“Bad Education” Directed by Pedro
Almodóvar Sony Pictures Classics
At the risk of being criticized by film students everywhere,
Pedro Almodóvar is the modern-day Federico Fellini. It’s
not so much that he makes movies like Fellini’s movies or
that he makes movies in the same way Fellini made movies, but in
the sense that Almodóvar is the most renowned European auteur
director, whose very name can draw audiences across the world,
he’s the modern-day Fellini. After finding overwhelming
artistic success in “All About My Mother” (1999) and
“Talk to Her” (2002) by developing an advanced
storytelling style to match his already-existing visual flair,
Almodóvar has perhaps topped even himself in his newest film,
“Bad Education.” That’s not to say “Bad
Education” matches the emotional intensity of “Talk to
Her,” but it easily surpasses all his previous films in the
intelligent complexity of storytelling structure. “Bad
Education” is a noir story that masks its noir elements until
absolutely necessary to bring them out. And while all of those
elements are there (hidden identities, mysterious murders, even a
ringer who explains the whole thing in the end), it’s nearly
impossible to recognize them beforehand. In fact, it’s not
until two characters go to a local theater’s film noir week
late in the film that the relationship between the familiar genre
and “Bad Education” really surfaces. The masking of the
genre requires Almodóvar to also mask his characters’
true personalities, making it difficult to really go into much of
the plot without giving the whole thing away. Suffice to say, the
story revolves around the relationship between a fictitious but
somewhat autobiographical filmmaker Enrique Goded (Fele
MartÃnez) and a childhood friend, Ignacio, with whom Enrique
falls in love. It’s really much more complicated, but
what’s even more impressive than the story itself is the
sequence in which it’s told. Employing heavy use of
flashbacks and flash forwards, Almodóvar’s script
reveals the story’s layers in such a way that the emotionally
impactive scenes are saved until the end, regardless of chronology.
Most of the story’s noir elements actually occur early on in
the story’s chronology, forcing the characters to reflect on
noir more than experience it. But that’s fitting, in a way,
because as a genre reaching its heyday over 50 years ago, noir is
no longer something to experience. It’s more useful to
reflect, both for the film and the audience. What “Bad
Education” implies is that when placed in a modern context
and setting, noir can still exist in story, if not in style.
Nowhere to be found are the eerie shadows of “Double
Indemnity;” they’re replaced by Almodóvar’s
signature bright colors and focus on framing. The effect created is
one that hides the noir aspects of the film in the same way the
storytelling structure does, which forefronts the very growth in
Almodóvar’s filmmaking that makes him at least
comparable to Fellini, if not his equal (yet). ““Jake
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