WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.800 You know that specific feeling when you're watching 00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:03.960 a movie and your brain is essentially split in 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:07.000 two? One half is screaming, call the police, 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:09.400 this is a felony, and the other half is like 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:11.779 humming along to the music thinking, oh, look 00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:13.980 at them fall in love. Yeah. It's that cognitive 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:16.670 dissonance where you just... You aren't sure 00:00:16.670 --> 00:00:19.010 if you're supposed to be terrified or charmed. 00:00:19.010 --> 00:00:21.690 It's a very specific type of cinematic gaslighting, 00:00:21.690 --> 00:00:26.149 isn't it? Exactly. And today we are diving into 00:00:26.149 --> 00:00:29.109 the absolute masterclass of that manipulation. 00:00:29.109 --> 00:00:32.310 This is a big one. We are looking at Pedro Almodovar's 00:00:32.310 --> 00:00:36.310 1989 explosion of color and controversy, Tie 00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:39.929 Me Up, Tie Me Down, or Atame in the original 00:00:39.929 --> 00:00:42.130 Spanish. This is a film that, I mean, it just... 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.259 It defies categorization. It is vibrant. It is 00:00:45.259 --> 00:00:47.899 hilarious. It is deeply disturbing. And it is 00:00:47.899 --> 00:00:50.399 arguably the reason the American film rating 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:52.820 system looks the way it does today. That is the 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:54.560 part that really hooked me when I was prepping 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:56.000 for this. We're going to talk about the plot, 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:58.560 obviously, because it is wild. It's beyond wild. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.679 But the backstory here is just as dramatic. I 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:04.099 mean, we are talking about a movie that broke 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:07.340 the MPAA. It forced the industry to invent the 00:01:07.340 --> 00:01:09.939 NC -17 rating. It did. It really did. It sits 00:01:09.939 --> 00:01:12.680 right at the intersection of high art, romantic 00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:17.560 comedy, horror, and a massive legal battle over 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:20.299 censorship. So here is our mission for this deep 00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:23.040 dive. We have the production history. We have 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:25.280 the legal arguments from the lawsuit against 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.920 the Motion Picture Association of America. And 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.620 we have the critical analysis from both sides 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:33.439 of the Atlantic. We are going to figure out how 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:36.260 a story about a violent abduction became a fairy 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:38.280 tale. And we're going to ask the hard question. 00:01:38.659 --> 00:01:41.459 Is this movie a romance or is it just Stockholm 00:01:41.459 --> 00:01:43.700 Syndrome with better lighting? That is the fundamental 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:46.000 question. It really is. And to answer it, you 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:47.920 have to start with the sheer audacity of the 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.040 premise. I mean, Almodovar isn't hiding the ball 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:51.879 here. He tells you exactly what this is from 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:54.180 the opening frames. Right. Let's set the stage. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:56.680 We have our protagonist, Ricky. And honestly, 00:01:56.780 --> 00:01:58.739 protagonist feels like a generous word given 00:01:58.739 --> 00:02:01.219 what he does. But that is how the film frames 00:02:01.219 --> 00:02:04.599 him. It is. Ricky is played by Antonio Banderas, 00:02:04.739 --> 00:02:07.000 who was just, what, 23 years old at the time? 00:02:07.060 --> 00:02:09.680 So young. And the context of his character is 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:12.580 absolutely crucial to understanding. why the 00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:14.360 movie doesn't just feel like a slasher film. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:17.520 Ricky is an orphan. He has spent his entire life 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:20.120 in institutions. We meet him on the day he's 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:22.639 being released from a psychiatric hospital. And 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:25.599 the doctors explicitly tell him he is cured. 00:02:25.900 --> 00:02:28.560 But this is where I get stuck. What does cured 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.300 even mean to a guy who has literally never lived 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:33.800 in the real world? Well, that's the key insight 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:36.259 into his psychology, isn't it? Ricky's logic 00:02:36.259 --> 00:02:40.229 isn't emotional. It is. It's binary. It is institutional. 