MATADOR Movie Review

Pedro Almodóvar's inventive, erotically charged, non-PC black comedy stars Nacho Martinez as a retired matador who satiates his deeply rooted desire to kill by guest-starring in snuff films. He meets his match in the equally deadly Assumpta Serna, and the two are drawn together by a young bull-fighting student who confesses to a series of murders. This early work of Almodóvar's shows him at his daring and outrageous best, walking a very fine line between comedy and horror. Though it's not for the squeamish or timid, Matador is one of the director's boldest and most visually arresting achievements. Still, those who only know Almodóvar by his high-gloss Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown may be horrified by the links between violence and sexuality.

NEXT STOP … Law of Desire, Live Flesh, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz

1986 90m/C SP Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, Nacho Martinez, Eva Cobo, Carmen Maura, Julieta Serrano, Chus Lampreave, Eusebio Poncela; D: Pedro Almodovar; W: Pedro Almodovar, Jesus Ferrere; M: Bernardo Bonazzi. VHS, LV, Letterbox CCN, TPV