Still thinking about Broken Embraces
Yesterday I read Cynthia Fuchs' review of Broken Embraces at PopMatters, which focuses on Penelope Cruz and the character she plays in the movie, Lena. "Her inauthenticity is the point: Lena represents cinema, illusion, some classic sort of femininity-endlessly consumable, only briefly possessed." I'd certainly agree that Lena represents a kind of artificial feminine ideal that the men around her desire and can never really possess. Lena is an almost ghostly figure in the movie. She does not exist in the the now of the story, only in flashbacks and in footage of the film-within-the-film. However, the thing that struck me about Fuchs' review, as I pondered the way the movie portrays women, is that she only mentions in passing the other major female character, Judit, played by Blanco Portillo. Yet Judit is perhaps the key figure in the movie, or at least the second pivot, along with Lena, around whom Mateo's life revolves.
In the narrative ecology of Broken Embraces, Judit's role is the unrequited best pal of the lead male. She's like Midge in Vertigo (1958), who grounds the romantically-obsessed Scottie, or perhaps even more like the Eve Arden character in My Dream Is Yours (1949), who is also a business partner with Jack Carson, who only has eyes for Doris Day. Judit is portrayed as plain-looking and slightly masculine, in contrast to the the luscious, hyper-feminine Lena. She clearly holds a long-time flame for Mateo, yet she's almost designed to be overlooked. What's interesting about Judit, once you start thinking about her, is that she's in many ways the most powerful character in the story. She runs the business side of things for Mateo, for one thing. He's completely dependent on her. We see her at work, negotiating with an American production company. She brings home the bacon. More than that, even, she has managed to form a kind of domestic partnership with Mateo despite his lack of romantic or sexual interest in her. His heart may belong to Lena, but his life belongs to Judit and her son Diego. One of the sweetest things about the movie, in fact, is the relationship between Mateo and Diego, who have formed a kind of father-son relationship over the years. Judit has become a de facto wife, albeit one who has to suffer through Mateo's affairs with other women.
I can't say much more without getting into major spoilers, but Judit is in many ways the hidden catalyst and powerbroker of the film, whom we become blinded to (like Mateo) because of Lena's (and Penelope Cruz's) sexual glamor.
In the narrative ecology of Broken Embraces, Judit's role is the unrequited best pal of the lead male. She's like Midge in Vertigo (1958), who grounds the romantically-obsessed Scottie, or perhaps even more like the Eve Arden character in My Dream Is Yours (1949), who is also a business partner with Jack Carson, who only has eyes for Doris Day. Judit is portrayed as plain-looking and slightly masculine, in contrast to the the luscious, hyper-feminine Lena. She clearly holds a long-time flame for Mateo, yet she's almost designed to be overlooked. What's interesting about Judit, once you start thinking about her, is that she's in many ways the most powerful character in the story. She runs the business side of things for Mateo, for one thing. He's completely dependent on her. We see her at work, negotiating with an American production company. She brings home the bacon. More than that, even, she has managed to form a kind of domestic partnership with Mateo despite his lack of romantic or sexual interest in her. His heart may belong to Lena, but his life belongs to Judit and her son Diego. One of the sweetest things about the movie, in fact, is the relationship between Mateo and Diego, who have formed a kind of father-son relationship over the years. Judit has become a de facto wife, albeit one who has to suffer through Mateo's affairs with other women.
I can't say much more without getting into major spoilers, but Judit is in many ways the hidden catalyst and powerbroker of the film, whom we become blinded to (like Mateo) because of Lena's (and Penelope Cruz's) sexual glamor.