00:02:40.590 --> 00:02:43.969 In a hospital or an orphanage, you follow rules 00:02:43.969 --> 00:02:47.469 A, B, and C, and you get reward D. He believes 00:02:47.469 --> 00:02:49.870 society works the same way. He wants to be a 00:02:49.870 --> 00:02:52.789 normal person. And to him, normal has a very 00:02:52.789 --> 00:02:56.090 specific, very rigid definition. A job, a wife, 00:02:56.129 --> 00:02:58.409 and children. Exactly. A job, a wife, and children. 00:02:58.449 --> 00:03:00.250 He treats it like a grocery list. Okay, I have 00:03:00.250 --> 00:03:02.330 the pants. Now I need the wife. Exactly. It's 00:03:02.330 --> 00:03:04.610 structural. He needs to acquire these things 00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:07.310 to validate his existence as a person in the 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:10.009 outside world. But he doesn't just want a wife. 00:03:10.169 --> 00:03:12.330 He isn't, you know, looking for a blind date. 00:03:12.389 --> 00:03:16.810 He is fixated on one person, Marina Osorio. Right. 00:03:16.949 --> 00:03:19.870 Marina, played by the amazing Victoria Abrel. 00:03:20.189 --> 00:03:23.990 She is an actress, a former porn star, and she's 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:26.469 currently filming a horror movie. And this is 00:03:26.469 --> 00:03:29.629 a major plot point later. She is also a recovering 00:03:29.629 --> 00:03:32.830 heroin addict. And their history is, let's call 00:03:32.830 --> 00:03:35.289 it asymmetrical. That is a very polite way to 00:03:35.289 --> 00:03:38.319 put it. Yes. Ricky escaped the asylum once before, 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:40.620 just briefly. They had a one -night stand. Right. 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:42.979 To Marina, it was likely a blur. I mean, she 00:03:42.979 --> 00:03:44.539 was deep in her addiction at the time, probably 00:03:44.539 --> 00:03:46.620 high. She doesn't even remember his name. Of 00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:49.780 course not. But to Ricky, that night was the 00:03:49.780 --> 00:03:52.219 imprint. That was destiny. That was everything. 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:55.620 So he gets out of the asylum. He has 50 ,000 00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:58.180 pesetas in his pocket, which, we should clarify 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:00.419 for you, is not a lot of money. It's pocket change. 00:04:00.659 --> 00:04:02.349 Barely anything. And he goes straight to the 00:04:02.349 --> 00:04:04.590 film studio where she is working. And this leads 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:07.669 to the meet cute, if you can even call it that. 00:04:07.909 --> 00:04:10.629 It's very strange. He tried to get her attention. 00:04:11.469 --> 00:04:14.030 And how does he do it? He has a handstand. A 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:16.470 literal handstand. A literal handstand right 00:04:16.470 --> 00:04:18.730 there on the set. See, that is such a weird detail. 00:04:18.829 --> 00:04:20.730 Why include that? What is that supposed to tell 00:04:20.730 --> 00:04:23.930 us? I think it signals to the audience that this 00:04:23.930 --> 00:04:27.129 guy isn't a hardened criminal or a sexual predator 00:04:27.129 --> 00:04:30.290 in the traditional sense. He's an arrested adolescent. 00:04:31.210 --> 00:04:34.949 He is showing off like a little boy on a playground. 00:04:35.430 --> 00:04:38.250 It's pathetic. It's childish. And it kind of 00:04:38.250 --> 00:04:40.930 disarms you as a viewer. But Marina understandably 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:43.569 just ignores him. She dismisses him as a fan 00:04:43.569 --> 00:04:46.329 or a stalker. Which, to be fair, he is. He is. 00:04:46.410 --> 00:04:49.370 And this is where the switch flips. Because in 00:04:49.370 --> 00:04:51.209 a normal rom -com, this is the part where the 00:04:51.209 --> 00:04:53.110 guy sends flowers or maybe stands outside with 00:04:53.110 --> 00:04:56.509 a boombox. Ricky decides to break into her apartment. 00:04:56.810 --> 00:04:59.660 And this is why the film is so polarizing. The 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:02.279 break -in is not played for laughs. It is violent. 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:06.060 She forces his way in. She screams. And to silence 00:05:06.060 --> 00:05:08.980 her, he headbutts her. That headbutt is so visceral. 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:10.579 I remember watching it and thinking, okay, we 00:05:10.579 --> 00:05:12.680 are in a thriller now. This is a villain. It 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:14.899 creates an immediate shock. He knocks the wind 00:05:14.899 --> 00:05:17.420 out of her and out of the audience. He tapes 00:05:17.420 --> 00:05:19.600 her mouth. He ties her to the bed with ropes. 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:22.420 And then, and this is the part that is so uniquely 00:05:22.420 --> 00:05:26.199 Almodovar. He sits down and explains his plan 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:28.670 calmly. As if it's the most normal thing in the 00:05:28.670 --> 00:05:30.589 world. He says, I captured you so you can get 00:05:30.589 --> 00:05:33.449 to know me, fall in love, and marry me. It's 00:05:33.449 --> 00:05:36.750 terrifying because he is so sincere. He isn't 00:05:36.750 --> 00:05:39.410 doing this to hurt her. In his mind, he is providing 00:05:39.410 --> 00:05:42.089 a service. Right. He says, I will be a good husband. 