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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780767847100
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0767847105
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 11, 2000
Running Time: 101 minutes
Sales Rank: 23420
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Impressive
Almodovar is truly in a class by himself and his originality is a welcome breath of fresh air in a time when way too many popular films are regurgitations of familiar and cliched stories. This films story, of one woman's tragedy and her subsequent journey to find somebody from her distant past (sorry if this is vague, you really shouldn't know anything about this before watching), is expertly told through subtlety and surprise. If you're looking for something different but engaging, check this one ... Read More
Rating:  - Mama Said There'd Be Gays Like This
Pedro Almodovar's masterpiece, All About My Mother, avoids wide, well-lit boulevards, choosing instead to shed light on its large, complex subject by trolling life's darkest and most unsettling alleys. (Instead of June Cleaver you get Hermana Rosa, a knocked-up nun.) The film is brilliantly crafted, visually spellbinding, full of lovely literary and film allusions, funny, poignant, and heartbreakingly real. The irony here is that, by gleefully thrashing stereotypes and searching where nobody else ... Read More
Rating: - Beautifully weaved Masterpiece
Almodovar's "All About My Mother" is perhaps the most beautifully written and acted film I have ever seen. In typical Almodovar fashion, the film is full of symbolism, vibrant colors, inter-connected story lines, and an ending that brings the entire film full circle without being cliche.
After her son dies in a tragic accident in Madrid, Manuela embarks on a personal hegira to Barcelona, where she not only takes a group of misfits under her generous wing, but she finds herself along the ... Read More
Rating: - All About My Mother
A splendidly absorbing, character-driven drama with lots of twists and turns, Almodóvar's "Mother" is an homage to female actresses and anyone with a maternal instinct. With his trademark visual flair and empathy for fringe feminine types--hookers, transvestites, druggies, and distraught single women in particular--Almodóvar spins an engaging, melodramatic story with heavy allusions to "All About Eve" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." Roth, Paredes, Cruz, and San Juan give marvelously spirited performances, ... Read More
Rating: - Hard to get one's head around this one
At times, this was an emotionally exhausting film, containing so much grief & loss that it was difficult to watch, and by extension, difficult to review. It wanders amazingly far afield from what at first appears to be a movie about a mother/son relationship, but Almodovar manages to keep the movie from completely losing its coherence.
This is probably one of those movies where the sometimes bizarre content can overwhelm a viewer. Repeated viewings no doubt would reveal some nuggets that were ... Read More
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