¡Átame! [Tie Me Up Tie Me Down] (1989)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) I’m not the world’s biggest Pedro Almodovar fan, but I am slowly going through his filmography, and there’s nearly always something unusual, interesting and provocative in his work. In ¡Átame!, for instance, we get front-row seats to an utterly reprehensible romance as a man with mental health issues invades the apartment of an actress he’s got a crush on, and binds her to her bed until she falls in love with him. Yes, this is reprehensible “don’t try this at home unless you want to go to prison” behaviour — but Almodovar knows that, and there’s as much shock value in ¡Átame! as any other transgressive fiction. This extends to sexual content as well — including a long and somewhat credible sex scene that’s as cute at face value as it’s disturbing in the context of the film. But so it goes: this is not a film made to be emulated as much as it’s something to push the boundaries. By taking romantic comedy tropes to their fullest realization, ¡Átame! asks questions acceptable behaviour and delivers as big a fantasy as other tamer films. (It’s not an accident if references to horror films lurk around every corner.) This being from Almodovar, other familiar aspects of his film are there as well: the incredibly colourful cinematography, the one-scene tangents that could have been cut without trouble; the presence of Antonio Banderas, here almost looking like a teenager. It all makes for the kind of film you wouldn’t necessarily recommend as introductory material, but one that has plenty of jokes and commentary to make on other films.