00:05:42.149 --> 00:05:46.050 I will protect you. He views the kidnapping as 00:05:46.050 --> 00:05:51.009 a necessary logistical step. How so? She can't 00:05:51.009 --> 00:05:52.829 love him if she doesn't know him, and she won't 00:05:52.829 --> 00:05:54.310 get to know him if she runs away. Therefore, 00:05:54.509 --> 00:05:57.819 ropes. It's just simple logic to him. It's a 00:05:57.819 --> 00:05:59.620 complete distortion of courtship. He's essentially 00:05:59.620 --> 00:06:01.740 saying, you just need to sit still long enough 00:06:01.740 --> 00:06:04.160 to realize I'm great. But here is where the movie 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:06.180 really challenges me. If this were an American 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:08.259 thriller, the next 90 minutes would be her trying 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:10.680 to, you know, stab him with a glass shard and 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:14.139 escape. But that's not what happens. No, not 00:06:14.139 --> 00:06:17.319 at all. Almodovar throws in a complication that 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:20.560 shifts the power dynamic entirely. Marina has 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:24.470 a toothache. A toothache? That seems so... trivial 00:06:24.470 --> 00:06:27.290 for a hostage situation it sounds trivial but 00:06:27.290 --> 00:06:30.050 it's a stroke of genius it's a massive agonizing 00:06:30.050 --> 00:06:33.389 toothache and remember she is a recovering addict 00:06:33.389 --> 00:06:35.870 on methadone so over -the -counter stuff doesn't 00:06:35.870 --> 00:06:39.170 work for her she is in physical hell so suddenly 00:06:39.170 --> 00:06:41.029 her kidnapper is the only person who can help 00:06:41.029 --> 00:06:43.790 her precisely ricky has to pivot from being the 00:06:43.790 --> 00:06:46.110 captor to being the caregiver right he has to 00:06:46.110 --> 00:06:47.649 go out into the world which he doesn't understand 00:06:47.649 --> 00:06:51.089 to get her pain medication And this leads to 00:06:51.089 --> 00:06:53.529 a fascinating sequence. He goes to a pharmacy. 00:06:53.790 --> 00:06:55.629 They deny him because he has no prescription. 00:06:55.990 --> 00:06:57.990 So he has to go to the black market. And this 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:00.110 is where we see his moral code is just totally 00:07:00.110 --> 00:07:03.430 rewired. He finds a dealer, played by the iconic 00:07:03.430 --> 00:07:06.769 Rossi De Palma, but he refuses to pay the street 00:07:06.769 --> 00:07:09.110 price. Because he's on a budget. He's trying 00:07:09.110 --> 00:07:10.910 to be a responsible head of household with his 00:07:10.910 --> 00:07:13.970 50 ,000 pesetas. He actually lectures the drug 00:07:13.970 --> 00:07:17.009 dealer on fairness. He's haggling. He's haggling. 00:07:17.069 --> 00:07:19.639 He's outraged that she's price gouging him. And 00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:21.279 then attacks her. And then he attacks her to 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:24.060 get the pills. Again, for him, violence is just 00:07:24.060 --> 00:07:26.959 a tool. It's utilitarian. But this has consequences. 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:30.160 Later, the dealer spots him in the street and 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.720 gets her revenge. Ricky gets jumped. He is beaten, 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:37.360 robbed, and left unconscious. So he stumbles 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:40.500 back to Marina's apartment. He is bloody. He 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:43.459 is broken. He looks like a wreck. And this is 00:07:43.459 --> 00:07:45.279 the pivot point of the entire film, right? It 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:48.800 is. This is the moment Marina sees him. And up 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.579 until this moment, he's been the monster. But 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:54.139 now, he's the wounded child. Well, that's a good 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:55.920 way to put it. He went out to get her medicine, 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:58.000 and he got destroyed for it. And instead of using 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.339 this moment to grab the keys and run while he's 00:08:00.339 --> 00:08:03.220 passed out, she starts cleaning his wounds. She 00:08:03.220 --> 00:08:06.040 sterilizes his cuts with alcohol. It's an act 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:08.439 of intimacy. Alma Dover is showing us the transition 00:08:08.439 --> 00:08:11.459 from fear to empathy. But is that realistic? 00:08:12.350 --> 00:08:14.189 Or is that just movie magic? I mean, it feels 00:08:14.189 --> 00:08:16.610 like a very quick turn. Well, clinically, it's 00:08:16.610 --> 00:08:18.509 the definition of Stockholm syndrome, isn't it? 00:08:18.509 --> 00:08:21.290 The psychological phenomenon where hostages develop 00:08:21.290 --> 00:08:23.910 an emotional bond with their captors as a survival 00:08:23.910 --> 00:08:26.709 strategy. Right. But Amadova frames it differently. 00:08:27.209 --> 00:08:29.790 He doesn't treat it as a pathology. He treats 00:08:29.790 --> 00:08:32.669 it as an epiphany. She sees his devotion. She 00:08:32.669 --> 00:08:36.029 realizes that no one else in her life, not the 00:08:36.029 --> 00:08:38.269 director she sleeps with, not her sister, would 00:08:38.269 --> 00:08:40.649 take a beating just to get her painkillers. And 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:43.690 from there... The slide into romance is fast. 00:08:43.990 --> 00:08:46.429 They have sex. They plan to run away together 00:08:46.429 --> 00:08:49.269 to his hometown. But there is one scene that 00:08:49.269 --> 00:08:51.190 I think we need to analyze deeply because it's 00:08:51.190 --> 00:08:53.789 literally the title of the movie. Yes. He has 00:08:53.789 --> 00:08:56.559 to leave again. to steal a car for their getaway. 