The only title to have had its world premiere prior to hitting the south of France is Bitter Christmas from Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar. The El Deseo factory is no stranger to the fest — but it wasn’t until Best Director winning All About My Mother (1999) where he became a frequent guest. The Golden Lion winner with no Palme d’Or has brought Bad Education (2004), Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), The Skin I Live In (2011), Julieta (2016), Pain and Glory (2019), and short Strange Way of Life (2023) to the Croisette exploring his usual themes of desire, performance and reinvention, motherhood and melodrama with a large touch of queer. This stars Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, and Victoria Luengo and starts off when after her mother dies, commercial director Elsa immerses herself in her work to cope. When a migraine forces her to take a break, she decides to travel to Lanzarote during the 2004 Constitution Day long weekend with her friend Patricia while her boyfriend (stripper and fireman Bonifacio) stays in Madrid. To resume her creative writing, she vampirises the personal miseries of her close friends. This is competition film #16 of 22.
Yesterday’s screening (which I was attending) unfortunately saw the press screening interrupted by a medical emergency – with the screening being delayed and restarted. With eleven grades in we have a lukewarm average score of 2.9 for Bitter Christmas.
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