Hable Con Ella - Critical Interpretation

Rebecca Naughten: Comatose women in ‘El bosque’: Sleeping beauty and other literary motifs in Pedro Almodóvar's Hable con ella'Alicia brings to mind Alice of Caroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) - a reference which seems to firmly position her comatose body as being in a  dream state. This symbolically seems to suggest that like Alice, Alicia will return to life. Unlike Lydia who dies without waking her from her coma. 

'The fairytale references continue in the name of the choice of the clinic' - El Bosque.Alicia's skin resembles that of Snow White, her paleness stands in stark contrast to Lydia's darker skin - The poster that is used to promote the film depicts these two women as polar opposites. The palness of Leonor Watling is also something that is commented in interviews. For example, she is often cited as a 'timeless beauty' - one interviewer draws specific  attention to Watling's skin saying 'The white complexion, pale, without imperfections, has something of the past' - she epitomises a timeless beauty. 

There are strong links to Sleeping Beauty.'Earlier versions of Sleeping Beauty, involve a a prince having intercourse with, or a raping, a comatose beauty, resulting in childbird. Almodovar takes us back to the original depiction of the tale. His return to the original version is a less reflection of what a modern audience would tolerate.The predominance of female characters has lead Almodovar to be labelled as a 'woman's director'. However in his previous work such as Kika, Almodovar is criticised for his approach of the rape scene, that is saturated in comedy. 

'In sharp contrast to Almodovar's previous films, the rape that takes place in Hable Con Ella' is handled with great subtlety. One of the flashbacks reveals to the audience that Benigno has had a conversation with Alicia before her accident, during the course of which he managed to attain enough 'information' to make him feel like he 'knows' her. In the present, Benigno uses this information to do all the things that Alicia would have done had she not been in the coma. He recounts a silent film he has seen, Almodovar cuts to black and silent film - 'The shrinking Lover' It seems to be these early delusions of a relationship with Alicia that eventually lead Benigno to impregnate a comatose patient he barely knew when she was conscious.

'The Shrinking love' adds an element of surrealism, as the women on whom the sexual act, Amaparo, is asleep at the time.The fact that there is a sleeping woman at the heart of the silent films seems to reinforce The Sleeping Beauty motif, but also allows the sleeping Amparo to stand in for the comatose Alicia.The Shrinking Lover - a metaphor for Benigno's sexual desire for Alicia, that culminates in the rape.The subtlety of the rape is reinforced through the splitting of  the lava lamp - that echoes the splitting of the cells in human fertilisation. However on first viewing, these artifices that are placed allow us to steer away or even contemplate the idea of the rape. But on second viewing the reality of the situation becomes more apparent. 

Pelin Ayitemiz - Man On The Verge of Nervous Breakdown: Gender Ambiguity. In the film he is presented as neither male nor female therefore his gender identity is in an ambiguity. For instance he is mostlyoccupied with activities which are associated with female subjectivity in patriarchy likenursing, embroidering, massaging, studying beauty therapy, make up and hairdressing.But on the other hand, he is positioned as the subject of the gaze as a male which thesystem expects from its male members. 

Through out the film the sight we share from Benigno’s point of view is Alicia; as the object of his gaze, which is either seen as a naked passive body in hospital or as a dancer watched through out the window. In the film Benigno character is represented as having a subjectivity compromising the two opposite gender identities which can not be defined according to the definite borders set in the society in relation to male identity

 In relation to this, in the film, the spectator never encounters with a father figure. The father is eliminated from the lives of Benigno and his mother. This is represented in the mise- en- scene of the film with the wedding photo of his mother, hanging on the wall of Benigno's house, in which the father is cut off

Benigno’s repressed desire toward his mother which is the search of wholeness and plentitude is expressed through his sexual desire towards Alicia and in the film it is  symbolized through the black and white silent film. The Shrinking Man. This film - in thefilm - is like a mental state of Benigno and represents both his desire and the rape scene. Benigno tells Alicia that he watched a very sad movie and like a confession he tells thestory of the shrinking man. But by identifying with the main character of the silent filmhe actually tells his own story. While he describes the main character Alfredo, he says “a little overweight like me but a nice guy”

By using the excessive features of melodrama and by characterizing issues and figures in excessive ways, Talk to Her  makes an ironic parody of real life to untie the gender ideology under the domination of patriarchy.

Talk to Her  revolvesaround two male protagonist and their problems. In the film the portrayal of genders are subverted which clearly falls out the margins of conventional gender stereotypes and also melodramas

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