00:08:56.919 --> 00:08:59.879 She is untied. She is free. She could walk out 00:08:59.879 --> 00:09:02.279 the door and she says to him, tie me up. Tie 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:05.179 me up so I won't escape. That is such a heavy 00:09:05.179 --> 00:09:07.320 line. She is acknowledging that she wants to 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:09.080 stay, but she doesn't trust her own instincts 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:11.659 to run. She is consenting to the bondage. She 00:09:11.659 --> 00:09:14.220 is outsourcing her willpower to the ropes. It's 00:09:14.220 --> 00:09:15.879 her way of committing to the relationship. She 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:18.019 is saying, I want to be bound to you, even if 00:09:18.019 --> 00:09:20.799 it defies all logic. And then we get the quote 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:23.289 unquote happy ending. Her sister Lola shows up, 00:09:23.289 --> 00:09:25.769 rescues her, but Marina confesses, I love him. 00:09:25.950 --> 00:09:28.070 They drive off to find Ricky at the ruins of 00:09:28.070 --> 00:09:31.029 his family home. The sister, who should be calling 00:09:31.029 --> 00:09:34.309 the police, accepts him. She basically adopts 00:09:34.309 --> 00:09:36.490 him into the family. Offers him a job. And they 00:09:36.490 --> 00:09:39.250 drive away singing Resistire. I will prevail. 00:09:40.149 --> 00:09:43.029 It's an anthem. So looking at this plot, it's 00:09:43.029 --> 00:09:45.990 insane. It's a felony wrapped in a hug. But you 00:09:45.990 --> 00:09:48.879 mentioned in the pre -show notes that... Al Madovar 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:50.960 considers this a version of Beauty and the Beast. 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:54.100 He does. And if you strip away the modern setting, 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:56.799 the vibrant colors, the structure is identical. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:59.879 How so? You have the Beast, Ricky. He's wild. 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:03.580 He is violent. He is isolated from society. And 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:06.309 you have the Beauty Marina. The core myth of 00:10:06.309 --> 00:10:08.490 Beauty and the Beast is that the savagery of 00:10:08.490 --> 00:10:10.789 the male is tamed by the civilizing influence 00:10:10.789 --> 00:10:13.889 of the female. Right, like King Kong. Or Tarzan. 00:10:14.169 --> 00:10:16.350 Or even Frankenstein. Wait, Frankenstein? I don't 00:10:16.350 --> 00:10:18.269 remember the monster getting the girl. No, but 00:10:18.269 --> 00:10:20.549 think about the monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 00:10:20.649 --> 00:10:24.149 He isn't evil initially. He's unformed. He lashes 00:10:24.149 --> 00:10:25.850 out because he doesn't understand the world, 00:10:25.909 --> 00:10:29.289 and everyone rejects him. Ricky is a direct descendant 00:10:29.289 --> 00:10:31.370 of that archetype. Okay, I can see that. And 00:10:31.370 --> 00:10:33.549 in Spanish literature specifically, there is 00:10:33.549 --> 00:10:36.529 a famous play called Life is a Dream by Calderón 00:10:36.529 --> 00:10:38.450 de la Barca. I'm not familiar with that one. 00:10:38.549 --> 00:10:41.289 It's a 17th century classic, basically the Spanish 00:10:41.289 --> 00:10:44.909 Hamlet. The protagonist, Segas Mundo, has been 00:10:44.909 --> 00:10:47.289 imprisoned in a tower his whole life by his father. 00:10:47.389 --> 00:10:51.470 He is described as a beast man. Wow. When he 00:10:51.470 --> 00:10:53.789 is finally released, he is violent and impulsive 00:10:53.789 --> 00:10:56.210 because he has no social conditioning. He has 00:10:56.210 --> 00:10:59.809 to learn to be human. Almodovar is absolutely 00:10:59.809 --> 00:11:03.470 tapping into that cultural vein. Ricky is the 00:11:03.470 --> 00:11:06.049 modern Segismundo. He has the vitality of an 00:11:06.049 --> 00:11:08.509 animal, as Almodovar puts it, but he needs love 00:11:08.509 --> 00:11:10.789 to become a citizen. So Almodovar is saying... 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.000 Don't look at this as a crime report. Look at 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:15.159 this as a fable. Exactly. He calls it a romantic 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:17.379 fairy tale. And he's also playing with the tropes 00:11:17.379 --> 00:11:19.620 of American romantic comedies from the 50s. You 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:22.500 mean like Doris Day and Rock Hudson? Yes. Think 00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:24.899 about Pillow Talk or That Touch of Mink. What 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:28.259 is the plot of those movies? A man pursues a 00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:31.000 woman relentlessly. Right. She says no. He ignores 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.279 her no. He tricks her. He wears her down. And 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:35.320 eventually she marries him. And we call that 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:40.120 romance. We do. We call it persistence. Almodovar 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:43.299 is taking that exact dynamic and stripping away 00:11:43.299 --> 00:11:46.620 the polite veneer. He is saying, you like it 00:11:46.620 --> 00:11:48.659 when the guy won't take no for an answer. Okay, 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:50.399 here's what that actually looks like. It looks 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:52.580 like a kidnapping. That is a very cynical take. 00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:55.340 So he's parodying the genre by taking it literally. 