Talk to Her movie storyline. Marco, a journalist grieving for a love affair that ended ten years’ ago, falls in love with Lydia, a bullfighter also on the rebound. Benigno, a nurse, dedicates his life to his only patient, a young dancer in a coma as a result of an accident four years’ before; he talks to her, reads to her, holds photographs in front of her closed eyes. When Lydia is brought comatose to the hospital where Benigno works, he and Marco become friendly, and the nurse encourages the journalist to talk to her and hope for a miracle. Marco is Sancho to Benigno’s Quixote, and as Benigno’s hopes for his patient become fantasies, Marco tries to inject reality. Does a miracle await?
Talk to Her (Spanish: Hable con ella) is a 2002 Spanish comedy-drama written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores. The film follows two men who form an unlikely friendship as they care for two women who are both in comas. The film’s themes include the difficulty of communication between the sexes, loneliness and intimacy, and the persistence of love beyond loss.
The film was a critical and commercial success, winning the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film while Almodóvar won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It is now generally regarded as one of the finest films of the 2000s.
About the Story
The story unfolds in flashbacks, giving details of two separate relationships that become intertwined with each other. During a performance of Café Müller, a dance-theatre piece by Pina Bausch, Benigno Martín and Marco Zuluaga cross paths, but the two men are no more than strangers. Still, Benigno notices that Marco cries.
Marco is a journalist and travel writer who happens to see a TV interview with Lydia González, a famous female matador. He thinks that an article on her would be interesting and, on the instructions of his editor, he contacts her in a bar, where she asks him to take her to her house.
As they talk, she elaborates on the fact that she broke up with her boyfriend “el Niño de Valencia”, another matador, something that has been all over the tabloids. As Marco confesses that he knows nothing of bullfighting and that he is a journalist, she becomes angry and leaves his car without saying a word. As he drives off, he hears a scream inside her house and stops; Lydia rushes off and climbs back into his car: she asks him to kill a snake that she found in her house. He does so and comes out of the house crying.
With that new confidence established between them, they become friends and, later on, lovers. Marco attends a wedding in Toledo and is surprised to find Lydia there too, since she had said that she did not want to go. The wedding turns out to be that of Marco’s former fiancée, Angela, who had the same phobia of snakes as Lydia; Marco was very much in love with Angela and had a very hard time getting over her (which was the reason for his constant crying over things he could not share with her).
Lydia says that she has something important to say, but she prefers to wait until after the bullfight that afternoon; but she is gored and becomes comatose. Marco does not leave her side at the hospital and finally befriends Benigno, who recognizes him from the dance-theatre performance. Marco is told by the doctors that people in a coma never wake up and that, while there are miracle-stories of people who have come back, he should not keep his hopes high.
Benigno is a personal nurse and caregiver for Alicia Roncero, a beautiful dance student, who lies in a coma, but Benigno sees her as alive; he talks his heart out to her, and brings her all kinds of dancing and silent black and white film mementos. As it turns out, Benigno had been obsessed with Alicia for a while, before she was in a coma, since his apartment is in front of the dance studio where she practiced every day.
At first his obsession was only from a distance, since Benigno was taking care of his possessive mother, who seemed to be immobile. For that reason, he became a nurse and also a beautician. Free to move about after his mother dies, he finally picks up the courage to talk to Alicia, after she dropped her wallet on the street. As they walk together to her house, they talk about her discovery of silent black and white films and about dancing.
When she walks into her building, Benigno notices that she lives in the house of Dr Roncero, who is a psychiatrist. Benigno makes an appointment to see the doctor and talks about his unresolved bereavement grief over his mother. But it is all a ruse to gain access to the apartment, where he steals a hair-clip from Alicia’s room.
That night, Alicia is run over by a car and becomes comatose. By mere chance, Benigno is assigned to Alicia, much to the surprise of her father. But since Benigno’s services are the best, he hires him and a colleague permanently to tend for Alicia. Benigno also tells Dr. Roncero that he is gay, possibly so that Alicia’s father will not suspect his love for her, or possibly so that he will not question Benigno’s particular attachment to her.
Talk to Her (2002)
Hable Con Ella
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores, Geraldine Chaplin, Pina Bausch, Mariola Fuentes, Elena Anaya, Lola Dueñas, Ana Fernández
Screenplay by: Pedro Almodóvar
Production Design by: Antxón Gómez
Cinematography by: Javier Aguirresarobe
Film Editing by: José Salcedo
Costume Design by: Sonia Grande
Set Decoration by: Federico García Cambero
Art Direction by: Antxón Gómez
Music by: Alberto Iglesias
MPAA Rating: R for nudity, sexual content and some language.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: March 15, 2002 (Spain)
Views: 128
