The death of Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez) sets off a chain of events that forces one man to come to terms with his past. Before he went blind, ‘Harry Caine’ was Mateo Blanco (Lluís Homar), a film director who often worked with Ernesto. Ten years ago, Ernesto and Mateo’s friendship became a battle for Lena (Penélope Cruz), Ernesto’s mistress and Mateo’s secret object of affection. When the former recruits his son (Rubén Ochandiano) to spy on the latter, things quickly spiral out of control. Almodóvar’s recurring theme of “amour fou” dominated by fatality, jealousy, treachery and guilt, intertwines with an investigation of the voyeuristic powers of cinema. A romantic thriller that was described by Roger Ebert as “pure Almodóvar”, Broken Embraces nods to and spoofs a number of film genres (the film-within-the-film is a parody of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) displaying the director’s cinephile credentials, as well as his sensational command of framing and colour (this is the most ‘red’ of all Almodóvar’s films).
