My blooming secret

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Movie
German title My blooming secret
Original title La flor de mi secreto
Country of production Spain , France
original language Spanish
Publishing year 1995
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Pedro Almodovar
script Pedro Almodovar
production Esther García Rodríguez
music Alberto Iglesias
camera Affonso Beato
cut José Salcedo
occupation

My blooming secret (Spanish: La flor de mi secreto ) is a 1995 film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar .

action

The film is set in Madrid . The main character is the writer Leocadia, known as Leo. She writes cheesy romance novels under the pseudonym Amanda Gris and has become wealthy. However, when her marriage to Paco, who works for NATO in Brussels, gets into a crisis, she suddenly no longer succeeds in sentimental novels, but only in extremely bizarre tragedies, for example the story of a man who murders the mother of his ex-wife to meet his wife at the funeral and win her back. Or the story of a mother who kills her husband for molesting her daughter and hides the body in a restaurant freezer.

Leo's closest caregivers are her friend Beatrice, who works as a psychologist, her mother, her sister and her housekeeper Bianca. Bianca's son Antonio is played by the flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes . Leo's mother lives with Leo's sister, but wants to go back to the country and bullies her daughter and her family.

Leo comes into conflict with her publisher, to whom she has to deliver five romance novels a year. Her publishers Alicia and Tomás make it unmistakably clear to her what they expect from their novels: “State secretaries, yuppies, suggestive sex, subtly suggested, no politics, illegitimate children, as many as you want, social awareness should be avoided. And of course always a happy ending! "

Leo now faces the problem of having to deliver another kitsch novel that she doesn't want to succeed.

Leo sits idle at home or cries himself out to her friend Beatrice, known as Betty. Beatrice introduces her to the El Païs culture editor Ángel, who hires Leo as a reviewer. Leo declares that he detests Amanda Gris and, under her real name, writes a damning review of the Amanda Gris novels. In addition to her Panned a pseudonym hides behind which Ángel - a positive review of Paqui Damar appears as a counterpoint.

Leo visits Beatrice and is looking forward to her husband Paco, who wants to visit from Brussels. When Beatrice's phone rings, Paco is on the line and wants to speak to Leo. Afterwards Betty remarks: "Funny that he called here, isn't it?", But Leo sees no reason to worry. She assumes that her husband did not reach her at home and therefore correctly assumed that she was Betty.

Ángel is increasingly interested in Leo, who, however, still wants to save her marriage to Paco. During his short visit to Madrid, however, Paco declares that he will no longer see any salvation for the marriage and leaves again. Leo gets drunk and takes one too many sleeping pills, but throws up immediately, goes into town, dazed, and gets caught up in a student demonstration. Here she meets Ángel. He's taking her home. The next morning Leo wakes up at Ángel's and cannot remember the previous day - she just says that she talked too much, which her Ángel confirms: “You also revealed 'the flower of your secret', as Amanda Gris would say . ”This remark explains the title.

At home, Leo meets Betty, who has found the empty tube of sleeping pills and believes with horror that Leo has committed suicide. There is a heated argument in which Betty confronts Leo with the fact that she is Paco's lover - she also got the apartment key from him. Leo reacts calmly. When the phone rings, she says resignedly to Betty: “You go, it's for you.” But it's Leo's mother who wants to go back to her home village in Extremadura . Leo brings her home with Ángel. Ángel goes back to Madrid, Leo stays with her mother in the country for a long time and recovers there.

Back in Madrid, Leo receives an enthusiastic call from Alicia, who is entranced by the new Amanda Gris novel. Leo is confused because she has not written a novel. Ángel is behind the work - he explains that it has long been his dream to write kitsch novels. From now on he is Leo's ghostwriter.

Leo and Ángel become a couple after seeing Bianca and Antonio perform in flamenco together.

backgrounds

Leo's story, in which a woman kills her husband and then hides him in a restaurant freezer, is a forerunner of Almodóvar's Volver .

Reviews

"A shrill comedy enriched with macabre jokes without any analytical demands."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. My blooming secret. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used