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Bad Education

6.1

41,054

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Original title

La mala educación

Year

2004

Running time

105 min.

Country

Spain

Director

Pedro Almodóvar

Screenwriter

Pedro Almodóvar

Cast

Music

Alberto Iglesias

Cinematography

José Luis Alcaine

Producer

El Deseo

Genre

Drama | Melodrama. Gay & Lesbian. Film In Film. Religion. Sexual Abuse. Education

Synopsis

Bad Education tells the story of two friends – and first loves – and the sexual abuse they endure at a strict Salesian Catholic school. The complex narrative skilfully dramatizes how childhood events shape one’s adult life and relationships.
In the eighties, young gay film director Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez) is visited by his old school friend Ignacio Rodríguez (Gael García Bernal). Ignacio gives Enrique a short story to read; it begins by recounting the childhood experiences of the two men, who had suffered through Catholic school together in the sixties but were separated because of the jealous love of Father Manolo, the principal. Ignacio’s story goes on to invent a fictional reunion in the seventies, in which one boy is imagined as a suburban family man, the other a drug-addicted transvestite. Enrique decides that this story – part memory, part fantasy – will form the basis of his new film.

Awards: 2004: BAFTA Awards: Nominated for Best Film not in English Language

2004: New York Film Critics Circle: Best Foreign Language Film

2004: European Film Awards: 7 Nominations including Best European Film

2004: Independent Spirit Awards: Nominated for Best Foreign Film

2004: César Awards: Nominated for Best European Movie

2004: Goya Awards: 4 Nominations, inc. Best Film

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Critics' reviews

"One of Almodovar's darkest films since the early days of 'Law of Desire' and 'Matador', and certainly one of his finest."

Desson Thomson: The Washington Post
"Almodóvar is at his most breathtakingly complex and mature, and at his most pessimistic"

Carina Chocano: Los Angeles Times
"If only Bad Education engaged the heart as much as the head, Almodovar's fractured tale might have risen above its alienating noir conventions. Puntuación: ★★½ (out of 4) "

Robert K. Elder: Chicago Tribune
"It is Bernal himself who sticks in your head the most."

Scott Foundas: LA Weekly
"It still exerts an uncanny power: Like the best of Almodóvar's work, it throws you a first-love sucker punch that will stagger your heart, mind, and soul."

Ken Tucker: New York Magazine
"An exercise in stylish, seductive and cinematically self-referential finesse. (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"

Toronto Star
"A dizzying and rapturous noir melodrama, a little like Hitchcock's Vertigo with layers of confusion and contradiction. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"

Peter Bradshaw: The Guardian

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Ranking Lists Position

44 My Top 10 Movies from 2004 (80)

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Bad Education

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