Matador *** (1986, Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, Nacho Martínez, Carmen Maura) – Classic Movie Review 3563

A retired male bullfighter and a smart female lawyer share a fatal fascination with death, in Pedro Almodóvar’s stylish, provocative, acclaimed 1986 black comedy film Matador.

A retired male bullfighter and a smart female lawyer share a fatal fascination with death in the stylish, deservedly acclaimed 1986 black comedy Matador, from Spain’s leading director, Pedro Almodóvar, who co-writes with Jesús Ferrero.

It seems that several men have been murdered, matador-style, with giant hat-pins, at the height of passion! The main characters in the movie are the ex-bullfighter and the lawyer, who find murder is exciting, and a young man whose religious upbringing drives him mad.

Made before but released in the UK after Almodóvar’s breakthrough movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), the film is a typically vibrant, flashy and visually opulent example of his early work. The cinematography is by Angel Luis Fernández.

Almodóvar pursues his favourite pastime of stripping away the layers of bourgeois respectability in search of private vices in a film that showcases his admirable Eighties stock company of actors, including Assumpta Serna, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Nacho Martinez, Eva Cobo, Juliette Serrano and Chus Lampreave.

Also in the cast are Eusebio Poncela, Bibi Andersen [Bibiana Fernández], Luis Ciges, Eva Siva, Véronica Forqué, Lola Peno, Marisa Tejada and Pepa Merino.

Matador is a provocative film and you can expect some scenes of sexual violence.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3563

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