00:11:55.620 --> 00:11:58.580 He is exposing the aggression inherent in the 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:02.220 idea of winning a woman. Ricky is approaching 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:05.509 love the way one studies for a degree. He believes 00:12:05.509 --> 00:12:07.889 love is constructed through effort and willpower. 00:12:08.070 --> 00:12:11.210 He forces it into existence. There is also a 00:12:11.210 --> 00:12:13.610 layer of horror here that we can't ignore. Marina 00:12:13.610 --> 00:12:15.610 isn't just an actress. She is filming a horror 00:12:15.610 --> 00:12:18.149 movie inside the movie. The Midnight Phantom. 00:12:18.289 --> 00:12:21.269 It's a Euro horror film about a masked, mutilated 00:12:21.269 --> 00:12:23.610 man who is in love with her character. Which 00:12:23.610 --> 00:12:25.870 is a direct mirror of her reality. I mean, it's 00:12:25.870 --> 00:12:28.409 not subtle. It's a perfect parallel. In the fake 00:12:28.409 --> 00:12:30.909 movie, she fights the monster and wins. In her 00:12:30.909 --> 00:12:33.059 real life, she tames the monster. There's a great 00:12:33.059 --> 00:12:34.820 line from the director character in the film, 00:12:34.860 --> 00:12:37.679 Maximo. He says, sometimes love stories and horror 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:40.320 stories are indistinguishable. That feels like 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:43.220 the thesis statement of the entire film. It absolutely 00:12:43.220 --> 00:12:45.759 is. Almodovar wants us to feel that confusion. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.639 You see posters for Invasion of the Body Snatchers 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.100 in the background. He is constantly reminding 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:54.200 us of monsters while we are watching a love scene. 00:12:54.490 --> 00:12:56.289 Let's talk about the ropes again, because the 00:12:56.289 --> 00:12:58.850 movie is called Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. You'd 00:12:58.850 --> 00:13:01.110 assume this is a film about BDSM. And Almodovar 00:13:01.110 --> 00:13:03.669 is very, very insistent that it is not. How can 00:13:03.669 --> 00:13:07.129 it not be? She is literally tied to a bed. He 00:13:07.129 --> 00:13:09.409 argues that there is no erotic charge to the 00:13:09.409 --> 00:13:11.309 ropes themselves in the context of the film. 00:13:11.409 --> 00:13:13.429 They aren't getting sexual pleasure from the 00:13:13.429 --> 00:13:16.649 bondage. For Almodovar, the ropes are a metaphor 00:13:16.649 --> 00:13:20.009 for the knots of a relationship. So sweeter human 00:13:20.009 --> 00:13:22.669 bondage, that kind of thing. Right. When you 00:13:22.669 --> 00:13:25.789 marry someone. You are tied down. You are bound 00:13:25.789 --> 00:13:28.490 to them. Ricky just makes the metaphor literal. 00:13:28.590 --> 00:13:31.070 He ties her down physically because he wants 00:13:31.070 --> 00:13:33.169 to be tied to her emotionally. I want to pivot 00:13:33.169 --> 00:13:36.149 to the production because the chemistry between 00:13:36.149 --> 00:13:39.230 Banderas and Abril is just electric. It's undeniable. 00:13:39.450 --> 00:13:41.490 But Victoria Abril wasn't supposed to be in this 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:44.409 movie, was she? No. And this is a bit of tragic 00:13:44.409 --> 00:13:47.250 history for all Madovar fans. For the entire 00:13:47.250 --> 00:13:51.840 1980s, his muse was Carmen Mora. She was the 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:53.879 star of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:56.700 law of desire, what have I done to deserve this? 00:13:57.179 --> 00:13:59.659 They were the dynamic duo of Spanish cinema. 00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:02.539 So why wasn't she Marina? What happened? Almodovar 00:14:02.539 --> 00:14:05.639 felt she was too old. Maura was 44 at the time. 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:08.519 The role of Marina required a certain starlit 00:14:08.519 --> 00:14:11.139 energy, someone who could plausibly be the object 00:14:11.139 --> 00:14:15.240 of a 23 -year -old's naive obsession. Wow. Almodovar 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:18.710 cast Victoria Abrel instead. And it caused a 00:14:18.710 --> 00:14:21.169 massive rift. Mara and Amadova didn't speak for 00:14:21.169 --> 00:14:23.309 years after this. It was a huge falling out. 00:14:23.409 --> 00:14:25.429 That is just the brutal reality of the industry. 00:14:25.750 --> 00:14:28.070 But looking at the film, Victoria Abrel brings 00:14:28.070 --> 00:14:30.149 a toughness that I think is essential. She doesn't 00:14:30.149 --> 00:14:31.870 play it like a victim. She plays it like a survivor. 00:14:32.129 --> 00:14:35.590 She does. She brings a gritty realism that contrasts 00:14:35.590 --> 00:14:38.470 perfectly with Banderas' dreamy idealism. And 00:14:38.470 --> 00:14:39.950 she had to replace a legend, which is a high 00:14:39.950 --> 00:14:41.970 -pressure gig. Yeah, for sure. And speaking of 00:14:41.970 --> 00:14:43.769 legends, we have to talk about the music. Who 00:14:43.769 --> 00:14:46.190 scores this quirky, colorful Spanish comedy? 00:14:46.909 --> 00:14:50.289 And no Morricone. The good, the bad, and the 00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:53.970 ugly. Ennio Morricone. Are you serious? The very 00:14:53.970 --> 00:14:57.990 same. The mission. Cinema Paradiso. The maestro 00:14:57.990 --> 00:15:00.509 himself. That seems like overkill for a comedy. 00:15:00.629 --> 00:15:04.129 Why him? It was a huge get. It showed Almodovar's 00:15:04.129 --> 00:15:07.769 status was rising. But here's the kicker. Almodovar. 