Talk to Her (2002)

Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.

Director:

Pedro Almodóvar

Writer:

Pedro Almodóvar

Stars:

Rosario Flores, Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti

Won 1 Oscar. Another 42 wins & 45 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Javier Cámara	...	Benigno Martín
Darío Grandinetti	...	Marco Zuluaga
Leonor Watling	...	Alicia
Rosario Flores	...	Lydia González
Mariola Fuentes	...	Rosa
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Katerina Bilova
Pina Bausch	...	Bailarina 'Café Müller'
Malou Airaudo	...	Bailarine 'Café Müller' (Dancer)
Caetano Veloso	...	Singer at party - "Cucurrucucú Paloma"
Roberto Álvarez	...	Doctor Vega
Elena Anaya	...	Ángela
Lola Dueñas	...	Matilde
Adolfo Fernández	...	Niño de Valencia
Ana Fernández	...	Hermana de Lydia
Chus Lampreave	...	Portera

Storyline

After a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

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Plot Keywords:

nudity | female nudity | coma rape | coma | nurse | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for nudity, sexual content and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Sony Pictures Classics

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

14 February 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Talk to Her

Filming Locations:

Aranjuez, Madrid, Spain

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$964,098 (Spain), 25 January 2002

Opening Weekend USA:

$104,396, 24 November 2002, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$9,284,265, 15 June 2003

Company Credits

Production Co:

El Deseo, Antena 3 Televisión, Good Machine

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min 104 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Agustín Almodóvar: the priest conducting the wedding is the producer of the film (and the director's brother).

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Quotes

[last lines]
Katerina Bilova: Nothing is simple. I'm a ballet mistress, and nothing is simple.

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Crazy Credits

The end credits contain the following text: "El 7 de agosto, durante el rodaje de esta película nació Pablo hijo de Cova y de Juan y niño de todos.". This translates to: "On August 7th, while shooting this movie, Pablo, son of Cova and Juan and child of all of us, was born."

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Connections

Referenced in At the Movies: Summer Special 2009/10 (2009)

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Soundtracks

Hain't It Funny
(c) Ediciones Musicales Clipper's S.L.
Performed by k.d. lang
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

When silence become eloquence and words medicines...

'Hable con ella' aka 'Talk to Her' (2002) is a powerful cinematic experience…It is not the best Almodovar and the narration is not a pristine one as more affective details could have been added. Yet the movie succeeds on so many levels. Why is that so? An original scenario and a bunch of very good actors might very well be the answer. Very baroque at time, adept of kitsch atmospheres Mr. Almodovar also has a cinematic sense of parody as well as drama. His style became famous out of Spain with movie like 'Women on the verge of a Nervous Breakdown' (1988), High Heels (1991) and Kika (1993). 'Talk to her' is no exception. It is baroque in the topic, kitsch in the atmosphere and dramatic in the output. The movie not only talks about friendship between two men but also about loneliness and wounds provoked by passion. It demonstrates how monologue can become dialogue and how silence is in fact 'eloquence of the body'. In between those silences, Benigno Martin (Javier Camera) and soon Marco Zuluaga (Dario Grandinetti) use words as weapons: weapons against Solitude first, against Death and against Madness…Yes Madness is another theme in this movie but not the 'dark madness', not the 'killing madness', but the type that is so close to tenderness and common sense that it becomes almost normality and that's exactly where Mr. Almodovar succeeds.