Matador

Following the popular and critical success of Pedro Almodovar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Cinevista Video is releasing a series of his earlier films--which are decidedly not in the mainstream vein of Women. Matador opens with a retired bullfighter named Diego (Nacho Martinez) watching video snippets of violence towards women. Moving with a pronounced limp, Diego now runs a school for aspiring bullfighters, and as he demonstrates moves toward a mock bull, the scene shifts to a woman making love to a man, and then sinking a hairpin into the nape of his neck at the moment of orgasm. We later discover the woman is Maria (Assumpta Serna), a prominent lawyer. The converging plot lines quickly bring together Diego and Maria in what has to be one of the most outrageous black comedies in recent cinema. The medium for their meeting is a bullfighting student named Angel (Antonio Banderas) who--after being chided by Diego for his virginity--tries to rape Diego's girlfriend Eva. Dismissed by Eva, he goes to the police and confesses his crime--and admits to four murders in the process (two women, and two men, the latter killed by a sharp pointed object inserted in the back of the neck). Maria--killer of two of the above--takes on Angel's defense, and through him meets the misogynist Diego. Weird is too light an adjective to describe this persistently perverse satire that lampoons men (especially the macho), sex, death, religion, and any other sacred cow that Almodovar--a true imp of the perverse--can milk for its comic possibilities. Liable to be a controversial addition (this will definitely put a lot of people off their popcorn), Matador is nevertheless recommended for the bold of heart. (R. Pitman)