00:15:08.289 --> 00:15:10.830 He didn't like the score. He hired the greatest 00:15:10.830 --> 00:15:14.179 living composer and said, meh. Essentially. Almodovar 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:16.200 thought the music sounded too conventional. What 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:18.240 does that even mean? He thought it sounded like 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:20.159 Morricone's score for the Harrison Ford movie 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:22.840 Frantic, which had come out recently. He wanted 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:25.000 something more uniquely Spanish or more bizarre, 00:15:25.220 --> 00:15:27.440 so he actually only used about half the music 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:29.440 Morricone wrote for the film. That takes some 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:32.419 serious ego. Or I guess artistic confidence. 00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:34.740 It's an auteur knowing exactly what he wants. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.039 But what remains in the film works beautifully 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.620 because it is a thriller score. Right. It sounds 00:15:39.620 --> 00:15:41.379 like Bernard Herrmann's Psycho. It keeps the 00:15:41.379 --> 00:15:43.519 tension high. Even when they're having a tender 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:46.379 moment, the music is telling you danger, danger. 00:15:47.019 --> 00:15:49.600 It reinforces that idea that love and horror 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:52.399 are neighbors. And then you contrast that with 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:56.200 the pop music, the song Resistire. By Duo Dynamico. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:00.500 It's an upbeat, defiant 80s pop anthem. I will 00:16:00.500 --> 00:16:03.820 resist. I will prevail. It grounds the movie 00:16:03.820 --> 00:16:06.419 in the Movida Modulenia. We should define that 00:16:06.419 --> 00:16:08.840 term for the listeners. Movida Modulenia. Right. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:11.100 It was the countercultural movement in Madrid 00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.700 that just exploded after the death of the dictator 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:17.559 Francisco Franco in 1975. After decades of fascism 00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:20.159 and repression, suddenly Spain exploded with 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:23.100 punk rock, drugs, sexual freedom, art. It was 00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:25.440 a cultural revolution, and Amadovar was the prince 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:29.379 of that movement. This film captures that spirit, 00:16:29.500 --> 00:16:31.799 the idea that we have survived the darkness of 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:33.879 the past, and now we are going to live no matter 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:36.139 how messy it gets. Okay, we need to get into 00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:38.440 the big fight, the battle of the ratings. Because 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:40.840 while Spain loved this movie, it had over a million 00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:43.019 viewers there, the United States had a complete 00:16:43.019 --> 00:16:45.519 meltdown. A total absolute meltdown. You have 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:47.539 to remember the context of 1990 in America. The 00:16:47.539 --> 00:16:51.299 reading system was G, PG, PG -13, R, and X. And 00:16:51.299 --> 00:16:53.799 X didn't mean cool indie film. X meant porn. 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:57.159 Exactly. X was synonymous with dethrone or peep 00:16:57.159 --> 00:16:59.980 shows in Times Square. If your movie was rated 00:16:59.980 --> 00:17:03.259 X, newspapers wouldn't run your ads. TV stations 00:17:03.259 --> 00:17:06.019 wouldn't air your trailers. Blockbuster wouldn't 00:17:06.019 --> 00:17:10.200 stock your tape. It was commercial. And the MPAA, 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.059 the Motion Picture Association of America, watched 00:17:13.059 --> 00:17:16.720 Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. And slapped it with an 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:19.720 X rating. They did. And Miramax, the distributor 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:22.579 led by Harvey Weinstein at the time, was furious. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.940 They looked at the film and said, this isn't 00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:29.599 porn. This is art. Yes, it has sex, but it's 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:31.859 a narrative film by a world -renowned director. 00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:34.599 What specifically triggered the X? Was it the 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:37.859 violence? The headbutt? No. And that's the incredible 00:17:37.859 --> 00:17:39.759 irony. The violence, the headbutt, the bleeding, 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:42.079 the drugs. That was fine. Of course. The MPAA 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:45.299 had no problem with that. It was the sex. Specifically, 00:17:45.299 --> 00:17:48.619 a lengthy love scene and one very, very infamous 00:17:48.619 --> 00:17:51.539 scene involving a bathtub. The scuba diver. The 00:17:51.539 --> 00:17:53.059 scuba diver. Explain this for those who haven't 00:17:53.059 --> 00:17:54.599 seen it because it sounds like a hallucination. 