La Mala Educación

''Bad Education'' (, also meaning 'bad manners') is a 2004 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Starring Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lluís Homar and Francisco Boira, the film focuses on two reunited childhood friends and lovers caught up in a stylized murder mystery. The protagonist was inspired by Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, as portrayed by Alain Delon in René Clément’s ''Purple Noon'' (''Plein Soleil''). The metafictional film uses a deeply- nested narrative plot structure to explore themes of transsexuality, drug use, rape, and sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The film received an NC-17 rating in the United States for "A Scene Of Explicit Sexual Content".

The film was released on 19 March 2004 in Spain and 10 September 2004 in Mexico. It was also screened at many international film festivals such as Cannes, New York, Moscow and Toronto before its US release on 19 November 2004. The film received critical acclaim, and was seen as a return to Almodovar's dark stage, placing it alongside films such as ''Matador'' (1986) and '' Law of Desire'' (1987).

Plot

In 1980 Madrid, struggling film director Enrique Goded is looking for his next project when he receives an unexpected visit from an actor looking for work. The actor claims to be Enrique's boarding school friend and first love, Ignacio Rodriguez. Ignacio, who is now using the name Ángel Andrade, has brought along a short story titled "The Visit", hoping that Enrique would be interested in filming it—and giving him the starring role. Enrique is intrigued since "The Visit" describes their time together at the Catholic boarding school, while also including a fictional account of their reunion years later as adults.

"The Visit" is set in 1977. It tells the story of a transgender drag queen with the stage name Zahara, whose birth name is Ignacio. Zahara plans to rob a drunken admirer but discovers that the man is her boyhood lover Enrique Serrano, so she defiles him in his sleep instead. The encounter stirs angry memories, and Zahara visits her old school to confront Father Manolo, who abused her there when she was a boy. She demands one million pesetas from Manolo in exchange for halting publication of her manuscript, also called "The Visit".

That story is set in a Catholic boarding school for boys in 1964. At the school, Ignacio, a 10-year-old student with a beautiful boy soprano voice, is the object of lust of Father Manolo, the school principal and literature teacher. Ignacio falls in love with his classmate Enrique, and the two go the local cinema and grope each other. Manolo discovers them together that night and becomes enraged. Ignacio offers to submit to the priest's molestation in exchange for having his friend not punished, but Manolo still expels Enrique anyway.

The director, Enrique Goded, wants to adapt the story but balks at Ángel's condition that he be cast as Zahara, feeling that the Ignacio he loved and the Ángel of today are totally different people. Suspicious, he drives to see Ignacio's mother in Ortigueira, Galicia and learns that in fact Ignacio has been dead for four years and that the man who came to his office is actually Ignacio's younger brother, Juan. Enrique's curiosity is piqued, so to "see how far uanwould go"—and without letting on what he knows—he casts Ángel/Juan in the role of Zahara. Ángel becomes Enrique's sexual partner, and Enrique revises the script so that it ends with Father Manolo, whom Zahara was trying to blackmail to get money for sex reassignment surgery, having Zahara murdered. After the scene is shot, Ángel breaks out in tears unexpectedly.

The film set is visited by Manuel Berenguer, the real-life "Father Manolo", who has resigned from the clergy. Berenguer confesses to Enrique that the new ending of the film is not far from the truth: Ignacio, a transsexual junkie, did blackmail him, but Berenguer managed to string her along—while mostly falling hard for Ignacio's younger brother, Juan. Juan and Berenguer, over twice as old, became sexual partners and after a while realized they both wanted Ignacio dead. Juan obtained some pure heroin which Berenguer gave to Ignacio, causing her to die from overdose after shooting up. After the crime, the relationship disintegrated, with Berenguer wanting to continue, but Juan breaking off all contact.

Now years later, meeting once again on the film set, Ángel/Juan threatens to kill Berenguer if he continues to pursue him, but Berenguer replies that he will never let him go. Now aware that his pretense is revealed, Juan visits Enrique to apologize, but Enrique is uninterested in Juan's weak excuses for murdering Ignacio. Before being turned away, Juan gives Enrique the letter addressed to him that Ignacio was in the middle of typing when he overdosed, reading "I think I have succeeded..."

