BAD EDUCATION on DVD
April 3rd, 2005 by Andre Soares
La Mala educación / Bad Education, the story of two young boys in love who are separated by a jealous priest, is one of Pedro Almodóvar’s best and most complex films. It is also quite possibly his most daring film — and that’s saying a lot, considering that Almodóvar is the man responsible for Hable con ella / Talk to Her (1992), with its sympathetic rapist, and La Ley del deseo / Law of Desire (1987), with its amorous-murderous gay psychopath.
As a neo-film noir, La Mala educación twists all the conventions of the genre — for instance, the femme fatale is actually an homme fatal with a cross-dressing fixation — to deliver an intelligent, touching, and quite disturbing film. The cast, headed by Gael García Bernal, is uniformly excellent.
La Mala educación was slapped with a NC-17 rating in the United States, for its "explicit sexual content." The members of the MPAA’s rating board apparently have truly perverted imaginations, for there’s no explicit sex in La Mala educación. Still, the gay sex scenes are quite bold — though without being erotic — and are an intrinsic part of the story.
Among its many international awards and nominations, La Mala educación was voted best foreign-language film by the New York Film Critics Circle.
La Mala educación / Bad Education Region 1 DVD (U.S. / Canada / U.S. territories) release date: April 12, 2005
Features:
- Choice of either the unedited NC-17 version or a censored R-rated version (probably minus the gay sex scenes)
- Picture: Anamorphic widescreen
- Audio: Spanish (Dolby)
- Subtitles: English
- Closed captioning
- Audio commentary by director Pedro Almodóvar (in Spanish with English subtitles)
List price: US$26.96.
A Columbia / Tristar Home Entertainment release.
Region 2 DVD Region 2 DVD (Europe, Japan, South Africa, and the Middle East including Egypt) released in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2004.
Features:
- Picture: Pal - 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen
- Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Language: Spanish
- Subtitles: English
- Teaser trailer
- Theatrical trailer
- Television spots
- Making-of montage
- Photo gallery
- Press book
- Featurette on the film’s costume design
- Deleted scenes
Suggested retail price: £19.99.
A Pathe release.
The Joan Crawford Collection DVD Set
The Bette Davis Collection DVD Set
The Greta Garbo Signature Collection DVD Set
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LES CHORISTES / THE CHORUS on DVD
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