Dark Habits

This film made after Almodovar's first more upbeat outrageous films, is a film that tells of the end of the Movida Madrilenia, a movement existing in the early eighties in Madrid that was defined by a mixture of new romantic punk and pop, and the ironic use of Spanish folklore and the 'housewife' culture. When people in this subculture started to commonly use heroine, the downfall of the movement had begun. This film is about the choices that people had to make at the end of this era. some stayed junkies, others died, some went back to the small towns where they had moved from, others went on to give up on drugs and become more constructive. The convent where the nuns reside can be interpreted as the habitation of this irreverent movement, frequented by police searches, dealers, artists, and junkies. The movie has some great musical moments which indicate that Almodovar might one day take his hand to this genre. The religious element interwtined with (homo)sexuality will certainly be proliferated again in the forthcoming movie La Mala Educacion. The movie also contains a cameo of a Spanish 'Harrold Robbins' type of writer, who is featured sitting at one of the tables wiping her mouth with a handkerchief as Yolanda sings in a night club at the beginning of the movie. This authopr refers to the character of sister Rata de Callejon, who has a secret career as trashy novel writer. The film is somewhat darker than most of Almodovar's early movies, but is very gentle, provides enough comedy and the characters above all remain very human, all of them have their virtues and vices.