Tie Me up! Tie Me down! (1990)

Director: Pedro Almodovar Stars: Antonio Bandera, Victoria Abril

Review:

Not to be possessed by horror movies like in Evil Ed (1995), I took a change and watch Tie me Up! Tie me Down! (1990) tonight. The director Pedro Almodovar is one of my favourate director of all time. I am impressed of many of his works such as Todo sobre mi Madre (All about my mother, 1999) and Hable con Elle (Talk to her, 2002), but this is the first time I have seen this earlier work of his. 

Put off the wig Banderas. You will get your awesome long hair in Desperado.

Antonio Banderas plays a lunatic called Ricky, which is obsessed with a woman, Marina in a one-night stand. The first thing he do when he is released from the mental institution, is to visit Marina and tell her how he love him. However Marina is a porn star, and do not appreciate the obsession of Ricky. Ricky had no choice but to restrain her, just to get along with her.

Full of sharp colors, in which I interpret as a theme of passion and lust.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! carries the same artistic style and direction of his other works, but with a more comedic tone. The use of different sharp colors in hints of theme of lust, and strange theme of "female things" such as showing women urinating. Throughout the movie we witness Marina refused, to confused, and to love. At first she acts as anyone would do when kidnapped, screams. Ricky must put a gag to her mouth, and tie her up. He takes care of her basic needs, including buying her smacks but Marina just wants to escape. Until one time that she show Ricky got beaten up to bring her smack, she falls in love with him. Later we see Ricky feels insecure and suspect she still want to escape, but to show the trust, Marina said "Tie me up."

"Atame. (Tie me up.)"

The rope can be seen as a metaphor of mistrust. A need for tying her up shows the mistrust of Marine towards Ricky, and the willingness of being tied displays the other way around. It maybe applied to relationships, in which it hurts to tie her up and down, just because of mistrusts. 

In spite of the fact that this is a good movie, but it felt flat compared to his later works. It shows signs, but he had not perfected his style yet. Often in Almodovar's movies there are scenes that grabs you so tight that you were speechlessly overwhemed by emotions, almost on the verge of crying. There is one scene in this movie that sort of going to that point, which is the scene Marina said "Tie me up", but it still no where near it.

A woman urinates. I guess it gives you the complex feeling of woman nature....?

Antonio Banderas, known for his role in Desperado (1995) and The Mask of Zorro (1998), re-joined Almodovar this year in The Skin I Live In (2011). In Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! he was a boy that could not properly represent his love, and built his image of passionate latin lover as Zorro, then now he is an older man. The movie does not get any rewards as far as I remember, but I am still looking forward to watching it.