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MOVIES / ON DVD / LIVE FLESH
Live Flesh

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Live Flesh (1997)

78%
50%
85%
N/A
N/A
N/A
78 %
Reviews Counted: 36 Fresh: 28  Rotten:8 Average Rating: 7/10
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Synopsis:
A shooting in the Madrid apartment of Elena (Francesca Neri), an Italian dope addict, leaves policeman David (Javier Bardem) a paraplegic and Victor (Liberto Rabal), her would-be date, in prison. Years later, Victor gets out of jail but is obsessed with Elena, now clean, sober, and married... [More]
A shooting in the Madrid apartment of Elena (Francesca Neri), an Italian dope addict, leaves policeman David (Javier Bardem) a paraplegic and Victor (Liberto Rabal), her would-be date, in prison. Years later, Victor gets out of jail but is obsessed with Elena, now clean, sober, and married to David, who has transcended his handicap by becoming a wheelchair basketball champion. The brooding, resentful Victor starts sleeping with their friend Clara (Ángela Molina), the sexually restless wife of David's jealous, alcoholic former cop partner, and finds out some harsh truths about what really happened that fateful night. Eventually love, desire, obsession, and betrayal all whirlwind into confrontations both deadly and intensely sexual. Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell, this colorful, vibrant film from Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar overflows with rich, sensual performances and beauty captured by graceful camerawork, enhanced by a sizzling musical score by Alberto Iglesias. Penélope Cruz appears as Victor's mother, a prostitute who gives birth to him on a bus in the film's brilliant opening. [Less]

Genre: Foreign Films

Starring: Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Liberto Rabal, Ángela Molina, José Sancho

Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Story: Ruth Rendell
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar

DVD Info

Release:

Oct 4, 2001

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - Spanish

Additional Release Material:

  • Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
02/09/06 03:17 AM
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

gripping and gorgeous

| Comment
09/19/04 04:54 AM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image

While despair underlies Almodovar's film...the director attempts to lighten up with some misplaced jokes. These, though, are never any more than a brief respite from the irritating mess in which the characters embroil themselves.

Full Review | Comment
01/01/00 12:00 AM
Giala Murray
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

The film also feels curiously underpopulated, unenlivened by any sparky character bits.

Full Review | Comment
07/13/07 08:45 AM
David Noh
Film Journal International
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
04/27/07 03:15 AM
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Ratings Image

Very much an Almodovar picture with most of the anticipated outrageous occurrences intact.

Full Review | Comment
10/11/06 11:29 AM
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
09/23/06 03:59 AM
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
07/29/06 04:04 AM
Jim Shelby
Palo Alto Weekly
Ratings Image

Another offbeat Almodovar treat — with another compelling Bardem performance.

| Comment
05/19/06 01:06 PM
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
03/09/06 08:33 PM
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
02/17/06 01:33 PM
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
06/29/05 08:24 PM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image

It is a pleasure to see such a tight work from Amaldovar.

Full Review | Comment
04/09/05 03:59 AM
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews
Ratings Image

Witness the increasing promise of Pedro Almodóvar, in a film that has gone largely unnoticed in his career but stands as a worthy and mostly mainstream entry into his unique style of twisted relationship movies.

Full Review | Comment
07/03/04 03:37 PM
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com
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Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
06/15/04 12:06 PM
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews
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No review available.

| Comment
03/29/03 09:34 PM
Joshua Tanzer
Offoffoff
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
12/23/02 10:41 AM
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ratings Image

The film lacks the anarchic weirdness of some of his best, and without the camp elements it becomes obvious just how like a telenovela the goings-on are.

Full Review | Comment
06/05/02 08:07 AM
Cathy Thompson-Georges
Boxoffice Magazine
Ratings Image

The overall purpose of Live Flesh, the latest and reputedly most 'mature' work from Spanish bad-boy director Pedro Almodovar, remains engigmatic.

Full Review | Comment
04/12/02 08:07 AM
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
01/01/00 12:00 AM
USA Today
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Related Forums

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News

Cruz and Almodovar Collaborate Again
posted by RT Staff February 08, 2005

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