Taglines: Life, love, desire…and everything in between.
Carne Trémula
Live Flesh – Carne Trémula movie storyline. Madrid, Christmas 1970. The Franco regime has declared a state of emergency curtailing civil liberties. A young prostitute, Isabel Plaza Caballero (Penélope Cruz), gives birth on a bus to a son she names Víctor. Twenty years later, Víctor Plaza (Liberto Rabal) shows up for a date with Elena (Francesca Neri), a junkie with whom he had sex a week earlier. Elena is waiting for her drug dealer to arrive and orders Víctor to leave, eventually threatening him with a gun. Enraged, Víctor wrestles the gun from her; in the process Elena gets knocked out, and the gun goes off. A neighbour hears the shot and calls the police.
Two cops respond to the report. The older cop, Sancho (José Sancho), is an unstable alcoholic who suspects his wife Clara (Angela Molina) of infidelity. The younger cop, David (Javier Bardem) is clean-cut and sober. Through the window they catch sight of Víctor physically struggling with Elena. Sancho is ready to storm the apartment, while David wants to call for a back-up.
When they enter, Víctor holds Elena hostage at gunpoint. David tries to calm him down and get him to drop his gun, but Sancho sabotages his efforts by repeatedly threatening Víctor. Finally, David puts his gun to Sancho’s head and gets first Sancho and then Víctor to put down their guns. David orders Elena to flee. Sancho then lunges for Víctor, and as they wrestle for the gun it fires.
Two years later, Víctor, in jail, watches a wheelchair basketball match. David, now partially paralyzed from the gunshot two years earlier, is a star player in the 1992 Summer Paralympics. Elena, now his wife, cheers him on from the sidelines. Víctor has made good use of his time in jail, taking a correspondence course in education, working out, and enriching his mind with a variety of subjects, including the Bible. Four years later, he is released. His mother has died, leaving him some money and a house in an area scheduled for demolition.
Víctor visits his mother’s grave, where he encounters Elena at her father’s burial service. Without identifying himself, he briefly offers her his condolences. Before leaving the cemetery he encounters Sancho’s wife Clara, who has arrived too late for Elena’s service. They leave together and she visits his apartment. They establish a tentative relationship.
Elena, now off drugs and operating an orphanage, tells David of her encounter with Víctor. David stops by Víctor’s house and warns him not to go near his wife. Víctor challenges him to prevent him from doing whatever he wants, but David punches him below the belt. David leaves, but he sees Clara arriving and watches from a distance. Clara, drawn by Víctor’s enthusiasm and good looks, agrees to teach him how to make love while pampering him with gifts and affection. She eventually falls in love with him.
Víctor is accepted as a volunteer by the orphanage, which accepts the qualifications he earned in prison and discovers he is very good with the children. Elena objects, but can offer no compelling argument against Víctor. David continues to trail Víctor and discovers that he works at his wife’s orphanage. He confronts Víctor again, and Víctor denies responsibility for firing the shot that put him in a wheelchair.
He demonstrates how Sancho made him squeeze the trigger because Sancho knew David was having an affair with Clara. Afterwards, David tells his wife what Víctor said, admitting that he was having an affair with Clara. Elena is disgusted, but still plans to leave the orphanage to get away from Víctor. Víctor 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 abandon her, but that he now loves her too much to do so.
Live Flesh (Spanish: Carne Trémula) is a 1997 Spanish romantic drama thriller film, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Liberto Rabal, Javier Bardem, and Francesca Neri. The film is loosely based on the 1986 book Live Flesh by the British crime writer Ruth Rendell.
The film won the 1998 Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor (José Sancho) and was nominated for Best Actor (Javier Bardem) and Best Supporting Actress (Ángela Molina).
Live Flesh – Carne Trémula (1998)
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Liberto Rabal, Francesca Neri, Javier Bardem, Ángela Molina, José Sancho, Penélope Cruz, Pilar Bardem, Mariola Fuentes, María Rosenfeldt
Screenplay by: Jorge Guerricaechevarria, Pedro Almodóvar, Ray Loriga
Production Design by: Antxón Gómez
Cinematography by: Affonso Beato
Film Editing by: José Salcedo
Costume Design by: José María de Cossío
Art Direction by: Antxón Gómez
Music by: Alberto Iglesias
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexuality, language and some drug content.
Distributed by: Orion Pictures
Release Date: January 16, 1998
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