This week we watched the film All About My Mother, directed by Pedro Almodovar. This film portrayed queer characters and queer life in dinstinct ways. The movie included characters with many different identities and stories which created really interesting dynamics. I really liked the way that the movie represented queer life. The movie wasn’t based solely around romance. There was a collection of queer people, with different backgrounds whose lives all intertwine. A lot of queer movies only have representation of one or two queer characters within them. I liked seeing a movie filled with queerness and revealing that there are many definitions and ways to be queer. Being queer does not mean one thing, and living a queer life means something different for every queer person.

I also liked the way that the movie portrayed the sense of community and compassion and support within the queer community. While the movie simeoutaneously revealed the danger that can be found in queer spaces sometimes, or the danger in just being queer, I think if safe queer spaces were more frequently represented in media and film, more safe spaces would emerge in real life.

I also thought the coding of Manuela’s son, Esteban. in the beginning as queer was interesting. The movie is an obviously queer movie, so Esteban was not coded out of a purpose of subtlety. I wonder if he was coded as gay to represent maybe some of the history of queer film. This would make sense as the film goes on to upend or rebel against a ‘typical’ queer film, with multiple queer characters with intertwining lives. Or maybe it just wasn’t important enough to mention that he was queer. To be honest, I didn’t even notice the coding until it was mentioned in this week’s readings, but I thought it was interesting to think about.

I also thought the repetition of story lines between Manuela and the Estebans, along with the repetition of the transplant story lines was really interesting and powerful. There was repetition in the cinematography too and in other aspects throughout the movie. The use of repetition made the story line strong and emphasized the symbolism within the film.

This movie also made interesting and important comments and statements about the meaning of “natural,” specifically being “natural” or “genuine” in terms of gender. There is a scene where Agrado talks about what makes her authentic. She talks about the fact that when your body and appearance match how you feel, that is the most natural you can get. When the outside matches the inside, this is the most authentic form that one can achieve. This message and scene I liked a lot and I thought the use of juxtaposition about being fake versus being real and how these two can even overlap and become one another, depending on one’s perception of the world and how they define authenticity.