{"id":2052,"date":"2020-05-04T08:19:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T07:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=2052"},"modified":"2020-05-05T12:40:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:40:50","slug":"all-about-my-mother-lockdown-theatre-club-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2020\/05\/all-about-my-mother-lockdown-theatre-club-8.html","title":{"rendered":"All About My Mother | Lockdown Theatre Club 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AAMM-poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2046\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AAMM-poster.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AAMM-poster-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch <em>All About My Mother<\/em><a><em> <\/em><\/a>with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 5 May. <em>All About My Mother <\/em>is available to rent on Prime and the BFI Player. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we&#8217;re all part of an audience together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is <em>All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre)<\/em>?<\/strong> <br>One of Pedro Almod\u00f3var\u2019s best films, winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000. Cecilia Roth plays a woman who goes to Madrid after her son is killed in an accident. Searching for his father, she meets a nun, a trans sex worker and a starry actress. It\u2019s a drama about female strength and solidarity and a love letter to classic Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Who else is involved?<\/strong> <br>Marisa Paredes plays the stage star, Huma Rojo, and Pen\u00e9lope Cruz plays the nun Rosa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Watch out for?<\/strong> <br>Fittingly for Lockdown Theatre Club, Almod\u00f3var dedicates the film \u2018to all actresses who have played actresses. To all women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Trailer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"All About My Mother | Theatrical Trailer | 1999\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5Va7Z7O-LMc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018Funny, selfish and generous\u2019: Samuel Adamson introduces the film<\/strong><br>The playwright Samuel Adamson introduces<a> <\/a>the film (standing beside the film poster in his kitchen). Samuel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faber.co.uk\/9780571239528-all-about-my-mother.html\">adapted it for the stage<\/a> in 2007, with Lesley Manville and Diana Rigg starring at the Old Vic. His plays are published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faber.co.uk\/author\/samuel-adamson\/\">Faber and Faber<\/a>, and you can follow him <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/samuelmcadamson\">@samuelmcadamson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lockdown Theatre Club: Samuel Adamson on All About My Mother\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/414556350?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"422\" height=\"750\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Decorwatch and frockwatch<\/strong><br>Pedro\u2019s bag of bits and pieces: <strong>Veronica Horwell <\/strong>on the \u2018more is MUCHO more\u2019 d\u00e9cor of <em>All About My Mother.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/AAMM-decor-1024x590.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2055\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/AAMM-decor-1024x590.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/AAMM-decor-300x173.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/AAMM-decor-768x443.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/AAMM-decor-1536x885.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/AAMM-decor.jpg 1596w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>All About My Mother<\/em> was the second of the seven Almod\u00f3var movies\non which Antx\u00f3n G\u00f3mez has worked as art director or production designer,\nalthough Almod\u00f3var confesses, &#8216;I&#8217;m the art director of all my movies. Even\nthough someone else signs off, I really do all the decor.&#8217; The process is slow\naccretion: the first decision wall colour, then floor, the largest surfaces in\nthe frame. Any sets need to be up a couple of months before shooting, so he can\nselect furniture piece by piece, first casting the couch and its upholstery.\nthen clothing the actress who will lounge on it. Lamps are auditioned, vases\ntried out \u2013 though does Almod\u00f3var ever reject or delete any objects his set\ndecorators truffle out for him? Then, according to G\u00f3mez, \u2018Pedro loves walking\nup and down the sets with his bag of bits and pieces, putting them here and\nthere.&#8217; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Mother<\/em> is a little different, though, because so much was filmed\nin Barcelona, where G\u00f3mez had lived since the 1970s; much of its architecture\nand decor had been created with Almod\u00f3var&#8217;s more-is-MUCHO-more aesthetic\nanyway. The film built on that. Nothing but a roomfull of fake Chagalls was\nadded to the painted dados and stained glass in the apartment in the 1908 Cases\nRamos used as the home of Rosa&#8217;s parents. Agrado&#8217;s wee flat is a hoard of\nfamily and religious knick-knackery (although she complains Lola made off with\nthe best of her 70s collection), yet unusually has plain walls. That&#8217;s because,\nthrough the window and over her balcony, we can see the Art Nouveau\nflower-mosaic\u2019ed front pillars of the Palau de la Musica Catalana. The Hospital\ndel Mar, Teatre Tivoli, Montju\u00efc Cemetery, cameo as themselves with just a dab\nof make-up, a potted plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So all the real Almod\u00f3var interior as character and backstory \u2013 he&#8217;s as\ngood at that as Charles Dickens, every object chosen to contribute to the\nnarrative \u2013 was put into the apartment in a slightly battered Nouveau block (to\njudge from its front hall stucco) that Manuela rents on arrival from Madrid.\nIt&#8217;s enormous, but stays relatively empty, marquetry bedhead, shell-plaque\nchandeliers and lurid glass bottles just edging into view. Open doors and\nplanning mean the camera catches patterned wall-tiles, two different patterned\ntiled floors, and three exhausting wallpapers with just a slight shift of lens.\nThe geometric wallpaper behind the couch gets most of the action \u2013 G\u00f3mez called\nit obsessive, its design &#8216;simulates two eyes as if it&#8217;s observing the\nspectator&#8217;. (In 1999, art directors could either hunt for rolls of forgotten\npaper horrors in old stockrooms, or screen-print their own design; short-run\ndigital printing to order now makes possible such treats as the walls of\nIannuci&#8217;s <em>David Copperfield<\/em>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everything in the place suggests it was there by the late 70s, when\nManuela was young in the city, and has been waiting lifeless since then; she\nadds little of herself during her temporary return \u2013 a bright new bowl or two\nto eat from, a painting hung on that staring-eye wall. But she&#8217;s in residence,\nnot staying. Nothing accretes. Bold artistic choice for Almod\u00f3var, how he did\nkeep the cushions down?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Huma Rojo&#8217;s dressing room is all about transience, too. A workplace;\nwig stand, pro lighting, serious ironing board. Hundreds of photos trying to\nhold the emotions around a limited rep run in a small auditorium in another\ncity. A litle toy theatre proscenium so much more romantic than the real\ntheatre it&#8217;s in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bonus frocknote: this film passes the Horwell test \u2013 women in it talk\nto each other wisely about clothes. &#8216;Nothing like Chanel to make you feel\nrespectable,&#8217; says Agrado, wearing so good a Chanel copy from a restrained\nLagerfeld period that it stands in for the character on one of the film&#8217;s\nposters. Ever aware of material injustice, she adds, &#8216;how could I buy a real\nChanel with all the hunger in the world.&#8217; (The unbuttoned pink cardigan over\nblack leather trousers for her soliloquy of authenticity never date.) Sister\nRosa has to be the best-dressed semi-nun ever, explaining to the other women\nshe feels Prada suitable for religious sisterhood life. Huma&#8217;s made-to-measure\ngrande-dame-wear seems to have been woven from her own henna&#8217;ed hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Veronica Horwell<\/strong> writes for publications including the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/veronicahorwell\">Guardian<\/a><\/em> and <em>Dance Gazette<\/em>.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch All About My Mother with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 5 May. All About My Mother is available to rent on Prime and the BFI Player. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we&#8217;re all part of an audience together. What is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[801,804,757,753,805,803,802,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-2052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-all-about-my-mother","9":"tag-cecilia-roth","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-lockdown-theatre-club","12":"tag-pedro-almodovar","13":"tag-penelope-cruz","14":"tag-samuel-adamson","15":"tag-theatre","16":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2052"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2057,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions\/2057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}