DVD/150: TACONES LEJANOS (High Heels) (Pedro Almodóvar, 1991)

After Almodóvar's initial success in the 1980s, the 1990s saw him move into more sombre storytelling with a more studied feel to the look and tone of his films as he explored melodrama, such as the family drama in TACONES LEJANOS.

Newsreader Rebeca is overjoyed to have her singer mother Becky back in Madrid after 15 years working in Mexico but is still resentful at being rejected for Becky's career and lovers.

Further problems arise because Rebeca married Manuel, one of Becky's previous lovers, and while seeing her friend Letal's drag tribute to her mother, Manuel tells Becky that he wants a divorce; meanwhile backstage, Letal has sex with Rebeca...

A month later, Manuel is murdered...Rebeca confesses but did she do it?

Colourless performances from Victoria Abril and Miguel Bosé are eclipsed by Marisa Paredes as glamorous Becky, a dry run for TODO SOBRE MI MADRE eight years later.

Shelf or charity shop?  It's worth keeping for Marisa Paredes, suffering in Armani, and the flashback to 1980s Pedro with a sudden dance routine in a women's prison led by the statuesque trans actress Bibi Andersen!