I have this project in class which involves me and 3 other guys researching about a country and talking about it. So part of my research involved watching a film, in this case, Pedro Aldomovar’s Talk To Her or Hable con ella. Lame excuse of course but no need to bother about that. *Spoilers aplenty btw.

So I finally got down to watching it and I must say I am hella creeped out but very impressed. Typically, I’m not one for the touchy feely emotional type drama shows. Which is why I took so long to watch this much heralded film. I now know why. Again, I also only tend to like films that have a certain aesthetic beauty. This one falls into that category just fine, only that its a certain disturbing sort of beauty, where you feel that you are a sicko for appreciating almost.

The film is mainly about 2 guys, Marco and Benigno. Marco is a travel guide writer who has just gotten into a relationship with a famous female matador. Benigno works as a nurse in a hospital. They sort of meet at a sort of avant garde dance show where the former sheds a tear in one touching scene of melodrama. You keep thinking Benny (whose name translates as benign) is the gayzorz because of his effeminate speech and the fact that he was creepily mentioning Marco to Alicia, his object of affection. She also happens to be in a persistent vegetative state. So he’s apparently simple but also creepy.

The proper meeting between Benny and Marco happens in the hospital, when Lydia, the matador gets gored by a bull into a coma. Benigno advises Marco to talk to Lydia, like he does in his monologue with Alicia. At times, assuming her responses for her. The film reveals more plot points as you go along and the more you know, the more uncomfortable it gets.

It’s all really pretty, especially the scene where Alicia is on a hospital bed and the nurses dress her, easing the sheets and the gown horizontally across the screen. There was this faint hint of the creeps hiding under the serenity and calm. All the psycho stuff then comes out later, when Benigno opens up to Marco.

These two, insecure and lonely men are completely incapable of having real relationships with women. Marco was gonna get dumped the day Lydia got gored. Benny assumes the PVS chick is responding positively to his advances. They carry on, deluded that they are in love, when they only love themselves. Things get strung out till we reach this climactic point where its goes beyond just creepy and weird to downright wrong.

Amidst all this, the dance shows inside the film and the film within a film reinforce the goings on between the characters. The fragile distance between the sexes and the ambiguity of sexuality in and of itself, loneliness and selfish desire or perhaps naivete and obstinance.

There’s also this wonderful scene where Caetano Veloso provides a heartwrenching rendition of Cucurrucucu Paloma. If you ever need something to make a girl’s heart swoon, this shit has got to be it.

Talk To Her is sensual, provocative and soooo gentle yet completely perverse at the same time. A must watch.