SONY PICTURES PRESS RELEASE: Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education & Flower Of My Secret (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

“****! (highest rating)
Gael Garcia Bernal is dynamite… his teaming with Almodóvar creates one of the year’s best films. A rapturous masterwork.”
– Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE on BAD EDUCATION

Unprecedented, Genre-Shattering Film from Academy Award® Winning Director Pedro Almodóvar Stars Latin Heartthrob Gael García Bernal

BAD EDUCATION
and
FLOWER OF MY SECRET

Available on DVD and VHS April 12, 2005

Oscar®-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar
(Best Screenplay winner & Best Director nominee, Talk to Her) has earned international praise and an irrefutable reputation for creating passionate, quirky films and his latest, BAD EDUCATION only affirms that reputation. Starring the red-hot Latin star Gael García Bernal (Motorcycle Diaries, Amores Perros, Y Tu Mamá También) along with Fele Martínez (Talk to Her) and Daniel Giménez Cacho (Nicotina, Y Tu Mamá También), BAD EDUCATION is a brilliant reinvention of the traditional film noir shot through a genre-bending and gender-bending lens. Called “Almodóvar’s strongest film in two decades,” by J. Hoberman in THE VILLAGE VOICE, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release BAD EDUCATION on DVD and VHS (rental) April 12, 2005.

Also available from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment are two great films directed by Pedro Almodóvar, TALK TO HER – Academy Award® WINNER, Pedro Almodóvar, Best Writing, Screenplay written directly for the screen, 2003 and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER -- Academy Award® WINNER, Best Foreign Language Picture, 2000.

Also available on DVD for the first time from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be Almodóvar’s FLOWER OF MY SECRET. Based on a short story by Dorothy Parker, it’s the hilarious tale of a wildly popular romance novelist who despises her lowbrow career so much that she writes an article under a pseudonym attacking herself.

BAD EDUCATION has earned a string of accolades, including winner of the Best Foreign film by the New York Film Critics Association and selected as one of the best foreign films of the year by the National Board of Review in addition to being chosen as the Centerpiece Selection for the 2004 New York Film Festival and was Opening Night Selection at the 2004 Cannes Festival. BAD EDUCATION also received four Goya Award nominations, five European Film Award nominations and one César Award nomination. It was called a “stylish new crime romancer,” by Michael Wilmington in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE while Janice Page, writing in THE BOSTON GLOBE, focused on the “outrageously compelling performance by Latin ‘it’ boy Gael Garcia Bernal.”

BAD EDUCATION DVD special features include commentary by director Pedro Almodóvar; deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes and a poster exploration gallery.

Bad Education - Synopsis
Filmmaker Enrique (Fele Martínez) gets a visit from an aspiring actor claiming to be his old school friend Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), who has written a story about their traumatic childhood spent at Catholic school. In the story, a drag performer known as Zahara (also played by Bernal) attempts to blackmail a predatory priest by exposing their scandalous past. The tale provides the inspiration for Enrique’s next film. But when the villainous priest from their school days arrives on to tell his own version of the events, the truth is wilder than anything anyone could have imagined!

Flower of my Secret - Synopsis
Leo writes romance novels - but with a loveless marriage, she finds herself fresh out of inspiration. Angel is tough and gruff with an iron will and a heart of gold. When their paths cross, they discover something neither had expected - a real-life love affair!

BAD EDUCATION - DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary by Director Pedro Almodóvar
• Deleted scenes
• Making of BAD EDUCATION
• American Film Institute Tribute
• Red carpet footage from AFI Film Festival
• Poster Exploration Gallery
• Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation (2.35 aspect ratio)
• Audio: Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English
• Bonus Trailers
• Scene Selections

Year of Theatrical Release: 2004
Rated: NC-17
Color
Running Time: 105 Minutes
DVD SLP: $26.96 / VHS SLP: Rental

FLOWER OF MY SECRET - DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation (1.78 aspect ratio)
• Audio: Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English
• Bonus Trailers
• Scene Selections

Year of Theatrical Release: 1995
Rated: R
Color / Closed Captioned
Running Time: 103 Minutes
DVD SLP: $29.95

 

[Julian Lalor]

That Bad Education is rated NC-17 is laughable and a total indictment on the double standards of the MPAA. It only received a 15 rating in the UK. I wonder how many people missed this great film because of theatres refusing to screen the film due to its rating.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Was it really rated NC-17? Really?

Who cares, I guess, except anyone foolish enough to patronize Blockbuster, but color my surprised.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The name "Almodovar" causes a psychotic reaction in the MPAA.

I haven't seen the film, so I can't really comment. Almodovar's done some pretty racy stuff in the past, though.

Of course, it might just be a typo in the press release.

 

[Haggai]

No typo, it was definitely rated NC-17. I think it might have been mainly because of a scene where G.G. Bernal is diving into a swimming pool, and there's a close-in shot of his crotch, from the point of view of the other man, where the skimpy/wet bathing suit pretty much makes it a full-on shot of his you-know-what. There's an oral sex scene earlier, but nothing really explicit. The ratings are all very dumb anyway, but that's probably why it got the rating it did.

 

[Julian Lalor]

Full frontal male nudity does not garner a NC-17 rating. Clearly, someone at the MPAA has some hang-ups about s-e-x. Perhaps if Gael had a Colt 45 in his trunks, taken it it out and blown the other guy away it would have received a PG-13 rating instead.

 

[Shane Gralaw]

Just saw this and am absolutely appalled that it got an NC-!7. There is no direct frontal nudity, and the swimming pool scene, with a few wet outlines, should hardly qualify. I must be the gay content pushing the ridiculous rating. If Basic Instinct can get an "R", then this should be "PG-13" at best.

 

[GerardoHP]

I think the NC-17 rating is not for the nudity, which is mild compared to other R-rated films, but for the scenes of love and sex between underage boys. IMO, those scenes not only are not racy at all but they're done in very good taste, but I'm sure they were probably disturbing to members of the MPAA who must cringe at the very notion that boys under 15 could have sexual feelings for each other.

 

[RafaelB]

And the MPAA isn't exactly filled with members that vary from liberal to conservative tastes either...

Rafael.

 

[Haggai]

Gerardo, I think you're probably right. Julian and Shawn made reasonable points about my earlier post.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Question about the DVD transfer...

just rented/watched the film the other night and in general the transfer was stunning on my 106" 16x9 screen...

EXCEPT...

the first half of the movie (up until you see the boys playing soccer at the school) there was *dot crawl* in the picture...like a really bad comb-filter running with composite video.

I'm running DVI

What gives!?!?

Did anyone else notice this? Any reviews anywhere? Also my version from Block Buster had "pixelated" head-shots during the "blow job" scene which was rediculous given that no actual graphic imagery was every shown to begin with.