots now? The three separate words actually do mean three separate things... 

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Linking up that hill

• Criterion Renate Reinsve (Worst Person in the World) demonstrates marvelous taste while inside the Criterion Closet
• Boy Culture their delicious annual recap of Broadway Bares (lots of photos and video)
• MNPP Pedro Almodóvar is making another short (after that Tilda-starring The Human Voice). This one a gay western starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. Can't wait!

More after the jump including Dakota Johnson, The Lovely Laura Linney, Kate Bush, a new film from Andrew Haigh, and a reinvention of James Bond...

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