722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

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swo17
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722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#1 Post by swo17 » Thu May 15, 2014 4:56 pm

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

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Pedro Almodóvar's colorful and controversial tribute to the pleasures and perils of Stockholm syndrome, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a rambunctious dark comedy starring Antonio Banderas as an unbalanced but alluring former mental patient and Victoria Abril as the B-movie and porn star he takes prisoner in the hopes of convincing her to marry him. A highly unconventional romance that came on the spike heels of Almodóvar's international sensation Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, this is a splashy, sexy central work in the career of one of the world's most beloved and provocative auteurs, radiantly shot by the director's great cinematographer José Luis Alcaine.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED EDITION:

• New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Pedro Almodóvar and executive producer Agustín Almodóvar, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New documentary on the making of the film including interviews with Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar; actors Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles Léon, Rossy de Palma, and Penélope Cruz; production manager Esther García; editor José Salcedo; and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine
• New interview with Almodóvar collaborator and Sony Pictures Classics copresident Michael Barker
• Conversation from 2003 between Almodóvar and Banderas
• Footage from the film's 1990 premieres in Madrid and New York
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a 1990 piece about the film by Almodóvar, a conversation between filmmaker Wes Anderson and critic Kent Jones, and an interview with Almodóvar from 1989

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Jeff
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#2 Post by Jeff » Fri May 16, 2014 9:16 pm

The sell-sheets indicate that this wasn't licensed from Palace Pictures or Miramax, but from Pathe. I wonder if they ended up controlling the Palace library.

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rohmerin
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#3 Post by rohmerin » Sat May 17, 2014 6:14 am

The 1st DVD edition made for Manga films in Spain (OOP) is just beautiful. The box, the reproduction of the press book.

Criterion cover is just horrible, but they've just added the Manga (20- 25 min) talk between Antonio and Pedro.

littleprince32
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#4 Post by littleprince32 » Fri Aug 01, 2014 9:13 am


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domino harvey
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#5 Post by domino harvey » Fri Aug 01, 2014 1:41 pm

There is some aggression through the DTS-HD Master 5.1 track at 3581 kbps - in original Spanish.
Translation please?

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EddieLarkin
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#6 Post by EddieLarkin » Fri Aug 01, 2014 2:30 pm

If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 3,581 kilobits per second... you're gonna hear some serious shit. In original Spanish.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#7 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Aug 09, 2014 5:53 pm


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rohmerin
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#8 Post by rohmerin » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:51 am

Elia Kazan dijo conocer una sola película española, Átame, de la que aseguró que tiene la mejor escena de sexo que ha visto. ¿Cuál? "Aquella en la que follan".

Probably he's right because I've always said that none fucks better than any Spaniard (on films). :-"

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rohmerin
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#9 Post by rohmerin » Tue Aug 19, 2014 6:04 am

Criterion should pick up more films from Spain. Are they racist or something? (joking).
Amantes and Golden Balls would be a good start.

For you, the foreigners, this post, a brief walk through some Spanish movies you can easily find even in amazon USA.

http://rohmerin.blogspot.com.es/2014/08 ... niard.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edit: I remember Goebbels and other 3 Reich VIPS complained about All Quiet on the Western Front, but someone said "Nobody dies like a German" Great sentence. Or was about a Nazi propaganda film?

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colinr0380
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#10 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Aug 19, 2014 3:25 pm

Along with Bigas Luna, it would be nice to see Criterion explore Julio Medem's films, especially that run of Vacas (a generational family saga taking in the Spanish Civil War as seen through a herd of cows), The Red Squirrel (amnesia noir), Sex & Lucia and Lovers of the Arctic Circle.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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swo17
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#11 Post by swo17 » Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:26 pm

This movie was exactly the same as Tootsie, only replace "man pretends to be a woman to get a girl to like him" with "man stalks, kidnaps, assaults, and keeps a woman tied up in bed to get her to like him." So where's the outcry over this release?

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domino harvey
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#12 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:30 pm

I'm still waiting on my copy to be delivered, but now I'm really looking forward to it! I have seen probably a dozen Almodovar films and liked them all to some degree, so I'm curious if this will buck or continue the trend

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Gregory
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#13 Post by Gregory » Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:39 pm

rohmerin wrote:For you, the foreigners, this post, a brief walk through some Spanish movies about people fucking that you can easily find even in amazon USA.

http://rohmerin.blogspot.com.es/2014/08 ... niard.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Fixed.

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knives
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#14 Post by knives » Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:20 pm

swo17 wrote:This movie was exactly the same as Tootsie, only replace "man pretends to be a woman to get a girl to like him" with "man stalks, kidnaps, assaults, and keeps a woman tied up in bed to get her to like him." So where's the outcry over this release?
Almodovar knows he's doing this. Pretty important distinction I would think.

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colinr0380
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#15 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Aug 24, 2014 8:38 am

DVD Savant review of Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, which inspired this commentator to write in with interesting notes on the NC-17 rating, which Glenn Erickson put on the news page of his site for 19th August. I'll quote it below for ease of reference, just in case it gets lost, and also because I can't figure out a way just to link to the comment in a way that won't lead to a dead link:
DVD Savant wrote:As I'm at the moment long gone from Savant Central headquarters, I'm restricted to one post with each new installment of the column. I also can't amend the reviews, but this note from a favorite long-time, knowledgeable correspondent is so good (and for me educational) that I've decided to post it on the front page. It's from "B", and it goes with my review of "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" from last Saturday. There's a lot here about the history of the ratings system that I didn't know:

Dear Glenn: Nice review of a funny non-PC Almodóvar movie. A brief comment, though...

