The Infoprmation on: `All About My Mother'

What Is It?

The latest film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. While in many ways it's just as outlandish as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, it exhibits an emotional and dramatic complexity largely absent from his earlier work.

Who's In it?

Terrific performances all round, in particular from Cecilia Roth as Manuela. Following the tragic death of her beloved son, she goes in search of her estranged husband and rediscovers herself through trying to help old friends, including transvestite La Agrado (Antonio San Juan). With Marisa Paredes and Penelope Cruz.

What They Say About It

"All About My Mother is cheering evidence of a film-maker overhauling his repertoire and producing something of which I had never thought him capable: a film of sorrowful and affecting humanity," Anthony Quinn, The Independent.

"Almodovar certainly has elicited wonderful performances, though,

chiefly from Cecilia Roth and also Marisa Paredes and Antonio San Juan. But they somehow belong to a more grown-up movie than this one," Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

"A dazzling entertainment of considerable formal and emotional sophistication that outshines the superficiality of most of his earlier work... very pleasurable indeed," Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Where You Can See It

All About My Mother (15) is on selected release around the country