Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom

If you're an Almodovar fan, this film is definitely worth seeing; others may find it a bit obscure. Almodovar's unique personality is already in full evidence in this first film of his to be widely distributed. Yes, most of its low-budget seams are in full evidence, but compensates with moments of outrageous hilarity that no one else would even attempt. It's worth seeing for the lesbian rock star's punk love song to her lover alone.

All the energy put in Pepi... is enough to go and see it. That a young director show so much enthusiasm is a litmus test to see if he really loves his story, his actors... and the medium, cinema at large. Far from all those neurotic self-centered so-called authors who will only deal with their obsessions through intimate and intricate tales.

Sure, Almodovar gives so much in the first half (i.e. till Luci leaves her home) that the following is not so surprising and exciting. But he learnt later to build up his stories mastering pace all along. As for then he steps out from underground flicks yet displaying great skills.

He will be back.

"However, you begin to disappoint with the first dialog (silly and absurd, no provocative), and it's better if we don't talk about the papers and acting (what happened to great Carmen Maura?!!)." I totally disagree with that, this movie is great, full of references to other great directors,which I guess the person who wrote this comment failed to see.

The actors are simply great, and act in the most purely Almodovar-John Waters way, making all the dialogs hilarious, playing with language (changing register in the same sentence from the highest to the lowest, making absurd speeches, from the point of view of the linguistics) and intonation, which I think is the greatest tool used by almodovar in his films.

Again, he rises daily life and common problems to the absurdity, by magnifying them, making us laugh at our own problems.

One of his greatest movies, in his purest style, which he greatly used again in his latest film "volver".

'Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)' is Pedro Almodóvar's first commercially released film. Shot on a shoestring budget equivalent to about only 3000 euros, this transgressive affair took around a year-and-a-half of weekend work from a volunteer crew to come to life. Concerned principally with being as taboo as possible, the piece is still boundary pushing even when viewed through a modern lens; just imagine how shocking it would have been when it first released a mere handful of years after Spain's infamous dictator Francisco Franco finally kicked the bucket and the country could (at least attempt to) progress past his fascist rule. It serves as a reminder that the people it depicts, with all their socially unacceptable appearances, desires and otherwise unexpected kinks, have always existed even when those that despise them seek to stamp them out. The plot-light picture may have its flaws, but at its best it's a celebration of sex and freedom and a disregard for restrictive tradition that sizzles with a punky energy and is already a strong indicator for what sort of stories interest its director the most. Indeed, it's pretty fully formed in terms of being unmistakably Almodóvar, even if it is rough around the edges and doesn't even come close to the heights of later entries in his repertoire. It's a shocking, trashy feature by design, but its need to be shocking and trashy often outweighs its aspirations of being cohesive and compelling. Some of it is rather off-putting in its flippancy, with sexual assault and domestic violence being portrayed in a way that just feels a bit poorly handled. That the characters don't react to these things the way we expect them to doesn't mean the movie is condoning them, but it doesn't do enough to condemn them either. Ultimately, though, this is the sort of transgressive experience that appeals to a specific sensibility and primarily serves as an act of rebellion. It's dodgy at times and it isn't massively compelling overall, but it's also relatively entertaining and admirably disinterested in so-called good taste. If you know what you're getting into, you might just have a good time.

This is the power of filmaking. It proves that passion for an art can outstand the difficulties. It might be cheap (it looks cheap) but the redeeming value is the hilarity, the originality of the ideas, the true passion of a true artist.

Director/writer Almodovar, in this first full length, presents us with his absurd unreal world. This is partly a relentless satire of S/M personalities, but intentionally unrealistic and much more. A world where lust is orgasmic and corruption of ethics and loss of dignity are ... funny! This is by no means for those who are offended easily. This is a movie which disregards ever good manner, every culture's rules. Almodovar humour is heretic. If you're up for something different, weird f##ked up humour, then come and join, welcome to Almodovar world. This is not quite recommended to "Talk to her" fans. But if you like early Almodovar, it is essential to search for this, to see how everything started.