Authenticity, Artificiality and the Performance of Constructed Womanhood in Almodóvar’s All About My Mother.

by Prem Dosanjh.

All About My Mother, El Deseo.

”You are more authentic the more you resemble what you've dreamed of being” . How Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother Uses Melodrama and Metadiegetic Narrative to Explore Performance and Womanhood as a Performative Construct.

As a self-conscious exploration of the limits of melodrama, Almodóvar’s relegation of men from the diegetic sphere of the film, facilitates an exploration of the nature of female identity. Meta-diegetic narratives entail another narrative being explored within the main plot of the film. In other words; a plot within a plot. Thus, the film offers a meta-diegetic mediation on the idea of performance and acting. Through the multiple layers of acting and a sustained focus on theatre throughout, Almodóvar does everything but shy away from examining the artificiality behind performance. This examination extends to both the women in the narrative, who perform femininity and assigned roles to some capacity, and the real-life actresses who perform these parts.

Peter Brooks has categorised the melodramatic genre as “theatrical impulse itself: the impulse towards dramatization, heightening, expression, acting out” (Brooks, 1976) ​Brooks, P., 1976. The Melodramatic Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press. . This theatrical impulse and intense emphasis on expression and acting is crucial to All About My Mother (Almodóvar, 1999) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia. ’s status as a melodramatic narrative. However, it is more accurate to note that Almodóvar’s constructs a “self-conscious” narrative, “aware of its existence in a world where film melodramas already exist” (Allinson, 2009) Allinson, M., 2009. Mimesis and Diegesis. Almodóvar and the Limits of Melodrama. In: B. Epps & D. Kakoudaki, eds. All about Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema. Minneapolis/ London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 141-165. . In this way, the film is playful and offers an exploration of the internal states and acting in a way that is conscious of genre conventions, drawing on melodrama’s association with the feminine. It is in melodrama’s diversion from externality and outward displays to a focus on internality, we see the rise of the female dominated narrative. 1970s feminist film theory has regarded melodrama a response and solution to what Laura Mulvey describes as the “overvaluation of virility under patriarchy” (Mulvey, 1989) ​Mulvey, L., 1989. Visual and Other Pleasures. London: Macmillan. . However, this response to patriarchal externality in film is not entirely expressed within the performance of the characters but also through the mise-en-scene of the film. Here Almodóvar’s focus on the internal feminine is reflected visually through external means, playing on the idea of the melodramatic expression, while still predominantly privileging the internal. Take for example, Almodóvar’s use of architecture to reflect the internal states of the characters. Bound with rigidity and conventionality the house of Rosa’s strict mother is dominated by reds and golds. Whereas a character like Agrado, a transgender sex worker, is dominated by various clashing patterns and a lack of clear style, demonstrative of her transgressive challenging of social and gender norms. Almodóvar uses the mise-en-scene to reflect the internal conflicts, themes of motherhood and constructed femininity in order to subvert ideas of the (typically male) externality in film.

All About My Mother, El Deseo.

As Allinson aptly notes “In All about My Mother, classic screen melodrama entails a self-reflexive investigation of performance." (Allinson, 2009) Allinson, M., 2009. Mimesis and Diegesis. Almodóvar and the Limits of Melodrama. In: B. Epps & D. Kakoudaki, eds. All about Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema. Minneapolis/ London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 141-165. The self-reflexive nature of All About My Mother can be found in the multitude of intertextual references and emphasis on performance. The film centres Tennessee’s William’s 'A Streetcar Named Desire' ​Williams, Tennessee, 1974. A streetcar named Desire . throughout on a narrative level as a catalyst for much of the plot, as well as thematically and metadiegetically as a play that for Manuela has “marked her life”. The film is staged around the stage and thus is concerned with the artificiality of performance. Manuela’s ability to adopt the role of Stella, a character that in a multitude of ways parallels her, draws attention to the ease in which the character’s perform their daily identities. Almodóvar explores the processes of getting in character and catharsis through playing a role, drawing spectators’ attention to the artificiality of his own film and the processes of his own actors. The choice of A Streetcar Named Desire is additionally interesting in its visual parallels with the film. Like Almodóvar, Tennessee Williams privileged the internal, seeking to heighten and exaggerate the inward emotional state through visual props and affects. Prior to the play Manuela is seen standing against a red backdrop of an advert of actress Huma Rojo. In contrast, following shots of the play feature a luminous blue backdrop in which the characters of the play are starkly juxtaposed. This use of mise-en-scene as substitute for emotional exposition works on multiple levels here. The expression of the patriarchal hegemony seen in A Streetcar Named Desire is reflected through the overarching presence of this blue. And in doing so Almodóvar demonstrates the processes of using mise-en-scene and staging visuals to reflect the unspoken emotional subtext of scenes, something he does throughout the film and in this theatrical performance within the film. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Elia Kazan’s film ending is used, in which Stella runs away from Stanley with their baby, as opposed to the original play’s ending. Again a deliberate parallel between the diegetic film world of Manuela and the character of Stella within the play is drawn. Playing Stella offers a catharsis for Manuela in that she is able to play herself, a mother running away from a chauvinistic man with their new-born son. Thus Almodóvar proves that his use of metadiegetic performance and narratives within narratives are deliberate and for the purpose of furthering points and themes of his own central narrative.

All About My Mother, El Deseo.

