Funny, Erotic, & Endlessly Enjoyable
I've learned to accept Almodovar as he has (ahem) matured & gotten serious. He is my favorite director so I support all his progressions. However! I'm deeply & irrevocably in love with the movie Kika, its colors, its actors, its characters, its music, its dialogue, its spell. Having watched it as much as I have, I've analyzed scenes & themes that otherwise would have escaped a one time viewing only. For example, notice how Ramon kneels in front of three women, for different purposes. First the model in the opening credits as he photographs her in bed. Next, he kneels in front of his dead mother as he opens her blouse to reveal her wound. Finally, in front of Kika as he makes love to her. The posters throughout the film hint at the action to take place in the future scenes. The dialogue is hilarious beyond belief & is not all translated or not translated acurately in the subtitles. If you are an Almodovar fan, you owe it to yourself to study Spanish & brush up on Castillian regionalisms to get the fully, mordant sinuousness of the dialogue. Kika is a black comedy & must be enjoyed as such, otherwise one would not laugh at the bizarre costumes, the multiple deaths, the rape as much-needed outlet for the retarded ex-porn star, the fickleness of love, the unfaitfulness throughout. Finally, I suspect that public taste or America's increasing discomfort with black comedy when its applied to rape, is delaying or preventing the rerelease of Kika on dvd. Its available in Brazil, but, of course not with English subtitles.
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