An epilogue recounts that after the release of the film, Ángel and Enrique both achieved great success, although Ángel was relegated to television acting after "his career suffered ups and downs" in the 1990s. With Ángel now famous, Berenguer became the blackmailer, eventually leading Ángel to kill him in a hit-and-run.

Cast

Production

García Bernal was required to display a convincing Castilian Spanish accent before being cast. Bernal stated that the performance he most sought to emulate was Alain Delon’s interpretation of Ripley in ''Purple Noon''..

''The New York Times'' reporter Lynn Hirschberg stated that Garcia Bernal had a falling out with Almodovar over the film's content, but Garcia Bernal denies this assertion. Garcia Bernal and Almodóvar had different ideas on the type of 'inner transvestite' in terms of Bernal's performance.

Almodóvar states that he worked on the screenplay for over 10 years.

Release

The film was theatrically released in Spain on 19 March 2004.
It opened in the 57th Cannes Film Festival in May 2004, the first Spanish film to do so. The film was given an NC-17 for "A Scene Of Explicit Sexual Content". The scene in question being a depiction of homosexual fellatio in the beginning of the film. An appeal was filed for a more marketable R, but the NC-17 rating was upheld and the film was released theatrically with the NC-17 rating. The scene was later blurred for the R-rated home media release.

Reception

Box office

The film opened theatrically in the United States on 19 November 2004 in three venues, earning $147,370 in its opening weekend, ranking number 30 in the domestic box office. At the end of its North American theatrical run (its widest release being in 106 venues), the film had grossed $5,211,842 in the United States and Canada, and $35,062,088 overseas ($7,356,224 in its home country of Spain), making $40,273,930 worldwide.

Critical response

The film received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of 148 reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's consensus states: "A layered, wonderfully-acted, and passionate drama." On Metacritic, the film has an 81 out of 100 rating, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Ann Hornaday from ''The Washington Post'' wrote, "To watch ''Bad Education'' is to revel, along with Almodóvar, in the power of cinema to take us on journeys of breathtaking mystery and dimension and beauty." Marjorie Baumgarten from the ''Austin Chronicle'' wrote "With ''Bad Education'', the great Almodóvar delivers the finest movie of his career." Peter Travers from ''Rolling Stone'' wrote "A rapturous masterwork." Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four writing "Pedro Almodovar's new movie is like an ingenious toy that is a joy to behold, until you take it apart to see what makes it work, and then it never works again. While you're watching it, you don't realize how confused you are, because it either makes sense from moment to moment or, when it doesn't, you're distracted by the sex. Life is like that."

Accolades

, -
, rowspan = "6" align = "center" , 2005
, rowspan = "4" , 19th Goya Awards , , colspan = "2" , Best Film , , , , rowspan = "4" ,
, -
, Best Director , , Pedro Almodóvar , ,
, -
, Best Art Direction , , Antxón Gómez , ,
, -
, Best Production Supervision , , Esther García , ,
, -
, rowspan = "2" , 14th Actors and Actresses Union Awards , , Best Film Actor in a Leading Role , , Gael García Bernal , , , , rowspan = "2" ,
, -
, Best Film Actor in a Minor Role , , Javier Cámara , ,

See also

* List of Spanish films of 2004

Further reading

*

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bad Education
2004 films
2004 independent films
2004 LGBTQ-related films
2000s coming-of-age drama films
2000s Spanish-language films
2000s Spanish films
2004 crime drama films
2000s mystery drama films
Films set in boarding schools
Films about actors
Films about child sexual abuse
Films about pedophilia
Films about films
Films about sexual repression
Homophobia in fiction
Films about violence against LGBTQ people
Films about trans women
Films about writers
Films directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Films produced by Agustín Almodóvar
Films scored by Alberto Iglesias
Films set in 1964
Films set in 1977
Films set in 1980
Films set in Madrid
Films shot in Madrid
Films set in Galicia (Spain)
Gay-related films
Latin-language films
LGBTQ-related coming-of-age drama films
Media coverage of Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals
Murder mystery films
Spanish neo-noir films
Spanish coming-of-age films
Spanish crime drama films
Spanish independent films
Spanish LGBTQ-related films
Spanish mystery drama films
El Deseo films
Films about the education system in Spain
LGBTQ-related crime drama films
Sony Pictures Classics films