Matador (film)

For the 2005 film starring Pierce Brosnan, see The Matador.
Matador

Theatrical release poster by Carlos Berlanga
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez
Written by Pedro Almodóvar
Jesús Ferrero
Starring Antonio Banderas
Assumpta Serna
Nacho Martínez
Music by Bernardo Bonezzi
Cinematography Ángel Luis Fernández
Edited by Pepe Salcedo
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • 1986 (1986)
Running time
 110 minutes
Country Spain
Language Spanish
Box office $210,318[1]

Matador is a 1986 film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar about a student matador, Ángel Jiménez (Antonio Banderas), who confesses to murders he did not commit. Themes include sex, death, and religion.

Plot

Diego Montes (Nacho Martínez) is a bullfighter, forced into early retirement by a goring, and in the opening scene he finds sexual gratification viewing videos of violent death. In retirement he teaches bullfighting, and among his students is Ángel, a diffident young man who suffers from vertigo. During one episode of vertigo in the practice ring, the scene cuts from Ángel to a woman killing a man during sex with a pin she was wearing in her hair, striking at the base of the neck between the shoulder blades, as a matador kills a bull. After class, Diego asks Ángel if he is homosexual, noting that he is not experienced with women. Ángel says he is not and vows to prove himself. Later that day, Ángel attempts to rape Eva (Eva Cobo), a model who is both his neighbour and Diego's girlfriend. As she is leaving him, she trips in the mud and gashes her cheek. At the sight of her blood, Ángel faints.

The next day, Ángel's mother insists that he go to church as a condition of living in her home. After mass, she insists that he go to confession, but instead of confessing to the priest, he goes to the police station to confess to the rape. When Eva is brought to the station, she says he ejaculated before penetrating her and declines to press charges. Alone with the police detective (Eusebio Poncela), Ángel notices photos of dead men with the same wound administered by the woman seen during his earlier spell of vertigo. He confesses to having killed them. The detective then asks about two missing women, who were also students of Diego, and Ángel confesses to killing them as well.

Although Ángel is able to lead the police to the bodies of the missing women, buried outside Diego's home, the police detective is not convinced. He questions how Ángel could have buried them there without Diego's knowledge, then discovers that Ángel has an alibi for the murder of one of the men. Finally, he discovers that Ángel faints at the sight of blood.

Meanwhile, Ángel's lawyer, María Cardenal (Assumpta Serna), who is the same woman who was shown killing one of the men during Ángel's bout of vertigo in the practice ring, begins to suspect that Diego killed the two women students. She takes Diego to a remote house where she has been collecting memorabilia related to Diego since she first saw him kill a bull. They return to Diego's home, where Eva, who wants to convince Diego not to break up with her, overhears enough to realize that they are the killers. When María leaves, Eva tells Diego he has to take her back, since she knows everything. He says he will, but Eva also goes to María to tell her she must stay away from Diego, since Eva knows her secrets. María's reaction does not reassure Eva, and she goes to the police.

While Eva is telling the detective what she has heard, Ángel's psychiatrist (Carmen Maura) calls the detective to tell him that Ángel has seen Diego and María in a vertigo trance, and that they are in danger. Ángel is able to guide them to María's remote house. Just as the police, Ángel, the psychiatrist, and Eva arrive, an eclipse begins, and they hear a gunshot. María has stabbed Diego between the shoulder blades and shot herself in the mouth as they were making love. Viewing the scene, the detective says that it is better this way and that he has never seen anyone happier.

Reviews

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "The movie looks terrific and is acted with absolute, straight-faced conviction by the excellent cast headed by Miss Serna, Mr. Martinez and Mr. Banderas. Matador is of most interest as another work in the career of a film maker who, possibly, is in the process of refining a singular talent."[2]

In his book Almodóvar on Almodóvar, the director admitted that he considered this film and Kika (1993) to be his two weakest.

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=matador88.htm
  2. ↑ Almodovar's 'Matador,' Surrealist Sex Comedy, Vincent Canby, The New York Times, 16 September 1988, p. 2. (The NYT review avoids Spanish language accents consistently throughout.) Retrieved 2012-03-21.
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