All Slights Deserved

Billed as "the Spanish Clockwork Orange ", Eloy de la Iglesia's film makes no attempt to disguise the influence of its more illustrious predecessor. Not only does the story feature a subplot of behaviour modification experiments and similar kitschy production design, the earlier movie is even playing on the television when a gang of ersatz 'droogs' mount an identical home invasion (although, being Spanish, these guys favour black leather and bullwhips). The Kubrick connection is further enhanced by the casting of his Lolita , Sue Lyon, in the lead role. For those in the audience too dense to make the connection - and in truth she was much changed in the years since her breakthrough role - there's a scene in which Lyon is even depicted reading the Nabokov text. It's fair to say that subtlety is not one of the films strong points. And yet Murder in a Blue World actually aspires to be something more than a shameless ripoff, treating A Clockwork Orange...

Another day, another review, but in truth I'm tired and a little despondent. I'm not sure how much that has influenced my reaction to Bad Education which, like most Almodóvar films is a perfectly fine piece of work. Enrique (Raúl García Forneiro), a successful film director, is surprised at his offices one day by the arrival of a young man (Gael García Berna) claiming to be his old schoolfriend and first love Ignacio, now himself n actor looking for work. "Ignacio" presents him with a script inspired by their school days and the priest who sexually abused them in which Ignacio, now a transsexual, imagines meeting the priest again and exacting his revenge. The narrative weaves a metafictional tapestry between this script and reality as Enrique, perplexed by Ignacio's offhand manner and lack of recollection of what's passed between them in the past, investigates Ignacio. After uncovering some of the truth Enrique decides to begin production of the script w...