La Flor de mi secreto (1995) - film review

Leo Macías is a writer of trashy romantic fiction who, under the pseudonym Amanda Gris, is one of the most popular authors in Spain.  However, with her marriage failing, she finds it increasingly difficult to turn out the superficial happy-end novels she is contracted to write.  On the brink of a nervous breakdown, she feels impelled to write in a much darker tone...

With La Flor de mi secreto, acclaimed film director Pedro Almodóvar gives the distinct impression that he has arrived at a turning point, away from the heavily stylised cinematic kitsch that established him as contemporary Spain’s most attractive and creative filmmaker, to something with more emotional depth and truthfulness.  It’s certainly a very different kind of film to what has gone before – a subdued melodrama which achieves impact not through imaginative design and wacky, subversive ideas but through a realistic portrayal of a woman succumbing to the travails of middle-life crisis.

Whilst it is not as rewarding as some of Almodóvar’s earlier work, with some of the characters coming across as soap-style clichés rather than believable human beings, it is an engaging film which gives some insight into the psychology of the author and his not always comfortable relationship with profit-hungry publishers.  In both its subject and its presentation, the film shows a growing maturity in the director’s approach, which becomes far more apparent in his subsequent films, notably All About My Mother (1999) and Bad Education (2004).

© James Travers 2007



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