Matador — Matador( Blu Ray & UHD)
Matador is a darkly comic erotic thriller from director Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down and Volver). Released in 1986 the film stars Almodovar favourite Antonio Banderas (The Mask of Zorro, Desperado and Interview with the Vampire), Assumpta Serna (The Craft, Wild Orchid and The Shooter), Nacho Martinez ( famous for his voice actor work on the Spanish dubs of 1984, Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein), Eva Cobo (Armour of God II, The Legend of Wisely and Pasos) and Julieta Serrano (Women on the verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down and Dark Habits)
The opening scene of Matador shows images of a man ( who we go on to discover is a former bullfighter, Diego Montez played by Nacho Martinez) masturbating to scenes of extreme gore from horror movies. Montez has retired due to being gored by a bull and is now teaching others, including Angel Gimenez (Banderas), a young man who suffers from vertigo. Angel starts to have visions when he suffers episodes of vertigo, including one where he sees a woman killing a man she is having sex with, with a silver hairpin. Angel is young and inexperienced with women, and when Montez asks him if he is homosexual, he attempts to rape Montez’s girlfriend, Eva (Cobo), in an alley in an attempt to assert his manliness, however he is unable to go through with it, and when Eva’s face is scratched in the resulting kerfuffle, he passes out at the sight of the blood.
Angel goes to the police to report himself for the attempted rape, but Eva refuses to prosecute, saying he suffered a premature ejaculation before he could even enter her. While at the police station, Angel notices some pictures of murder victims who were killed in the same way as in his dream. He confesses to murdering the women, before the detective asks him about two missing women, both of whom are students of Montez. Angel is able to take the detective to the place where the bodies are buried, on Montez’s property. The detective suspects that Angel is protecting Montez because he could not possibly have committed the murders himself, since he faints at the sight of blood and couldn’t have buried the bodies without being seen.
Angel’s lawyer, Maria (Serna) suspects that Montez killed the two girls, and after leading him to a secluded warehouse, she attempts to kill him with her hairpin but fails. She is the woman from Angel’s vision! Montez notices her murderous instinct, and the pair enter into a deadly conspiracy.
Matador is one of my favourite Almodovar movies, it’s beautifully shot by Angel Luis Fernandez (Youth, Benvenido A Farewell – Gutmann and Law of Desire) with a relatively complex plot with many different threads. It’s a darkly sexy thriller adapted from a story by Almodovar with a script by Almodovar and Jesus Ferrero that works perfectly to create this erotically charged masterpiece. The film combines all the usual tropes that Almodovar loves, erotica, horror, comedy, spirituality and religion are all there to some extent.
The new limited-edition UHD/ Blu-ray from Radiance Films features a new 4 K restoration of the movie, approved by Almodovar himself, as well as an interview with Almodovar expert Jose Arroyo, an episode of ‘Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only’ about Almodovar and his films, and new English subtitles.
Overall, this is a very good release of a classic movie from one of the most interesting and sometimes controversial directors of the modern era. It’s a dark, violent and twisting erotic thriller that never disappoints.