00:17:54.660 --> 00:17:57.240 Okay, so Marina is relaxing in a bathtub. She 00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:00.259 has a small wind -up toy, a little scuba diver 00:18:00.259 --> 00:18:03.140 that kicks its legs. And she allows the toy to 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:05.920 swim, let's say, into a very private area. It's 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:08.680 a scene of female masturbation using a wind -up 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:12.410 toy. Correct. It is quirky, it is funny, it is 00:18:12.410 --> 00:18:14.529 completely character -driven, and it is explicit. 00:18:14.990 --> 00:18:17.430 And the MPAA just lost their minds. They said, 00:18:17.509 --> 00:18:21.230 that is X -rated content, period. So Miramex 00:18:21.230 --> 00:18:23.190 sued them. They took them to the Supreme Court 00:18:23.190 --> 00:18:25.650 of New York. This wasn't just a business negotiation. 00:18:25.910 --> 00:18:27.890 They turned it into a First Amendment issue. 00:18:28.009 --> 00:18:30.789 They hired the famed civil rights lawyer, William 00:18:30.789 --> 00:18:33.529 Kunstler. That is a power move. What was their 00:18:33.529 --> 00:18:35.869 legal argument? that the scuba diver was protected 00:18:35.869 --> 00:18:38.609 artistic expression. Their argument was about 00:18:38.609 --> 00:18:41.390 hypocrisy and discrimination. They argued that 00:18:41.390 --> 00:18:43.210 the rating system was discriminatory against 00:18:43.210 --> 00:18:46.309 female pleasure and sex in general while being 00:18:46.309 --> 00:18:49.670 incredibly permissive of violence. Ah, I see. 00:18:49.829 --> 00:18:51.349 They pointed out that you could show a woman 00:18:51.349 --> 00:18:54.269 being murdered, raped, or mutilated in an R -rated 00:18:54.269 --> 00:18:57.029 movie no problem. But if you showed a woman giving 00:18:57.029 --> 00:18:59.009 herself pleasure, it was immediately X -rated. 00:18:59.190 --> 00:19:01.769 They argued the MPAA was prioritizing violence 00:19:01.769 --> 00:19:04.369 over sexuality. That is a very strong argument. 00:19:04.529 --> 00:19:07.970 Did they win? Legally, no. The judge ruled that 00:19:07.970 --> 00:19:11.130 the MPAA is a private organization and has the 00:19:11.130 --> 00:19:14.269 right to express its opinion on films. Miramax 00:19:14.269 --> 00:19:17.670 lost the case. So the movie stayed X. No, Miramax 00:19:17.670 --> 00:19:20.130 released it unrated, which is a risky move, but 00:19:20.130 --> 00:19:22.880 better than X. But here is the real victory. 00:19:23.099 --> 00:19:26.400 The public outcry was so loud and the argument 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.079 Miramax made was so damaging to the MPAA's reputation 00:19:29.079 --> 00:19:32.319 that the MPAA completely capitulated. They changed 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.680 the system. Within months. In September 1990, 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:38.079 they introduced a brand new rating. NC -17, no 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.599 children under 17 admitted. So the distinction 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:42.660 was finally made. This is for adults, but it 00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:45.000 isn't pornography. Exactly. Tie me up. Tie Me 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.440 Down is the reason we have the NC -17 rating 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:49.660 today. It was the battering ram that broke down 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:51.940 the door. Along with a film called Henry in June, 00:19:52.099 --> 00:19:53.839 it forced the industry to distinguish between 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.700 art films with adult content and hardcore pornography. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:00.259 That is a massive, massive legacy for a strange 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:02.400 little romantic comedy about a kidnapper. It 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:04.339 changed the distribution landscape for foreign 00:20:04.339 --> 00:20:06.559 films and independent cinema in America forever. 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:10.279 So stripping away the legal battle, how was the 00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:12.259 movie actually received? You mentioned Spain 00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:14.819 loved it. What about the rest of the world? It 00:20:14.819 --> 00:20:17.640 was a complete Rorschach test. In Germany, it 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:20.279 was a disaster. At the Berlin Film Festival, 00:20:20.500 --> 00:20:22.400 the projector broke during the screening, which 00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:25.059 is a bad omen. Never a good sign. And then the 00:20:25.059 --> 00:20:27.359 German press just attacked Almodovar. They grilled 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:30.259 him about his sexuality, about drug use, about 00:20:30.259 --> 00:20:32.559 being Spanish. They didn't see the humor. They 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:34.900 just saw the perversion. They viewed it through 00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:38.539 a very literal, very serious lens. And the UK. 00:20:39.099 --> 00:20:41.900 British critics were mostly dismissive. One famously 00:20:41.900 --> 00:20:44.859 called it banal and humorless. They just couldn't 00:20:44.859 --> 00:20:47.200 get past the premise. They saw it as a cheap 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:49.559 thriller trying to be artsy. Which brings us 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:52.539 to the feminist critique. Because we can't do 00:20:52.539 --> 00:20:54.099 a deep dive on this movie without addressing 00:20:54.099 --> 00:20:56.579 the obvious elephant in the room. This is a movie 00:20:56.579 --> 00:20:58.839 where a woman learns to love her abuser. And 00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:01.460 that critique is entirely valid and very powerful. 