Taglines: A love story… with strings attached!
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! movie storyline. Ricky, a 23-year-old psychiatric patient, has been deemed cured and is released from a mental institution. Until then he has been the lover of the woman director of the hospital. An orphan, free, and alone, his goal is to have a normal life with Marina Osorio, an actress, former porn star, and recovering drug addict, whom he once slept with during an escape from the asylum.
Ricky discovers Marina’s whereabouts from a film journal announcement of the start of her next film. He goes to the studio where Marina is in her last day at work filming The Midnight Phantom, a Euro-horror film about a hideously mutilated, masked muscleman in love with Marina’s character.
The film is directed by Máximo Espejo, an old film director confined to a wheelchair after a stroke. Máximo is a gentle mentor to Marina and threatens to throw out a journalist who mentions the words “porn” and “junkie” in Marina’s presence. His protection of the actress is not completely innocent since he is sexually attracted to Marina and lusts after her, enjoying what could be his last experience of directing a sexy female lead.
When Ricky comes to the set, he steals a few necessary items including the keys to Marina’s apartment and before long, he is an unwelcome presence in her life. Ricky, with a long-haired wig, does a handstand to try to capture her attention. Marina does not remember him and quickly dismisses him.
After filming the last scene, Marina goes home to change for the post-shoot party. Ricky follows her to her apartment. When she answers the door, Ricky forces his way in. He grabs her and headbutts her to silence her when she screams; he tapes her mouth and binds her with rope. Marina wakes with a terrible toothache, which normal painkillers do not relieve as she is addicted to stronger drugs.
Ricky explains that he has captured her so that when she gets to know him better she will fall in love and they will get married and have children. “I’ll never love you, ever,” says Marina, understandably enraged at being handcuffed, gagged and lashed to the bed. “We’ll see,” says Ricky, who would do anything to win her heart. Marina is shocked and in pain, and eventually persuades Ricky to take her to a doctor who can give her the necessary painkillers. Ricky barely leaves her alone with the doctor, and she is unable to communicate her plight. They cannot get the drugs in the pharmacy so Ricky goes off to get them on the black market. However, rather than paying the street price, he attacks the dealer to get the tablets.
During the after-filming party Marina’s sister, Lola, who is the assistant director of The Midnight Phantom, steals the show with a musical number. Increasingly worried about her sister’s disappearance, Lola visits Marina’s apartment and leaves a note. To avoid being discovered, Ricky moves Marina to her next door neighbor’s apartment. The apartment is empty, but the owner has left his keys with Lola so she can water his plants while he is away during the summer. In the street again, Ricky is spotted by the dealer who he had attacked. Ricky is then seriously beaten, robbed and left unconscious. During his absence Marina makes a desperate but somewhat halfhearted attempt to escape from her captivity.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a 1990 Spanish dark romantic comedy film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and starring Victoria Abril and Antonio Banderas alongside Loles Léon, Francisco Rabal, Julieta Serrano, Maria Barranco, and Rossy de Palma. The plot follows a recently released psychiatric patient who kidnaps an actress in order to make her fall in love with him. He believes his destiny is to marry her and father her children.
The film was highly successful with both critics and audiences in Spain. Its United States release was entangled in controversy, instrumental in the implementation by the MPAA of a new rating category, NC-17, for films of an explicit nature that were previously unfairly regarded as pornographic because of the X rating.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Victoria Abril, Antonio Banderas, Loles León, Julieta Serrano, María Barranco, Rossy de Palma, Francisco Rabal, Lola Cardona, Montse G. Romeu, Angelina Llongueras
Screenplay by: Pedro Almodóvar
Production Design by: Esther García
Cinematography by: José Luis Alcaine
Film Editing by: José Salcedo
Costume Design by: José María de Cossío
Art Direction by: Ferran Sánchez
Music by: Ennio Morricone
Distributed by: El Deseo S.A
Release Date: January 22, 1990
Hits: 430
