Critical Response I - Research Paper Example

Entre Tinieblas/Dark Habits Entre Tinieblas/Dark Habits is a 1983 sentimental movie directed by famous filmmaker Pedro Almodovar which explores the archaic state of the current Spanish religion and showing religious wretchedness. The film goes deep into the dark secrets of the religion and the misery that has befallen the church. The Dark Habits reveals a lot about the people who are conventionally considered as religious and sinless. The movie is accompanied with a number of cinematic effects as well as musical and dramatic colors which give it disturbing baroque atmosphere.

Almodovar puts the film’s setting in an environment of rejection and suppression that is constant throughout the film. This soft and tender film has lots of melodrama puts emphasis on characters’ affiliation dynamics and do not have any major male characters (Almodovar Film). The producer may have been female chauvinist or he was rather interested in exposing female behaviors. Perhaps Pedro Almodovar wanted to show the dark side of the religion such as drugs, sex and violence that has dominated his country and the world at large.

The movie offers best lessons to the immoral society and can therefore be regarded as educative and provocative in a way. The film is stylistically produced through the use of long sinuous tracking shots which makes it more interesting to follow. There is also domination of red color such as Yolanda’s red nails which symbolizes danger or the unreligious theme of the film (Almodovar Film).This film can also be described as widely funny and gusts with lots of unavoidable scandal and can also be thought as silly.

There is great humor when the nuns sympathetically forgive people who have committed sin simply because the nuns are more sinners than others. This is one of the unique behaviors in the film that cannot be expected in the normal situation (Kinder 343). The film characterization hypocritically shows what they denounce making the film to sound absurd and justification of the spiritual crisis. Almodovar does not give required emphasis to some of the Dark Habits’ issues such as rampant drug abuse and other sneaky sins.

The producer must have been guided by urge of finding moral purpose in the current immoral world which has gone astray with hypocrisy. Pedro is indeed a great artist particularly considering his inventive camera angles and the surreal anti-religious acts in the movie (Almodovar Film).Dark Habits reveals much about the catholic religion which is dominated by male and gives great reverence to Virgin Mary. Exposure of the dark side of the nuns is credible especially considering the place of nuns in the Catholic Church.

Nuns are regarded to be holy people and are not in any way associated with any form of sin. Convent is therefore just used as a hideout since all the nuns have at least a secret that are kept in their hearts. Unfortunately, Pedro exposes all the bad immoral behaviors and reveals the depth of sin that nuns can ever commit. Although the film sounds blasphemous it is really interesting and funny. Works CitedAlmodovar, Pedro,dir. Dark Habits. Art House & International Comedies, 1983. Film.Kinder, Marsha.

Refiguring Spain: Cinema, Media, Representation. Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1997. Print.