Bad Education · reception & legacy
2004 · Pedro Almodóvar
How Bad Education has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
In 2004 it was received as Almodóvar's chilliest film — respected but held at arm's length after the rapturous Talk to Her, and Spain even passed it over as its Oscar entry in favour of The Sea Inside. Two decades on, cinephiles routinely reclaim it as one of his darkest, most daring peaks.
What's debated
The perennial fight: is this his cold secret masterpiece or the convoluted lesser entry in his 2000s run — with a side debate over casting Mexican star Gael García Bernal, Castilian lisp and all, in a triple-identity Spanish role.
Its footprint
Gael García Bernal in drag as Zahara, channelling Spanish screen idol Sara Montiel, is one of the indelible Almodóvar images — a poster, a Halloween costume, a Letterboxd avatar. The film is also a fixture in every 'movies about movies' and noir-melodrama conversation.
Where it stands
A cinephile dark-horse pick — the answer film buffs give when everyone else says Talk to Her or All About My Mother in the 'best Almodóvar' debate.
Named by the director
Influences Pedro Almodóvar has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.
- Double Indemnity (1944) — Almodóvar's declared noir touchstone — he framed Gael García Bernal's character as a classic femme fatale, and the film openly pays homage to Wilder's conspiracy plot.
- La Bête Humaine (1938) — One of the noir classics Almodóvar salutes by name, its poster featured in the film's 'film noir week' cinema scene.
- Thérèse Raquin (1953) — Marcel Carné's fatalistic melodrama, the third title Almodóvar enshrines in the film's noir triple bill.