All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre) (1999)
96%RT Audience Score: 93%
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
58 wins & 40 nominations total
Almodovar weaves together a magnificent tapestry of femininity with an affectionate wink to classics of theater and cinema in this poignant story of love, loss and compassion.
Almodovar totally nailed it with this flick! He’s got this amazing way of blending together all these different elements of femininity and giving a nod to the classics of theater and cinema. It’s a real tear-jerker, but also super heartwarming. You’ll definitely need some tissues handy. Overall, it’s a beautiful story about love, loss, and compassion that’ll leave you feeling all the feels.
Production Company(ies)
El Deseo Renn Productions, France 2 Cinéma
Distributor
Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for sexuality including strong sexual dialogue, language and some drug content
Year of Release
2000
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:1h 39m
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Language(s):Spanish, Catalan
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Country of origin:Spain
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 24, 1999 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 3, 2009
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
All About My Mother, R, Drama, 1h 39m, 98% Tomatometer, 93 Reviews, 93% Audience Score, Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Cecilia Roth, Eloy Azorín, Marisa Paredes, Penélope Cruz, Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan, reviewed by David Ansen, David Edelstein, Jonathan Holland, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Andrew Sarris, Geoff Andrew, Bryan Petroff, Jan Stuart, Nick Levine, Nicholas Bell, Ruhaan Shah, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, written by Pedro Almodóvar, produced by Agustín Almodóvar, Drama, Spanish (Spain), $8.3M Box Office, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Surround, Scope (2.35:1), Manuela, Esteban, Huma Rojo, Sister Rosa, Nina, Agrado, femininity, love, loss, compassion, transvestite, LGBTQ+, organ donation, hookers, AIDS, transsexuals, sexuality, language, some drug content, strong sexual dialogue
Worldwide gross: $67,953,969
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $117,860,436
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 945
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 12,852,828
US/Canada gross: $8,344,738
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $14,473,245
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,507
US/Canada opening weekend: $50,362
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $87,349
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,986
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Eloy Azorín – Esteban
Marisa Paredes – Huma Rojo
Penélope Cruz – Sister Rosa
Candela Peña – Nina
Antonia San Juan – Agrado
Director(s)
Pedro Almodóvar
Writer(s)
Pedro Almodóvar
Producer(s)
Agustín Almodóvar
Film Festivals
Cannes
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
58 wins & 40 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Winners, Oscar Best International Feature Film Of The Year Winners, Oscar Winners
All Critics (93) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (91) | Rotten (2)
This is humanism in drag: Almodovar’s passionate redefinition of family values.
March 6, 2018
David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
It’s a lovely work.
August 12, 2008
David Edelstein
Slate
TOP CRITIC
An emotionally satisfying and brilliantly played take on the ups and (mostly) downs of a group of less-than-typical female friends.
August 12, 2008
Jonathan Holland
Variety
TOP CRITIC
For me it felt like a good many weeks at a politically correct summer camp.
August 12, 2008
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
All About My Mother, for all its self-deconstruction, is played with more sobriety and conviction than any of Mr. Almodvar’s previous films.
April 27, 2007
Andrew Sarris
Observer
TOP CRITIC
It displays a depth and maturity lacking in Almodvar’s earlier work.
February 9, 2006
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
Not only is this the Spanish director’s most sophisticated film to date, it’s a watershed moment in his career and one of the best movies of the year.
May 27, 2022
Bryan Petroff
Out Magazine
Almodóvar has never been shy about displays of feeling, but rarely has he employed his operatic shifts of emotion with such confidence and control.
April 5, 2022
Jan Stuart
The Advocate
Arguably the best ever film by visionary Pedro Almodóvar, this heartfelt comedy drama is a celebration of womanhood and maternity which also explores – with tender sensitivity – the trials and tribulations of LGBTQ+ life.
May 10, 2021
Nick Levine
NME
On paper, it features a plot which sounds like the soapiest of Sirk mixed with the most lurid of telenovela and yet, as a testament to the writer/director’s mastery, it’s a vividly joyful odyssey of fluctuating emotional tones.
August 10, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
…this melodramatic narrative, in the end, is a satisfying story about femininity and companionship. Arguably one of Almodóvar’s masterpieces…
April 29, 2020
Ruhaan Shah
Film Companion
For all the film’s purple prose and soap opera dramatics, Almodóvar never loses sight of his characters’ simple humanity.
February 22, 2020 | Rating: 4/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row…
Plot
Argentine Manuela Echevarria, an organ transplant coordinator at a Madrid hospital, ran off from her husband in Barcelona eighteen years ago upon learning that she was pregnant, their son, Esteban, who she has never told about his father despite his curiosity, and her husband who didn’t know about the pregnancy when she ran off. An event coinciding with Esteban, an aspiring writer, turning seventeen leads to Manuela feeling the need to return to Barcelona to look for her husband. There, she ends up further acting as the maternal figure for people in need. One is a young nun named Sister Rosa, who she meets through her old friend, a transvestite prostitute who has assumed the name Agrado in her agreeable nature. Rosa has a strained relationship with her own conservative mother, as she is consumed with caring for her ill husband, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The other is actress Huma Rojo, currently appearing as Blanche Dubois in a stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which has long been a touchstone for Manuela in productions of it coinciding with milestone moments in her life, this production no different. Huma is in a troubled codependent relationship with her younger “Stella Kowalski” costar Nina Cruz, a closet junkie, hence Huma’s emotional need for support. By the end of her stay in Barcelona, Manuela will have another non-relative for who she will feel the need to act as a mother figure.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Antonia San Juan’s performance as Agrado, a socially unacceptable transsexual, is described as “colorful” and “optimistic” by a critic review.
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