Dark Habits

Finally saw this film today. I laughed out loud many times. It's just so wonderfully outrageous. The nuns are played by actresses that went on to play leads in Almodovar's later films: Women on the Verge, All About My Mother, etc. The actress who plays Sister Rat figures prominently, which made me very happy, as she has had mostly very minor roles in his subsequent films. She first came to my attention in Talk To Her. She plays the concierge, and asks the reporter why her tenant is in jail. The reporter says he's innocent. She replies, I know, but innocent of what? She has right-on deadpan delivery that just knocks you out, and it's on full display in Dark Habits.

The film is less neatly constructed than Almodovar's later works, and one might say the ending is somewhat messy. Still, it's interesting to compare it to his incredibly polished work of the last ten years. While the uninitiated (to Almodovar) may find parts of it a little shocking, it's not nearly as raw as it would be if it were made today--certainly the lesbianism is tame by today's standard.

Other reviewers are right that a lot of the English subtitles miss the ironic tone in the script. But don't let that stop you . . . It's Almodovar! Even second tier Almodovar with inadequate subtitling is better than 99 percent of everything else!

What else do you need to know? Honestly, this isn't Almodovar's best work. In fact, it's pretty sloppy story-wise. But I enjoyed the heck out of it. Cristina Sanchez Pascual plays a heroin-addicted singer who hides out in a convent after her boyfriend overdoses. The nuns there are, shall we say, a little quirky in that they are mostly on drugs (heroin, cocaine, acid - but not pot; at one point a nun says "you know I don't do soft drugs"). Also, one's a lesbian and another writes lurid romance novels and together they have raised a pet tiger. They all have names like Sister Snake and Sister Rat, because the humiliation is sacred. There's really no compelling reason the nuns are on drugs. It's just kind of a shocking, humorous detail. I think Bunuel would have loved it, though the film itself isn't particularly blasphemous. It doesn't view the nuns or Catholicism cynically. It just exists in its own, weird Almodovar universe. The plot is not very strong, so the whole thing just kind of fizzles, but it's entertaining. Carmen Maura plays one of the nuns, but she's not an extremely important character. On the Region 1 DVD, though, she graces the cover.

The very fact that you are going to watch nuns snorting cocaine, and even craving for it, should give you an idea of how far Almodovar went to give an alternative view of what a "convent" is in this movie. I watched it in the original language (Spanish)and found it brilliant and extremely entertaining, a very good concentrate of the "early" Almodovar, with His portrayal of a depraved 80's era in Madrid, and His usual intermingling of stories... Also, the viewer is seldom allowed to know what to expect next, and the whole atmosphere in the movie is just so unconventional... Definitely worth watching, hopefully it doesn't lose too much in English..

This film made after Almodovar's first more upbeat outrageous films, is a film that tells of the end of the Movida Madrilenia, a movement existing in the early eighties in Madrid that was defined by a mixture of new romantic punk and pop, and the ironic use of Spanish folklore and the 'housewife' culture. When people in this subculture started to commonly use heroine, the downfall of the movement had begun. This film is about the choices that people had to make at the end of this era. some stayed junkies, others died, some went back to the small towns where they had moved from, others went on to give up on drugs and become more constructive. The convent where the nuns reside can be interpreted as the habitation of this irreverent movement, frequented by police searches, dealers, artists, and junkies. The movie has some great musical moments which indicate that Almodovar might one day take his hand to this genre. The religious element interwtined with (homo)sexuality will certainly be proliferated again in the forthcoming movie La Mala Educacion. The movie also contains a cameo of a Spanish 'Harrold Robbins' type of writer, who is featured sitting at one of the tables wiping her mouth with a handkerchief as Yolanda sings in a night club at the beginning of the movie. This authopr refers to the character of sister Rata de Callejon, who has a secret career as trashy novel writer. The film is somewhat darker than most of Almodovar's early movies, but is very gentle, provides enough comedy and the characters above all remain very human, all of them have their virtues and vices.

Ignore the mediocre reviews. Dark Habits is delightful, no less so than Almodóvar's later, more popular movies. This is not in any way interesting only because it shows how much better he got later. That's absurd.

This movie is great fun, deadpan, outrageously irreverent but never mean-spirited, affectionate, hilarious but in a subtly low-key way, wildly imaginative and yet gentle and sweet. I loved it. Julieta Serrano as the Mother Superior and Chus Lampreave (who has a larger role than in his later movies) as Sister Alley Rat are especially delightful.