Almodovar He Was Not

Let’s see if I have this right. This article (click the picture to read) is a tribute to the short life of a guy who made his first movie at 22 years of age, and died at 32. His first movie was about a bunch of drug-taking, partying, lowlifes, “in search of the ultimate experience”. Right after filming was completed, two of the actors - while blasted out of their minds on drugs - recreated a scene in the film by KILLING their drug dealer, CHOPPING the body into pieces, and THROWING it in the river (this was real life people). El Pais says this event was “the perfect launch” for the film (not a great launch for the drug dealer though), and that the director “had arrived.” WTF?

Next this young director had a great NEW idea for a movie, this one would be about three gay men living in Chueca, indulging in sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. But it seems they had trouble getting Spanish film subsidies for this story about explicit gay sex and drug taking (thank God!). According to El Pais, this theme was “too advanced” for Spanish audiences.

He was not done yet. His next story idea was for a stage play, also set in Chueca. This gem features three guys again - one dude who has to work over the weekend, but doesn’t want to because he wants to go out and bang guys. Another tio whose boyfriend says he has to quit partying and get a job, and the last one who missed his chance to give up his life as a male prostitute in order to become an actor. All of them are bummed out so they want to escape reality for a weekend through … yes you guessed it, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. The big question posed in the film? “Do I stay with my partner this weekend, or do I fuck 30 different guys?” Now that’s movie-quality stuff!

To El Pais this is all perfectly natural, even to be lauded. To them, these are great film ideas. This guy was a genius and “too advanced” for the Spanish film going public. I wonder, are these great ideas because everyone is gay?

I’m sorry this guy is dead and all, but obviously the real story here is he led a tragic life. He achieved some success too young and then spent the next ten years of his short life trying to recreate it. The only problem was – he only had one (bad) story idea in him.