Marisa Paredes Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Running Time: 115 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: December 26th, 2011

Pedro Almodovar rarely makes a bad movie and The Skin I Live In is no exception. Antonio Banderas plays a doctor called Robert Legrand, who’s known for his advances in artificial skin and sex change operations. However he hides a secret, because locked away at home is a woman (Elena Anaya) he’s been doing surgical experiments on. She wants to get out, but Robert has a sophisticated security system and a dedicated mother (Marisa Parades) to keep her in. But is he keeping her in because what he’s been doing is illegal, or is there more going on?

The Skin I Live In is the sort of film where I don’t want to say too much about the plot or it’ll spoil the film’s slow reveal, but suffice to say things are not as they appears, and it all has to do with former tragedies in the doctor’s life and the destruction of his family. And it’s no coincidence the woman looks like Robert’s deceased wife. [Read more…]

Starring: Lou Doillon, Marie Kremer, Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Berencon, Marisa Paredes
Director: Laure Charpentier
Running Time: 100 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: November 14th, 2011

Director Laure Charpentier adapts one of her own controversial books for the screen, with this tale of gangsters, prostitutes and Sapphic desire in 1960s Paris. After her lover commits suicide, Gigola butches up, starts being emotionally aloof and becomes part of an underworld of prostitutes, gangsters and pimps.

Gigola seems to have a power to draw people in, whether it’s a hooker (Marie Kremer) who becomes Gigola new project, an older woman (Marisa Paredes) who falls for her, or a gangster(Eduardo Noriega), who may be the only person who can break through her hard veneer. All this while dealing with her needy mother and opium fiend father, and trying to save her childhood home. [Read more…]

The Skin I Live In (2011)

Gigola (DVD)