Piedras

I had looked forward to more from this one. It is worth seeing, since it deals with parts in life many people come in contact with, such as breaking-up-couples, how to start over etc. It had some interesting parts for me, in that sense. It is more mainstream than I had thought. I feel that it is aimed at a large audience; it is populist in the modern South American movie style, and that includes the fact that it is slightly over-sentimental, and not completely non-Hollywood. And something that disturbed me is the overly bias for the bizarre family situations (for example, all young men in the movie are gay, and the families are all split up); I already had enough of the prostitutes, transvestites, you name it, in Almodovar's films...do I have see it in all modern Spanish films? Maybe it has something to do with historical reasons (the Franco years etc.), and clashes between the new contra old traditions in Spain today. To sum up; it was worthwhile, but no masterpiece.

Since I watched it for the first time, "Piedras" is a personal favorite and one of the few pictures I actually could watch over and over again. The great screenplay depicts the lives of a bunch of women (all of them somehow interconnected) with deep understanding and sensibility. Ramón Salazar achieved a compelling film in his directorial debut, and proves himself as an efficient actors' director.

Not that all performances are excellent, though. Of all leading ladies, they range from average (Najwa Nimri) to very good (Vicky Peña), but the standing ovation should be directed to newcomer Mónica Cervera, who convincingly plays Antonia San Juan's retarded daughter. Enrique Alcides is irresistibly charming as the girl's male nurse, and there are nice small turns from Andrés Gertrúdix, Geli Albaladejo and the director himself, Ramón Salazar.

"Piedras" is beautifully written and filmed, when I watched it I got so moved that I couldn't stop thinking of it for days. I highly recommend it.

The movie begins a with mentally-challenged girl with bright yellow sneakers looking skyward on a Madrid street corner and being spellbound by a passing plane. The movie examines the life of five women—Adela, Leire, Maricarmen, Anita & Isabel—who have completely different lives and choices of shoes. Their shoes is the first superficial, yet affixed with some glancing meaning, clue we get at their fragile identities. In a theatrically embroidered and embellished way, a podiatrist tries to esoterically reveal the deepest secrets of a woman's souls by the sole of her feet. The premise is risky and slightly contrived, but the tone and depth of the movie takes a daring plunge for the good.

What may have been light-hearted and superficial, quickly switches gear with the a superb dysfunctional couple scene that leaves the viewer riveted for minutes, seeing the love or lack thereof, the pain, the confusion, the hope, the needs and escape mechanisms develop through minutes different rooms of the house and down to the street and eventually below... What a scene (!) , but there will be others as effective to follow and strengthen the strong characterization and directing displayed in this slice of life affair.

Moving along, a woman has lost the husband she loved and inherited his kids and his taxi, while another has completely lost her husband emotionally, sexually, intellectually, but not physically. A ghost, a pending divorce… reproach, regret & remorse. A new love? Can you love a mirage? Can you love the person in the mirror? Can you love someone you can't love? Or think you can't love? Can you love and live life even though it will always be somewhat hopeless? Yet isn't it exactly these hopes and dreams that keep us here grounded and in a spectrum of relative happiness? A lot of deep themes emerge and the final act brings people and ideas together to coalesce in an existential crisis with no clear cut solution, definitive decision or effective healing. Maybe a elusive thought, a fleeting feeling, but a lasting appreciation of life and of the artistry and intellect of the film. Live. Live again. Rewind the reel. Unveil the real, the important; the big stones (piedras) of life. The rest is just details.

Women have never looked so attractive and pathetic as in Salazar's film Piedras. Although editor's cut here and there might help the film, it is exciting and enjoyable with an intense mark from Pedro Almodovar's latest films. 5 different women are coping with their male partners and families. Beginning with several different stories bound to meet as the plot goes on, Salazar portraits his women characters in the same neurotic and border-line behaviour familiar to Almodovar. A kleptomaniac high society lady with a fattish to smaller shoes, a burlesque house madam taking care of her disabled daughter, a drug addict dancer obsessed with her former boyfriend and a taxi-driver taking care of her late husband's disturbed kids, all roaming the streets of Madrid in well designed scenes. Using some of Almodovar's familiar actresses, the director succeeds in it's first film to give depth to all the characters sharing the film, and to create genuine sympathy with each of them. The women controls the plot line, and the men are bound to be left with each other, eventually... Surprisingly good for a first film, and worth the time in any standard. It is noticeable that Salazar hesitated in some needed guidelines to the actresses, but an impressible act is shown anyway on the screen, especially by Monica Cervera, which played in his former short film.

A must to all Almodovar's fans, and enjoyable to all.

This 2002 Spanish film has many interesting cinema moments, an elaborate structure, and good acting that makes it stand one step ahead of the crowd. Yet the lack of one convincing theme or story line makes the overall movie look a little bit dis-oriented. The structure of the movie - five parallel stories involving Madrid women fighting with the hardships of live and love, stories that are interleaved and synchronized together up to one point - seems a little bit too sophisticated for what is after all a collection of themes that seem to be combined from the soap operas or talk shows that we see some of the characters watching as some kind of common background, with stories of relationships reminding Almodovar, but without the extra step that makes the great director movies hard to forget. And yet, director Ramon Salazar shows a good control of the actors and artistic means, and I am really wondering why he had made so few films until now.