00:21:01.940 --> 00:21:04.460 Feminist groups and women's advocacy groups were... 00:21:05.379 --> 00:21:07.440 understandably outraged. They argued that the 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.319 film creates a dangerous fantasy. Which is what? 00:21:10.420 --> 00:21:12.420 Exactly. That if a man is just violent enough 00:21:12.420 --> 00:21:14.299 and persistent enough, the woman will eventually 00:21:14.299 --> 00:21:16.940 come around. It validates the stalker. It says, 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:19.420 don't take no for an answer. Just tie her up 00:21:19.420 --> 00:21:22.740 and wait. It does. It suggests that no just means 00:21:22.740 --> 00:21:26.680 tie me up until I say yes. Modern audiences, 00:21:26.819 --> 00:21:28.480 you know, definitely struggle with the ick factor. 00:21:28.619 --> 00:21:30.279 It's hard to root for Ricky when you look at 00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:32.599 his actions on paper. Does Elmer Dover defend 00:21:32.599 --> 00:21:35.410 this? Or does he just say, it's a movie, get 00:21:35.410 --> 00:21:38.269 over it? He leans on the fable defense we talked 00:21:38.269 --> 00:21:41.410 about earlier, that Ricky is an animal, not a 00:21:41.410 --> 00:21:45.089 man. But he also offers a more cynical and perhaps 00:21:45.089 --> 00:21:48.390 more interesting defense. He argues that the 00:21:48.390 --> 00:21:51.170 film is a parody of marriage itself. Unpack that 00:21:51.170 --> 00:21:53.250 for me. Meaning that traditional marriage is 00:21:53.250 --> 00:21:55.589 a form of Stockholm Syndrome. You take two people, 00:21:55.710 --> 00:21:58.009 you tie them together, legally, socially, and 00:21:58.009 --> 00:22:00.799 financially, and you say, you can't leave. And 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:02.960 because you can't leave, you learn to love each 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:06.059 other to survive the confinement. Wow. So Ricky 00:22:06.059 --> 00:22:08.700 is just speeding up the process. Exactly. Alma 00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:11.160 Dover is suggesting that all long -term relationships 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:15.140 require a bit of this forced adaptation. We all, 00:22:15.339 --> 00:22:17.680 in a way, fall in love with our captors eventually, 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.240 whether the ropes are made of hemp or a 30 -year 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:22.759 mortgage. That is incredibly bleak. It is bleak. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:25.220 But it's also wrapped in bright colors and pop 00:22:25.220 --> 00:22:27.720 music and humor. And that's the paradox. The 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:29.440 movie ends with them singing and driving into 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:32.319 the sunset. It feels joyful. That is the magic 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:35.039 of Alma Dover. He takes trashy pulp elements, 00:22:35.259 --> 00:22:39.240 kidnapping, addiction, B -movies, and weaves 00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:41.819 them into something incredibly complex and somehow 00:22:41.819 --> 00:22:44.339 beautiful. They are happy in their dysfunction. 00:22:44.740 --> 00:22:47.240 So what is the final takeaway here? If we are 00:22:47.240 --> 00:22:49.220 trying to distill this for the listener, what 00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:51.720 should they leave this deep dive with? I think 00:22:51.720 --> 00:22:53.960 the takeaway is about the blurred lines. The 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:56.299 film forces us to look at where we draw the line 00:22:56.299 --> 00:22:58.539 between passion and possession, between romance 00:22:58.539 --> 00:23:01.039 and horror, and between art and pornography. 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:04.099 It doesn't give us clear answers, but it forces 00:23:04.099 --> 00:23:07.029 us to have the debate. And the context matters 00:23:07.029 --> 00:23:09.849 so much. The fact that this movie had to fight 00:23:09.849 --> 00:23:12.369 for its right to exist in U .S. theaters is part 00:23:12.369 --> 00:23:14.690 of the text now. You can't separate the art from 00:23:14.690 --> 00:23:16.750 the fight. Absolutely. You can't watch it without 00:23:16.750 --> 00:23:19.309 thinking about the censorship battle and what 00:23:19.309 --> 00:23:22.109 that says about American culture versus Spanish 00:23:22.109 --> 00:23:25.089 culture at that specific moment in time. I want 00:23:25.089 --> 00:23:27.029 to leave the listener with a final provocative 00:23:27.029 --> 00:23:30.069 thought. We mentioned the happy ending. They 00:23:30.069 --> 00:23:33.450 are driving away singing, I will prevail, but 00:23:33.450 --> 00:23:36.880 prevail against what? the world or each other 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:39.740 or maybe just maybe we love the beauty and the 00:23:39.740 --> 00:23:41.880 beast story not because it's romantic but because 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:44.480 it's a survival guide we want to believe that 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:46.700 if we just love the monster enough if we're just 00:23:46.700 --> 00:23:50.200 patient enough he will stop being a monster which 00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:52.319 is the most dangerous fantasy of all exactly 00:23:52.319 --> 00:23:55.700 on that cheerful note don't kidnap people and 00:23:55.700 --> 00:23:58.500 don't sue the mpaa unless you have a really really 00:23:58.500 --> 00:24:00.420 good lawyer thanks for joining us on the deep 00:24:00.420 --> 00:24:00.660 dive