Matador (1986)

I don't quite know what to say about Matador. I knew it was going to be messed up by the very fact that it was made by Pedro Almodovar, the man who made The Skin I Live in, Tie me up tie me down, and Bad Education. I was fascinated by the plot, a young matador in training admits to murders that he did not commit because he is filled with guilt from trying to rape a girl who then wouldn't press charges, even when he turned himself in, as she seems to pity him more than anything. However, the opening 5 minutes of the film sees two things, a man masturbating whilst watching video footage of women being tortured, killed and body parts chopped off, the second thing we see is a woman having sex with a man, only to kill him by sticking a needle down his neck, then continuing her love making with the corpse. It's a pretty intense opening to a pretty dark and twisted film. But if nothing else it kind of makes you want to watch the rest in order to see just how any of that could be at all relevant to anything at all.

Whilst this same sense of sexual unease continues throughout the film, you also see a more conventional story, and themes arise, such as guilt, religious pressures, the matriarchal role in society, love, lust, the desire to do something different with your life. This is a very original film, from a film maker who could only be called original. It is revealed to the audience fairly early who is actually responsible for the murders that young Angel (played by an impossibly young Antonio Bandaras) is admitting to. It's unusual seeing an actor who I have for so long associated with Hollywood playing a role which is essentially so daring and unusual. Whilst The Skin I Live In saw him returning more to this sort of field, it was slightly tame in so much as the character he played was more conventional, even if the film was just as unusual. As Angel we see a young man tormented by guilt laid in to him by his mother and his priest, guilt which has repressed his sexual desires (which are suspected to be homosexual) which is one reason why he appears to try and rape his neighbour, in a bizarre attempt to prove that he is not Gay, that he is a real man, and not just a boy. Whilst never explicitly stated, I believe that his intensely conservative religious upbringing  was indirectly responsible for his crimes, yet it is also responsible for his remorse afterwards, his inner conflict driving him throughout the film.

The rest of the cast are equally intense and fantastic in their roles, the lawyer with an ulterior motive, the police officer who isn't certain of his convictions, the young model in love with the wrong man, and the mother who's seen it all before. Each character is played wonderfully and convincingly, and everyone deserves praise.

I don't want to say too much about this film, because I think that the best way to view it is to be taken by surprise, and shocked by what you see. I don't mean that you will be outraged, this isn't shock as in the human centipede, playing with disgust and passing it off as art. This is shocking in the way it makes you think, the way it questions your morals whilst never ignoring them. It's shock cinema at its best, never exploiting the themes, but always pushing the boundaries. It's a film that is best viewed with just a vague knowledge of what you are about to see, as the journey is an interesting one, and one that makes me want to watch yet more Almodovar films yet.