All About My Mother

There's so much to admire in Pedro Almod�var's "All About My Mother" – the gorgeous colors and cinematography, the director's steadfast empathetic reflection of diverse characters, the fact that the movie wear its cinematic influences on its sleeve – but nothing is more transfixing than Cecilia Roth's leading performance as Manuela, a nurse who shockingly loses her teenage son to a tragic accident. Her only child, Manuela raised him on her own and is obviously grief-stricken by the event. Her grief rings true in every shot she's observed within, and Roth's work is undeniably powerful and has the potential to bring a tear to your eye with a simple facial tick.

Following her son's death, Manuela searches for the boy's long-lost father in Barcelona. There, she becomes a motherly figure to three wildly different women – a transgender sex worker (Antonia San Juan), an HIV-positive nun (Pen�lope Cruz), and an extravagant actress currently performing in a production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," a play which holds a special place in Manuela's heart. Filled with life in both its narrative and its filmmaking, "All About My Mother" digs deeply into female companionship and the definition of family. By the end, it leaves you contemplating, as the best cinema often does.

New to The Criterion Collection, "All About My Mother" has received a new 2K digital restoration, supervised by executive producer Agust�n Almod�var and approved by director Pedro Almod�var, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray. A notable bonus feature includes a 52-minute documentary from 2012 on the making of the film. The documentary features interviews with Pedro Almod�var; Agust�n Almod�var; actors Pen�lope Cruz, Marisa Paredes, Cecilia Roth, and Antonia San Juan; production manager Esther Garc�a; and author Didier Eribon. It's an undeniably fascinating deep-dive into the heart of a movie that's absolutely full of it. Additional features include:

� Television program from 1999 featuring Pedro Almod�var and his mother, Francisca Caballero, along with Cruz, San Juan, Paredes, and Roth
� Forty-eight-minute post-screening Q&A in Madrid from 2019, featuring Pedro Almod�var, Agust�n Almod�var, and Paredes
� New English subtitle translation
� An essay by film scholar Emma Wilson, along with (Blu-ray only) an interview with Pedro Almod�var and a tribute he wrote to his mother, both from 1999

"All About My Mother"
The Criterion Collection Blu-ray
$31.96
https://www.criterion.com/films/29569-all-about-my-mother