Live Flesh (film)
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Live Flesh is a 1997 Spanish film, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Bardem and Francesca Neri. The film is loosely based on Ruth Rendell's book Live Flesh.
Plot
Madrid, January 1970: As the nation is held under a state of emergency ordered by the Franco regime, a young prostitute Isabel Plaza Caballero (Penélope Cruz) gives birth in a bus to a son she names Victor.
Twenty years later Victor Plaza (Liberto Rabal), now twenty years old, shows up for a date he made with Elena (Francesca Neri), the junkie daughter of a diplomat with whom he had sex a week earlier. Waiting for her dealer to arrive, Elena is not interested in seeing Victor and tells him to leave. Finally she gets a gun and orders him to leave. Enraged, Victor wrestles the gun from her, and in the process, Elena gets knocked out, and the gun goes off.
A neighbor hears the shot and calls police, and two cops respond to the report. The older cop Sancho (José Sancho) is an unstable alcoholic who suspects his wife of infidelity. The younger cop David (Javier Bardem) is more clean-cut, sober, and prefers to do things by the book. Through the window they catch sight of Victor physically struggling with Elena, and Sancho is ready to storm in, but David wants to call for a back-up. When they enter, Victor holds Elena hostage with her gun. David tries to calm him down and get him to drop his gun, but Sancho sabotages his efforts by continually threatening Victor. Finally, David puts his gun to Sancho's head, gets him and Victor to put down their guns and orders Elena to flee. Sancho then lunges for Victor, they wrestle for the gun, and another shot rings out, hitting David.
Six years later, Victor, in jail, happens to watch a wheelchair basketball match where the now paralyzed David is a star player, with his new wife Elena cheering him on from the sidelines. Victor has made good use of his time, taking a correspondence course in education, working out, and enriching his mind with a variety of subjects, including the Bible. Before he is released, his mother dies and leaves him some money and a house in the slums. One of his first stops after he gets out of jail is his mother's grave, where he encounters Elena at her father's funeral.
While leaving the cemetery he comes across Clara, Sancho's wife (Ángela Molina). Attracted by Victor's enthusiasm and good looks, Clara agrees to teach him how to make love, as well as pampering him with gifts and affection. Clara eventually falls in love with Victor.
Elena, now off drugs and operating an orphanage, tells David of her encounter with Victor. David stops by Victor's house and warns him not to go near his wife. Victor queries how he can do this, but David grabs his genitals and he doubles up. Victor begins to volunteer at the orphanage, which is happy to hire him because he has a degree in education and is very good with the children. Elena objects, but can't find a compelling reason to fire Victor. Elena begins making plans to leave the orphanage to get away from Victor.
Unable to allay his paranoia, David begins to trail Victor and finds out about his affair with Clara. He also finds out that Victor works at Elena's orphanage and confronts him again, whereby Victor tells him that it was Sancho who made Victor squeeze the trigger. Afterwards, David tells his wife what Victor said, and the revealing context that Sancho shot David because he was having an affair with Clara. Elena is disgusted, but still plans to leave the orphanage to get away from Victor. Victor tells Elena that his original plan of revenge was to become the world's greatest lover, make love to Elena all night long, and then leave her hanging, but he still loves her too much to do so. Elena gives in to a night of passion on condition that Victor never contacts her again.
Elena tells David herself about her infidelity, and although she plans to stay with him, he plots his own revenge. Victor breaks up with Clara, who is totally distraught, unable to stand her abusive husband. After a vicious fight, she temporarily incapacitates Sancho and plans to leave or die in the attempt. David shows up at Sancho's place with photographic proof of Victor and Clara's affair. Sancho and David drive to Victor's house, where Sancho shoots and kills Clara, Clara wounds Sancho, and Sancho finally kills himself.
At the end David narrates a letter written from Miami to his wife, apologizing for the way everything turned out. While at the orphanage during Christmas time, a pregnant Elena goes in labor and while on the way to the hospital, she and Victor get stuck in heavy traffic. Victor is reminded of his own birth, and tells his unborn child that the fears of the Spanish have have passed.
Awards
- The film won a 1998 Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor (José Sancho)
