Live Flesh

Madrid, 1970. Habeas corpus, the freedoms of speech and residence have been suspended; a state of emergency. Into this maelstrom, Penolope Cruz gives birth on a bus (with the help of Javier Bardem's mom). A boy is born on Christmas, while the bus is right under a big blue star light on the street. Hmm, an allusion to Jesus? Perhaps? And the film ends with Elena giving birth to someone's baby (I'll spoil it at the end of the review) on Christmas Eve. Parallelism. And in Spain 20 years after the boy is born, someone sees on TV, "Hospitals: State of Emergency." This probably refers to the same hospital strike featured in "The Flower of My Secret" and shows the world has not changed much; there's still turmoil after Franco.

The plot: Javier Bardem, an officer, is hit by a stray bullet during an arrest while his partner is skirmishing with an armed man (the boy who was born in the beginning). This boy, Victor, is played by a Spanish Balthazar Getty and ends up having a relationship with the significant others of both of the cops.

The film ends with Victor telling his as yet unborn son how he was born in the Spain of Franco, but his son shouldn't be too scared to come out now, because "in Spain we stopped being scared a long time ago." So Almodovar means for Victor to be the artist that emerged from Franco's repression -- Victor as Almodovar, and Jesus. The consummate lover and learner, the misunderstood sincere young man, the savior of mankind. I'm not sure how far to take the meaning, but there's something there.