Talk:All About My Mother

Plot summary

In May, 2006, an editor replaced the quite brief but encyclopedic plot summary of this article with a very long (1600 words) blow-by-blow account of the film. It hasn't changed much since then, and the article had acquired a {{plot}} tag. I've restored the old plot summary, with the addition of the note about the film's dedication from the long account. This summary in my opinion gives the reader a clear idea about the plot of the film without requiring him to slog through a very, very long hunk of text. --Tony Sidaway 02:41, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Award-winning

The phrase 'award-winning' should not be present in hardly any Wikipedia article. See WP:PEACOCK and Film Style Guidelines. What awards did this movie win? Discuss those, and remove the 'award-winning.' Tool2Die4 (talk) 20:00, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Another interpretation of the plot.

Here is another interpretation of what takes place in this movie and this is the result of some key pieces of information about it. The first is the title; it strongly suggests that someone is telling others all of what he knows about his mother. Another piece of info is that the son, Esteban, tells his mother three things: that he's taking a class in creative writing; he has elected to write a piece for that class about her; and that he tells her that she has told him very little about her life in Barcelona and nothing about his father who is still in Barcelona. She works at a hospital as an organ-donation counselor to parents whose children die in accidents. She then invites him to the hospital so he can see how she spends her days – a sort of take your son to work day. The rest of the movie is the story written by Esteban based on his limited knowledge of his subject – his mother and it is being read by her. The limited information gives Esteban freedom to make things up and, because he wants to make his mother realize when she reads it that her lack of communication with him about her life before he was born is quite problematic, he lets his imagination go to extremes. So he fills the story with outlandish characters. His father is a trans-sexual prostitute. He also adds the touch of his death and his mother’s consequential need to counsel herself on the donation of his organs to people in need. After all, that’s what he knows about her. Almodovar of course doesn’t want to be obvious so he lets the story end as if Esteban actually did die. This interpretation tends to support the title very well and is quite intriguing. Mike Angelastro 70.89.245.118 (talk) 05:49, 22 July 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.89.245.118 (talk) 05:43, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

It's an interesting interpretation, but I can understand why it was removed. Yohan euan o4 (talk) 01:00, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Yohan euan 04, why do you think it was removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.89.245.118 (talk) 18:42, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

I disagree. The title of the movie refers to the fact that he only knows half of the story (He mentions that when he talks about the picture). Where is the other half of my mother???? After Esteban dies, we get to know all about his mother. "All about his mother" or "All about Esteban's mother" might have been more appropriate, but it would have sounded to impersonal for the movie. Also note the homage to All About Eve, and the fact that in the movie Esteban comments that the translation to spanish of that title is incorrect. In the movie, the title All About Eve is translated to Eve Naked (undressed, unveiled). Naked, or "al desnudo" can be interpreted as saying that the person is presented as who she really is, with all layers of veils, dresses, and protection removed. Thus, here Almodovar pays hommage to All About Eve and invites us to do the same for his title: interpret is as My Mother, presented as who she really is, unveiled... In fact, he presents women just like that in this movie... He unveils their inner world...--Reefpicker (talk) 19:49, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Reefpicker, thanks for commenting on my interpretation of this movie. You bring up some good points. But I can't help wondering about the fact that Esteban was taking a course in creative writing. He could have been taking a million other courses. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate for the course to be in drama to cement his love of the play "Street Car Named Desire" or literature in general. What about his statement to his mother that he wanted to write about her but lacked sufficient knowledge of her? How then do these tidbits otherwise contribute to the story? I suppose his mother's occupation was set for adding a little bit of irony. But whose irony is it? Almodovar's or Esteban's. Why did his mother take him to work if not to make him more familiar with how she spends her day? If it were Almodovar's irony, that would not have had to happen to support the story. I also am intrigued by the reference to “All About Eve”, a movie about an aging female actress that is Eve’s intended victim. Eve in turn is Phoebe’s victim, et cetera. The reference seems to then be only in the title’s translation to Spanish. I have to say though that it was easy to miss some of the subtle nuances of facial expression in the acting and other goings on in the story that were obscured by the necessity to read subtitles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.89.245.118 (talk) 03:01, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

A small point

On what basis is the distinction made in the article between Lola as a transvestite and Agrado as a transsexual? The plausible that both could be called either; it isn't central to the plot and so isn't clarified. Yohan euan o4 (talk) 01:00, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Well Lola lives as a transvestite and Agrado lives as a woman. Male pronouns are used to to refer Lola in the English subtitles... but as pronouns can be left out in Spanish I'm not sure if that's how the decision was made. In any case he refers to himself as a dad in the end.

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