THE MOVIE

Written and Directed by the acclaimed foreign director Pedro Almodovar (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) is Todo Sobre Mi Madre which is Spanish for All About My Mother. This Spanish language flim had a large amount of positive critical acclaim for its cinematic release for which it received a Golden Globe, British Academy Award, and Academy Award for best foreign film as well as awards from Cannes for director Almodovar.

The film is really a melodrama focused on the main character Manuela (Cecilia Roth). The film begins with the surprising and tragic death of Manuela’s teenage son Esteban (Eloy Azorin) when he is hit by a car. Just before his death he had asked Manuela to tell him about his father. So Manuela goes in search of Esteban’s father so that she can find some sort of peace in her life after his death.

As Manuela goes about her search she delves into her past and meets up with an extremely mixed and colourful group of people ranging from a pregnant nun (Penelope Cruz) to transsexuals, prostitutes, and drug addicts.

There is no denying that Almodovar has been influenced by the Hollywood film “All About Eve” which you can also read my review of. The characters are interesting to watch and very well acted. The movie moves along at a consistent pace with enough surprises to keep you interested.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

All About My Mother is presented in a letterboxed aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. The region 1 release of this DVD has the original theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced so we are missing out here in region 4.

Director Almodovar likes to use bold and bright colours to accentuate his characters and the on-screen action. Unfortunately in the video transfer some of these rich colours have suffered from slight oversaturation and colour bleed.

Sharpness is good but not consistent with some occasionally overly soft scenes. Black level is quite good throughout the entire transfer. I did not notice any digital artefacts and only some very minor film grain is present during the movie.

Audio:

All About My Mother contains a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio track.

This film mainly consists of dialog that is focused on the centre speaker and front soundstage. The surround speakers are used sparingly to support Alberto Inglesias’ well rendered yet subtle score. So the full 5.1 soundtrack does not make much use of all audio channels. The subwoofer channel is hardy used at all. Although I don’t understand Spanish, the dialogue sounded clear and there were no faults in the audio track.

THE EXTRAS

Trailer
A cleverly made trailer for any international audience with no dialogue, just many scenes from the film with occasional English title cards.

Behind the Scenes
Running at just under 6 minutes this gives us a short look at part of the filming process. Interestingly there is no cast or crew interviews it is as if someone has been on set to catch the filming of certain scenes and they have then been added as an extra. There is no explanation as to what is happening on screen and all dialogue is in Spanish with no subtitles available.

Cast and Crew Bios
A good summary of the careers of all major actors in the film as well as the crew including director, editor, director of production and music composer.

SUMMARY

If you are a fan of foreign films or well-made and acted melodramas then All About My Mother is a great film to see. Unfortunately the video transfer is not presented in the originally intended aspect ratio but it still captures the feel of the film as does the consistent audio transfer.