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Thread ID: 18103 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-05-05
2005-05-05 06:26 | User Profile
Bad Boys of Spain Stand Tall in Film
Bernal Continues to Grow as Actor in Story Full of Lies and Deception
By Ben Faresich [color=#666666][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Published: [url="http://www.themontclarion.org/main.cfm/include/displayIssueArticles/issue_date/20050428.html"]Thursday, April 28, 2005 [/url][/font][/color] Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education tells the story of two childhood friends reunited as men in Madrid in 1980. Enrique (Fele Martinez) has gone on to become a filmmaker, currently having some trouble finding a story for his film.
He scours newspaper ads for ideas, but cannot seem to hit on inspiration. As fate would have it, Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal) comes walking through his door. Ignacio is an aspiring actor who lacks experience and is starving for an opportunity to succeed. Both men see a chance for themselves in The Visit, a screenplay that Ignacio has written based on their experiences of growing up in a Catholic school for boys in the 1960s.
Ignacio's story focuses on a transvestite named Zahara, played by Ignacio, and his plan to blackmail Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), the priest who molested him as a boy. Zahara threatens to expose the priest by publishing his story of the sexual abuse that occurred in the school.
Ignacio's story speaks of young Enrique (Raul Garcia Forneiro) and Ignacio (Nacho Perez) and how they began to explore their sexuality and fall in love as young boys. Young Ignacio gets sexually abused by Father Manolo, who believes in his own twisted way that he truly loves the young boy.
Ultimately, the priest separates the two boys. They would not see each other again until 16 years later, in a chance encounter when Zahara's performance troupe is visiting the town where the boys grew up. Enrique becomes interested in adapting Ignacio's story into a film, but he begins to suspect that something is amiss with his long lost friend.
He does a little bit of amateur detective work to uncover Ignacio's secret. However, that is only the beginning of the mystery. As they're filming The Visit, another old friend pays Enrique a visit: the real Father Manolo, who now calls himself Senor Berenguer (Lluis Homar). Berenguer's life has taken a turn from the priesthood and he has a great deal to tell Enrique about Ignacio, including the truth about what has become of him.
[url="http://www.themontclarion.org/news/2005/04/28/ArtsAndEntertainment/Bad-Boys.Of.Spain.Stand.Tall.In.Film-942945.shtml"]http://www.themontclarion.org/news/2005/04/28/ArtsAndEntertainment/Bad-Boys.Of.Spain.Stand.Tall.In.Film-942945.shtml[/url]