High Heels (1991) is like Pedro Almodóvar inviting the audience to a boutique shop to peruse and sample. Melodrama is the purpose for being there, but the pleasure lies in admiring and marvelling at all the wares: the wigs, the hairstyles, the dresses, the shoes, the gloves, the earrings. High Heels has a striking colour palette (reds, yellows) in the costuming and set design, particularly the interiors. And this is threaded into the central relationship of a mother and daughter, growing up in the shadow of a star, the sense of competition and performitivity that defines them both.
Victoria Abril is the TV presenter welcoming her mother’s return to Madrid, Marisa Paredes (RIP), a celebrated singer who has been living in Mexico for the past decade. During a confrontation later in the film, Abril’s character references Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, and that’s one of the more explicit influences Almodóvar is making here alongside classic Hollywood melodrama. There’s a murder plot point, involving Abril’s current husband, a TV network owner, who used to be one of her mother’s lovers. But it’s not really about solving a mystery or providing any thrills. The murder is a catalyst for the brewing emotional turmoil between Abril and Paredes, who are both excellent. The film delights in the tears from Abril’s highly strung daughter, and the diva-esque imperiousness of Parades. All of which builds to an affecting sense of sincerity, something Almodóvar has proven again and again since, but at this time the first film after his international breakout Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, was viewed as something different.
It’s also fun how the investigating judge (Miguel Bose) seems to be in male-drag, with his fake beard and dark glasses, clearly the drag queen performing as Parades’ character. Alongside the use of melodrama, there are musical moments of lip-synching and dancing that add to the sense of camp spectacle the movie deals in. Score by Ryuichi Sakomoto. Available to stream on SBS On Demand. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 