Pedro Almodovar Collection: Bad Education / Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down / Live / All About My Mother / Talk To Her [DVD]

Five films by accled Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. 'Bad Education' (2004) is a semi-autobiographical melodrama that follows the intertwining stories of two boys, Enrique (Fele Martinez) and Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), who fall in love at an abusive Catholic school and are parted by a jealous paedophile priest. 16 years later, Enrique, now a successful filmmaker, is casting about for an idea for a new film when a young cross-dressing actor, cling to be Ignacio but known as 'Angel', approaches him with a short story based on their schooldays together. In 'Talk To Her' (2002), Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a housebound nurse who falls in love with a young dancer, Alicia (Leonor Watling), he sees rehearsing through his window. Marco (Darío Grandinetti) is a journalist who falls in love with a bullfighter, Lydia (Rosario Flores), after being assigned to interview her. When Alicia and Lydia are involved in separate accidents which send them both into a comas, Benigno and Marco meet at the hospital and unpredictable consequences promptly ensue. In 'All About My Mother' (1999), single mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth) takes her 17-year-old son, Esteban (Eloy Azorin), to see a stage performance of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' as a birthday treat. Tragically, Esteban is killed when he chases after a taxi carrying his favourite actress, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes). Consumed with guilt, Manuela decides to go in search of Esteban's her, whose identity she never revealed to her son. In 'Live ' (1997), an adaptation of the novel by Ruth Rendell, Victor Plaza (Liberto Rabal) goes to meet drug-addicted diplomat's daughter Elena (Francesca Neri) after losing his virginity to her. She barely remembers anything about the past, however, and attempts to shoot him. Two cops, David (Javier Bardem) and Sancho (José Sancho), arrive at the scene, and David is , leaving him paralysed. Victor finds himself imprisoned for the shooting, although he is innocent. In jail, he learns that David, now a paralympics champion, has married Elena, and vows revenge upon his release. In black comedy 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!' (1990), Marina (Victoria Abril) is a soft-porn actress with two men in her life: one, the wheelchair-bound director of her films, is obsessed with her and leaves endless messages on her answering machine; the other, Ricky (Antonio Banderas), has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital and is determined to her her children. Ricky attacks her in her flat, holds her hostage and ties her to the bed in the hope she eventually becomes a willing participant in his plan.