You wrote, Does Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! really deserve its NC-17 rating? ...In 1990 NC-17 meant smut and explicit sex, and the weirdest thing we get here is a cute windup bath toy paddling its way between Victoria Abril's parting legs.

Some audiences of 1990 thought the film wasn't rough enough to earn its NC-17 rating, but who cares about them?


While I take your point about all of this, I guess I can't let it rest; the ratings situation involving Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! was somewhat more complicated than you suggest here.

To begin with, the Almodóvar film actually received an "X" rating from CARA when Miramax submitted it in the early spring of 1990. The ever contentious Weinstein brothers -- who a bit earlier had submitted Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, received (an inevitable) X rating, and simply decided to distribute that film unrated -- took considerable umbrage over Almodóvar's little movie being tabbed with such a restrictive rating. As I recall, Miramax immediately appealed the rating. When CARA reaffirmed the X, the Weinsteins sued the MPAA. Loudly, so the neighbors could hear. This got a lot of publicity; I don't think anyone had seriously (or as determinedly) sued over a rating in quite a while. The MPAA & CARA prevailed, to be sure, and the Weinsteins ultimately released Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! without a rating.

Though the MPAA had won the suit, the Weinsteins had publicly reopened the unwieldy can of worms regarding Art, Commerce and Adult Material in movies that had never satisfactorily been addressed or resolved in twenty-odd years. The foolish decision of the MPAA to not copyright the X rating back in 1968 -- and its consequent rampant use as a lurid signifier by producers of pornography -- really did haunt Jack Valenti to the end of his life. It was clear that this was going to come to a head sooner or later, and something would have to be done. In late summer, as Universal (of all studios) readied Phil Kaufman's arty, very adult-themed Henry and June for release, CARA rated the picture X. This was a problem. Universal actually had a corporate policy that it would not release X-rated pictures (though the studio had produced and released a few such films in the early days of the ratings code, problems with ads and distribution had resulted in the policy), and Kaufman's final cut rights only extended to delivering an R-rated movie. There was a good deal of publicity, and a great deal of conversation. After a few weeks, the MPAA and CARA eventually announced a new rating to replace the X: the NC-17. This was extremely similar to the X rating, but it was a) copyrighted by the MPAA and could not be self-imposed by filmmakers and b) ...well, all right, an "adult" rating, but not an X rating.

In other words, in 1990 anyway, the idea was, an NC-17 wasn't supposed to connote "smut and explicit sex."

Valenti, bless him, said "We are going back to the original intent of the rating system." It was supposed to be the thinking person's X rating -- the socially acceptable X, the arthouse X, an X for the people... I dunno.

Universal was satisfied, anyway, and Kaufman's Henry and June was launched in October with the brand new rating.

As we of course know, this ultimately didn't really work out very well. The mall theaters that hadn't wanted any part of X-rated films decided they didn't want any part of NC-17-rated movies either (in numerous cases, mall operators actually added this to contracts and leases); some papers still were wary of ads for any "adult" pictures at all. The NC-17 turned out to be practically the same kind of signifier as the X.

Both Tie Me Down and The Cook, The Thief (where is this film lately?) bear NC-17 ratings now. As does Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, for that matter. And Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (beware the R-rated version occasionally screened), The Dreamers (but not 1900, which surrendered its rating, and is now unrated). Tropic of Cancer. Inserts. Showgirls.

Yeah, I know -- it wasn't worth all that prose. [Glenn: I strongly disagree.] I hope your vacation is still swell -- you deserve it. Best, Always. -- B.

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movielocke
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#16 Post by movielocke » Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:31 am

This might be the first Almodovar film I've seen that disappointed me. On the other hand, I thought its notoriety came from S&M sex scenes (with an Almodovar humor of course) so I was caught completely off guard that's its really about Stockholm Syndrome. Almodovar treads a narrow line and manages to succeed like a gymnast on a balance beam with nary a waver throughout the film. It's nearly charming enough to win me over, but mostly it left me a little sad. Ultimately, I never really buy any of the female characters, even as camp exaggerations or in homage to 'dumb' horror movie victim/heroines, I just don't buy Abril switching her opinion on Banderas, not that fast, and not so blandly.

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knives
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Re: 722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

#17 Post by knives » Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:35 pm

movielocke wrote:This might be the first Almodovar film I've seen that disappointed me. On the other hand, I thought its notoriety came from S&M sex scenes (with an Almodovar humor of course) so I was caught completely off guard that's its really about Stockholm Syndrome. Almodovar treads a narrow line and manages to succeed like a gymnast on a balance beam with nary a waver throughout the film. It's nearly charming enough to win me over, but mostly it left me a little sad. Ultimately, I never really buy any of the female characters, even as camp exaggerations or in homage to 'dumb' horror movie victim/heroines, I just don't buy Abril switching her opinion on Banderas, not that fast, and not so blandly.
In rewatching it I think you need to take that weird emotional thing the film produces in light of Pasollini's Theorem which the movie is clearly parodying. Not only does the plot overlap, but the particular use of christian imagery throughout the film, for example, also seems to be having fun with its source. This is also pretty early on in his transition from shock comedy into melodrama so the film has a more clearly defined plot and character relationships, but also very silly characterization based more in comedic archetypes (Banderas likewise doesn't make much sense as a character with normal motivations and what not). Under a certain light that makes the film uneven, but for me it is his second (of what I've seen) to really fire on all cylinders as that added melodramatic push helps secure other elements of his story telling. I'd even argue it is a step up from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown due to the smaller scale. The Skin I Inhabit also seems an extension of this and shows that evolution in the starkest terms I can think of for him.

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