Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, discover love, cinema and fear in a religious school at the start of the 60s. Father Manolo, the school principal and their literature teacher, is witness to and part of their discoveries. The three characters meet again, at the end of the 70s and in the 80s and on each occasion they learn more about the lives and deaths of those closest to them.
Pedro Almodóvar on ‘Bad Education’
I had to make Bad Education. I had to get it out of my system before it became an obsession. I had worked repeatedly on the script for over ten years and I could have gone on like that for another decade. Because of the amount of possible combinations, the story of Bad Education was only finished once the film had been shot, edited and mixed.
Bad Education is a very intimate film, but not exactly autobiographical. I mean that I’m not recounting my life at school or all that I lived and learned during the first years of the ‘movida’, although those are the two periods in which the story is set (1964 and 1980, with an interval in 1977). Of course my memories were important when it came to writing the script. After all, I lived in the settings and in the periods in which it takes place.
Bad Education is not a settling of scores with the priests who ‘bad-educated’ me or with the clergy in general. If I had needed to take revenge I wouldn’t have waited 40 years to do so. The church doesn’t interest me, not even as an adversary. Nor is the film a reflection on the ‘movida’ in Madrid at the start of the 80s, even though a large part of it is set in the Madrid of that time. What interests me about that historic moment is the explosion of freedom that Spain was experiencing, as opposed to the obscurantism and repression of the 60s. The early 80s are, therefore, the ideal setting for the protagonists, now adults, to be masters of their destinies, their bodies and their desires.
The film is not a comedy, although there is humour (Javier Cámara’s character), nor is it a children’s musical although there are children singing. It is a film noir, or at least that is how I like to think of it.
Auto-interview
In Law of Desire (1986) the transsexual played by Carmen Maura goes into the church of the school where she studied as a boy. She finds a priest playing the organ, in the choir. The priest asks her who she is. Carmen confesses to him that she had been a pupil at the school and that he (the priest) had been in love with him. Is that the origin of Bad Education ?
More or less. Long before that, I had written a short story in which a transvestite goes back to the school where he had studied in order to blackmail the priests who had harassed him when he was a boy. While filming Law of Desire I remembered that story and it gave me the idea of Carmen’s character going into the church at his school and meeting a priest who loved him when she was a boy. By then I was considering the idea of developing the short story in detail. Carmen is a foreshadow of Zahara.
There is also a film director in Law of Desire .
Yes, and like Fele Martínez’s character he mixes his personal desires with his work and in the end he pays a very high price for it. I’ve always been interested by the story of the artist who works with his own guts. It’s a fascinating adventure even if it never ends well.
In your first statements you denied that the film was autobiographical.
Paco Umbral says that everything that isn’t autobiographical is plagiarism. The film is autobiographical but in a deeper sense. I am behind those characters but I’m not telling my life story.
I believe you were the soloist in your school choir…
Yes. And I sang all the time, masses in Latin, motets, etc. I sang at all the religious ceremonies and the celebrations. And I guess I didn’t do it badly. The priests recorded some of the songs I sang and played them at the door of the church to attract the faithful. And I remember that we filled the church. I’d give anything to recover those tapes, but I don’t think they exist. What I most enjoyed in my time at school were the religious ceremonies. I’m agnostic, but I think the Catholic liturgy has a dazzling richness, it fascinates me and moves me. But it’s been a long time since I went to mass. I don’t know what it’s like now.
Are you satisfied with the result?
Yes. I hope that the spectators won’t let themselves be influenced by the fact that one of the characters is so hateful. To end up, I don’t want to forget Alberto Ferreiro, Francisco Maestre, Petra Martínez and the kids. They were all wonderful surprises. With Raúl García and Ignacio Pérez (the kids), I hit the jackpot. You never know what can happen with one child, never mind two. I have no experience with child actors. I directed Ignacio and Raúl as if they were adults, and I think the result is very moving. I’m very proud of that part of the film (the story of the two boys and their relationship with God and Father Manolo), perhaps because before I started shooting it seemed to be the most difficult and most delicate part. I’m very grateful to Joserra Cadiñanos, the casting director, who during the shooting helped me explain to Ignacio and Raúl what they were doing and why they were doing it. Joserra was my best intermediary.
