Starting with its exclamation mark-embellished title through its ludicrous premise, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is pure Pedro Almodóvar. The Spanish provocateur broke through with 1988’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, but it was Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! that would cement his reputation as a filmmaker of singular talents, kickstarting a career that has made him one of the key figures in international cinema over the last 25 years.
Almodóvar once told an interviewer, “It’s important not to forget that films are made to entertain — that’s the key.” With its screwball romanticism, color-saturated production design and sleek cinematography, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! certainly entertains. It also caused controversy in some quarters for its steamy sex scene (though tame by today’s standards, the MPAA tried to slap an X rating on it) and feminist-baiting scenario: A troubled but seductive ex-mental patient, Ricky (Antonio Banderas), kidnaps a B-movie actress (Victoria Abril) with whom he’s infatuated, eventually winning her over through physical coercion and sheer force of will.
Viewed today, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! doesn’t so much recall the films of Almodóvar’s beloved Alfred Hitchcock as it does the early-’80s efforts of Brian DePalma — slightly gonzo melodramas also derided by some for their questionable treatment of woman. Yet, unlike most of DePalma’s entertaining but frequently vacant genre excursions, Almodóvar provides an emotional intimacy (and a necessary lightness) that grounds his often over-the-top subject matter.
The “director approved” dual-format Criterion Collection release provides a wealth of extras, including an incisive interview with Almodóvar’s longtime supporter, Sony Pictures Classics’ co-president Michael Barker, and a brief making-of documentary that addresses the controversies that coincided with the film’s North American release. Most curious of all is a 2003 conversation with Banderas in which Almodóvar reveals the true reason Abril’s character fell for her captor: Ricky’s apparently unforgettable loins.
Grade: B+
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2014.