All About My Mother [DVD]

Cecilia Roth stars in this celebrated film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. Distraught over the death of her teenage son, Manuela drives to Barcelona to find the boy's father, an itinerant transsexual named Lola (Toni Canto). While combing the city's less reputable districts, she also meets up with Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a sassy transvestite prostitute, and Rosa (Penelope Cruz), a pregnant nun on her way to El Salvador. She also becomes the manager for Huma (Marisa Paredes), the actress her son idolized, and helps her through a run of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Together these great ladies bond through various heartrending crises, enduring the pain and celebrating the beauty of being women (or almost women). Considered to be one of Almodovar's most fully realized works, this charming and unique film blends his earlier gender-bending irreverence with the mature grace and compassion of his later work, striking a perfect note of humor and pathos.