The structure of Bad Education is at least as complicated as that of Talk to Her …
I think it’s even more so. As in Talk to Her in Bad Education there is a film within a film, but in this case it lasts half an hour, which is even more risky. Really, the film tells three stories, about three concentric triangles, which in the end turn out to be just one story.
The story of a director-scriptwriter who is looking for a story…
And who finds it. As Truman Capote said, quoting St Teresa, ‘there are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.’
Production notes
Bad Education La Mala Educación
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
©: El Deseo
With the support of: i2i
Presented by: El Deseo
Presented with the collaboration of: Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales, TVE Televisión Española, Canal+ España
International Sales: Grupo Focus
Executive Producer: Esther García
Produced by: Agustín Almodóvar
Executive Production Adviser: Mauricio Díaz Ginato
Production Manager: Toni Novella
Production Accountant: Oscar Valero
Location Managers: Iván Gómez, Alberto Barrera, Xavier Eiris
Post-production: Ascen Marchena
1st Assistant Director: David Martínez
Script Supervisor: Yuyi Beringola
Casting Director: Joserra Cadiñanos
Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar
Director of Photography: José Luis Alcaine
2nd Camera Operator: Joaquín Manchado
Stills Photography: Diego López
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jorge Calvo
Visual Effects: Molinare
Special Effects: F&P
Editor: José Salcedo
Art Director: Antxón Gómez
Set Decorator: Pilar Revuelta
Properties: Iñaki Rubio, Vicent Díaz
Costume Designer: Paco Delgado
With the Special Collaboration of: Jean Paul Gaultier
Make-up/Hair: Ana Lozano, Pepe Juez
Special Make-up Effects: DDT Efectos Especiales
Prosthetics/Wigs: Suzanne Stokes-Munton, Peter Owen, Caroline Turner, Jessica Williams, Selina Casado
Music/Music Composed by: Alberto Iglesias
Orchestra: The London Session Orchestra
Choir: Coro Vivaldi
Musician (Sax): Bob Sands
Musician (Piano): Javier Casado
Musician (Guitar): Javier Crespo
Musician (Percussion): Ángel Crespo
Musician (Contrabass): Victor Merlo
Musician (Trumpet): José Miguel San Bartolomé
Musician (Guitar): Tito Alcedo
Musician (Violin): Ara Malikian
Musician (Viola): Julia Malkova
Musician (Cello): Pavel Gomziakov
Musician (Violin 2): Zograb Tatevosyal
Musician (Contrabass): Tibor Toth
Musician (Violin): Alejandro Domínguez
Musician (Contrabass): Luis Augusto Da Fonseca
Orchestra Leader: Gavin Wright
Music Conducted by: Alberto Iglesias
Choir Conductor: Oscar Boada
Direct Sound: Miguel Rejas
Boom Operator: Jaime Fernández-Cid
Sound Mixing: José Antonio Bermúdez
Sound Editing: Rosa Ortíz, Manuel Laguna, Diego Garrido
Cast
Gael García Bernal (Ángel/Zahara/Juan)
Fele Martínez (Enrique Goded)
Daniel Giménez-Cacho (Padre Manolo)
Lluís Homar (Señor Berenguer)
Francisco Maestre (boarding school priest)
Francisco Boira (Ignacio Rodríguez)
Juan Fernández (Martín)
Raúl García Forneiro (Enrique as a boy)
Ignacio Pérez (Ignacio as a boy)
Javier Cámara (Paca/Paquito)
Alberto Ferreiro (Enrique)
Petra Martínez (Ignacio’s mother)
Sandra
Roberto Hoyas (waiter)
Spain 2004
106 mins
Digital
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
Questions/comments? Contact the Programme Notes team by email