Almodóvar offers an extension on this performativity when exploring womanhood and the female identity as a constructed performance. He states that he wanted “to make a film about the acting abilities of certain people who aren’t actors” after “seeing this quality among the women in my family. They pretended much better than the men” (Allinson, 2009) Allinson, M., 2009. Mimesis and Diegesis. Almodóvar and the Limits of Melodrama. In: B. Epps & D. Kakoudaki, eds. All about Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema. Minneapolis/ London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 141-165. . When Manuela offers to stand in as the character of Stella in the play, Huma asks her if she can act, to which Manuela answers “I can lie very well, and I’m used to improvising”. (All About My Mother, 1999)All About My Mother. 1999. [Film] Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Spain: El Deseo. Here Almodóvar explores this sentiment of the inherent performer and actor within all women. The idea that Manuela can lie convincingly and thus is qualified to act in a play, again implies her ability to lie and perform the female identity beyond the stage. However femininity as an artifice and performance is demonstrated arguably most profoundly through the character of Agrado, a transgender prostitute. Agrado is emblematic of the constructed nature of womanhood both physically and mentally. “I’m very authentic” Agrado jokes in her speech to the audience, after a performance of a Streetcar Named Desire is cancelled, listing all the procedures and surgeries she has had as a transgender woman, to better perform femininity. “It costs a lot to be authentic”, she jokes, “you are more authentic the more you resemble what you’ve dreamed of being” (All About My Mother, 1999)All About My Mother. 1999. [Film] Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Spain: El Deseo. . In spite of Agrado’s humorous intentions, her speech is an astute mediation on the very idea of gender and performance. True gender is simply a performance and authenticity entails performing this in a way that best suits you. Agrado arguably even draws parallels between melodrama and gendered performance, in that to get closer to the truth the external must be exaggerated or visually performed to closer reflect the internal. “All I have that’s real are my feelings”, Agrado jokes (All About My Mother, 1999)All About My Mother. 1999. [Film] Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Spain: El Deseo. . However, despite wittily commenting on her cosmetic procedures, Agrado’s sentiments can easily be applied to the other characters, who beyond their constructed female identities are led by their feelings. Characters like Huma Rojo are comparable to Agrado in terms of her choosing of a name and thus constructed identity to fit a fabricated and performed version of herself. Through elements of acting and performance, Almodóvar suggest that female identity and perhaps identity as a monolith is a constructed choice.

All About My Mother, El Deseo.

Almodóvar’s investigation of the female identity as a performance is relevant in the film’s portrayal of motherhood as another facet of this performance. Costume is often used to symbolise a character’s performance of femininity. In the case of Manuela, this performance of femininity through costume can be linked to her relationship with motherhood as a role throughout the narrative. When spectators first encounter Manuela she is plating up food for son Esteban. She wears a red top and sits on a red sofa symbolic of the domestic space’s status as ultimately female and therefore her domain. Audiences regard Manuela as directed by the gaze of Esteban. We regard her through his voyeuristic lens as she stands in a large red coat outside the theatre. These instances of the “ubiquitous Almovadorian red” (Allinson, 2001) ​Allinson, M., 2001. A Spanish labyrinth: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar. London : I. B. Tauris & Company. signify that Manuela is at the height of her performance of motherhood and femininity. However, after the death of Esteban her role is both lost and subverted as she transitions to a period of mourning, donning all black outfits and black sunglasses. When she arrives in Barcelona in search of Esteban’s father, she wears a large white coat connotative of both a rebirth and a potential loss of her female identity. No longer needed as a mother, Manuela is less concerned with performing this role. Subsequently “motherhood and, more amply, gender are equated with performance” (Allinson, 2009) Allinson, M., 2009. Mimesis and Diegesis. Almodóvar and the Limits of Melodrama. In: B. Epps & D. Kakoudaki, eds. All about Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema. Minneapolis/ London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 141-165. . Furthermore, the character of Rosa’s mother, sustains this idea of motherhood as a performance, through her lack of maternal qualities. She often wears blue, in contrast to many of the other female character and fails to understand where she went wrong with her “alien” daughter Rosa (All About My Mother, 1999)All About My Mother. 1999. [Film] Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Spain: El Deseo. . Ultimately, she is unable to care for Rosa’s baby, leading Manuela to take the baby back to Madrid with her. Seeing Manuela outside of the context of motherhood and thus having to reperform this role after adopting Rosa’s son draws attention to the artificiality of this role. This artificiality is not presented as either negative or positive but simply a necessary a commonplace in mothers, drawing on Almodóvar’s ideas of the inherent performer and actress within women.

Before the credits Almodóvar dedicates the film, “To 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” (All About My Mother, 1999)All About My Mother. 1999. [Film] Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Spain: El Deseo. . All About My Mother is a film concerned with female performance. The film draws attention to its own artificiality and in doing so draws attention to the artificiality of cinema, theatre, literature and all general forms of art. In his closing dedication, Almodóvar, makes his narrative intention explicit. the film deconstructs and experiments with performance ultimately demonstrating to the spectator that performance and acting can often function as truer indicators of the authentic self.

by Prem Dosanjh, April 2022.

Biblography

All About My Mother. 1999. [Film] Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Spain: El Deseo.

Allinson, M., 2001. A Spanish labyrinth: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar. London : I. B. Tauris & Company.

Allinson, M., 2009. Mimesis and Diegesis. Almodóvar and the Limits of Melodrama. In: B. Epps & D. Kakoudaki, eds. All about Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema. Minneapolis/ London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 141-165.

Brooks, P., 1976. The Melodramatic Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press,.

Mulvey, L., 1989. Visual and Other Pleasures. London: Macmillan.

Same Tag
On Voiceovers and Narrators.
by Oliver Spicer
Random
Billy Idol's 'Dancing with Myself' Horror Film Aesthetic.
by Fionn Morris
Random
Hope on the Horizon: A New Wave of Support for Female Filmmakers.
by Chloe Buxton