Filmmaker Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela) has sex with a younger man (Antonio Banderas), which is the beginning of an obsessive relationship. One of the most significant films in Pedro Almodóvar’s career, because of its success with audiences and unusually frank depiction of homosexual relations; thrills are served in the shape of Banderas’s increasingly dangerous behavior, but there’s also a lot of emotion and humor in the story. The lead character was obviously inspired by Almodóvar himself, and Carmen Maura’s transsexual Tina is provided with an expectedly colorful past. The film has an intensely absurd style, capped by a tragic finale.
1987-Spain. 100 min. Color. Produced by Agustin Almodóvar, Miguel Ángel Pérez Campos. Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Cast: Eusebio Poncela (Pablo Quintero), Carmen Maura (Tina Quintero), Antonio Banderas (Antonio Benítez), Miguel Molina, Manuela Velasco, Bibi Andersen.
Trivia: Original title: La ley del deseo.
Last word: “I just wanted to shoot enough to edit the film, and pay the actors, we had to postpone their salaries. When we were making ‘Law of Desire,’ it wasn’t the kind of film the Spanish industry wanted us to make or the Spanish public wanted us to be making.” (Almodóvar, Indiewire)
