Pedro Almodóvar: The Ultimate Collection DVD – Javier Cámara, Carmen Maura 

Seven film box set includes:   Tie Me Up Tie Me Down Recently released from a mental institution, Ricky (Antonio Banderas) sets in motion his grand plan. Hunting down the porn star with whom he once had sex, Ricky tries to convince her to be his wife. However, when she’s somewhat reluctant to say the least to take up his offer of marriage, he vows to tie her down to endear himself to her…   Bad Education Academy Award* winning filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar takes a look at his own adolescence as well as confronting the issue of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church in this stylish thriller, which was chosen to open the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.   Bad Education narrates the reunion of two young men in early 80s Madrid, as the city starts to breathe a new air of freedom. Fifteen years earlier, in the darkness of a Catholic school, the two young men had discovered sensuality and a common hatred of the priests from whom they received their ‘bad education’.   Now, in the new and liberated Madrid, both men–a filmmaker and an aspiring actor–revisit their early years together. As they try to uncover the truth about themselves, each other and the other characters in their story, they realise that things and people are not as they first seem.    *2003 Best Original Screenplay, Talk To Her   All About My Mother A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress’s autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad’s father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance, becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma’s lover, and she becomes Rosa’s caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, All About Eve, and A Streetcar Named Desire, the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.   Talk To Her Two men share an odd friendship while they care for their girlfriends who are both in deep comas.    Volver  Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and her sister Sole (Lola Dueñas) are visited by the apparition of their mother (Carmen Maura), who has returned to reconcile with her daughters and resolve an issue that has haunted the family since her death. In this family drama, the living and dead co-exist without discord creating a filmic experience which is at once hilarious and yet filled with a deep, genuine emotion.   Broken Embraces Harry Caine is a successful writer but a man who writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years ago, Harry was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote, resulting in not only the loss of his sight, but of something much greater. However Harry Caine is a pseudonym and only a few people know Harry’s real identity and of the life he led before the accident. Now Harry has decided to tell the moving and terrible story of his former self. A story of “amour fou”, dominated by love, jealousy, treachery and fatality.   The Skin I Live In  Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After 12 years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig…   Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play.      

Seven films by acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. In ‘Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down’ (1990), Marina (Victoria Abril) is a soft-porn actress with two men in her life: one, the wheelchair-bound director of her films, is obsessed with her and leaves endless messages on her answering machine; the other, Ricky (Antonio Banderas), has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital and is determined to father her children. Ricky attacks her in her flat, holds her hostage and ties her to the bed until she becomes a willing participant in this black comedy. ‘Bad Education’ (2004), follows the intertwining stories of two boys, Enrique (Fele Martínez) and Ignacio (Gael García Bernal), who fall in love at an abusive Catholic school and are parted by a jealous paedophile priest. Sixteen years later, Enrique, now a successful filmmaker, is casting about for an idea for a new film when a young cross-dressing actor, claiming to be Ignacio but known as ‘Angel’, approaches him with a short story based on their schooldays together. In ‘All About My Mother’ (1999), single mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth) takes her seventeen-year-old son, Esteban (Eloy Azorín), to see a stage performance of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ as a birthday treat. Tragically, Esteban is killed when he chases after a taxi carrying his favourite actress, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes). Consumed with guilt, Manuela decides to go in search of Esteban’s father, whose identity she never revealed to her son. In ‘Talk To Her’ (2002), Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a housebound nurse who falls in love with a young dancer, Alicia (Leonor Watling), he sees rehearsing through his window. Marco (Darío Grandinetti) is a journalist who falls in love with a bullfighter, Lydia (Rosario Flores), after being assigned to interview her. When Alicia and Lydia are involved in separate accidents which send them both into a comas, Benigno and Marco meet at the hospital and unpredictable consequences promptly ensue. In the supernatural-themed comedy ‘Volver’ (2006), Penélope Cruz plays a Madrid mother and housewife of a drunk husband. She and her hairdressing sister are orphans by dint of a house fire back home in rural LaMancha. When their sole surviving relative there – their mum’s sister – passes on, her past habit of talking to the girls’ mother as if she were still on the mortal plane takes on a new and chilling significance. In .’Broken Embraces’ (2009), Mateo Blanco (Lluís Homar) is a scriptwriter who was in a terrbile car accident 14 years ago that killed the woman he loved, Lena (Penélope Cruz), and blinded him. Since then he has gone under the name Harry Caine, choosing to forget his past and the accident, which he never talks about. One night he is required to look after his production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo)’s son Diego (Tamar Novas), after he hurts himself. During the time they spend together until Judit returns, Diego asks about when Harry was called Mateo and so Harry decides to tell the boy the story of his painful past, presenting it as fiction in an attempt to keep Diego entertained. Finally, in the reve nge tale ‘The Skin I Live In’ (2011), Antonio Banderas stars as Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon whose attempts to cultivate a new form of human skin have led to years of experimentation on a live woman, Vera (Elena Anaya). But as the story of Vera’s past emerges, it becomes clear that Robert has a questionable agenda of his own as he manipulates her face and body for his own purposes.

Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down Ricky (Antonio Banderas) is released from a mental hospital, and knows exactly what he wants to do with his life, and his new found freedom. He hunts down Marina (Victoria Abril), a porn film star he once had sex with, and tries to convince her to be his wife. She is a bit reluctant, so Ricky ties her up until she falls in love with him…Will this approach endear him to her? This dark comedy from Oscar winning director Pedro Almodovar brings you an alternative love story… with strings attached! Bad Education Academy Award winning filmmaker Pedro Almodovar takes a look at his own adolescence as well as confronting the issue of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church in this stylish thriller, which was chosen to open the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. In 1980s Madrid two young men, filmmaker Ignacio (Fele Martinez, Talk To Her) and aspiring actor Enrique (Gael Garcia Bernal, Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mama Tambien) open up dark secrets as they revisit their early years together at a Catholic school. As they try to uncover the truth about themselves, each other and the diverse characters in their story, they realise that things and people are not as they first seem. All About My Mother From acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, a stunning valentine to femininity in all its disguises, motherhood in all its glory and to classic Hollywood melodramas and their diva actresses. A birthday treat turns into heart-rending tragedy for single mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth) when her teenage son is killed in a car accident after a performance of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ starring his favourite actress Huma Roja (Marisa Paredes). Determined to exorcise her overwhelming guilt, Manuela goes to Barcelona to finally tell his father about the son he never knew he had. There, the reason why she has kept the identity of her forbidden lover a secret for so long is revealed. He is a transvestite named Lola who is dying from an AIDS related illness. However in confronting her own past, Manuela forges a new future with Lola’s transsexual best friend Agrado (Antonia San Juan), church social worker Sister Rosa (Penelope Cruz) and Huma, when her play comes to town. But even as the women from different fringes of society form a bond, further heartbreak, misfortune and ultimate joy lies in store for each. Considered by critics worldwide to be the finest movie Almodovar has directed in his entire glittering career, and featuring glorious acting from the cream of Spanish cinema, All About My Mother combines warmth, love, tears and humour as it builds to an unforgettable emotional crescendo. Talk To Her In this ravishing tale of romantic obsession, loneliness and friendship. Director Pedro Almodovar crafts a life affirming story of two tragic woman and the men who love them. After a chance encounter at a theatre, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco’s girlfriend and bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny. Volver Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) and her sister Sol (Lola Duenas) are visited by the apparition of their mother (Carmen Maura), who has returned to reconcile with her daughters and resolve an issue that has haunted the family since her death. Broken Embraces The latest film from Pedro Almodovar, starring Penelope Cruz. It starts in present-day Madrid. Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar) is a filmmaker who’s been blind ever since a car accident on the island of Lanzarote that also claimed the life of his lover Lena (Penelope Cruz). Since the tragedy, he’s been known only by his pen name Harry Caine, repressing his former self in order to live life to the full, looked after by his age-old friend Judit (Blanca Portillo) and her son Diego. The Skin I Live In Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig…