My parents can be a touch impatient when it comes to television. Given the full range of Sky Channels which can be cycled through in about the time that it takes for you to forget what was on the first one, I rarely expect to see a whole film all the way through. Let alone a subtitled one. Yet last Thursday I sat and watched Almodovar’s Talk to Her with them. They loved it. A timely reminder not to underestimate ones parents, or indeed the power of a very accessible film. Its play with its moral subjects (discussed at some length on this classic Ilx thread) contrasted rather well with the episode of Judge John Deed on just before it.
JJD was flogging an EVIL CORPORATION vs DEFORMED CHILD story within which the bad guys were more than clear from the off. Nevertheless the makers of JJD, knowing how much the British punter favours EVIL CORPORATIONS over DEFORMED CHILLEN felt we would only be swayed if they showed us said spinal bifidad, one eyed, squashed faced child. Which put them in a quandary because even the child actor section of equity was relatively empty of the kind of super deformed child they needed to make their point.
Cue a very bad one second shot of digitally manipulated photo of baby which looked a bit like this photo of me. Compare that to Talk to Me’s eight minute silent movie interlude representing the rape of a girl in persistent vegetative state and you cannot help notice a difference in sophistication