1.
Tina Huang

2. Outline Introduction - brief introduction of Talk to Her - characters
Pina Bausch’s dance
- Café Muller
- Mazurca Fogo
Mouth
Marco & Lydia
Benigno & Alicia
Marco & Benigno

3. Plot summary
Talk to Her (Hable con ella) (2002) is directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
It is a story about two men, Marco and Benigno and two women, Lydia and Alicia who are both in deep coma.
issues: love, desire, obsession, loneliness, sadness and lack of communication

4. characters
Marco
- an Argentinean, sentimental and mysterious, will be touched by little things and cry
- a wandering journalist and also a travel guide writer
- falls in love with Lydia,
but actually still loves
his ex-girlfriend,
Angela
Benigno
- means harmless or benign in Spanish → ironic
- a personal nurse of Alicia
- in order to take care of his mother, he studies beauty care and hairdressing, but his mother still passed away after twenty
years

5. characters Alicia Lydia
- a beautiful dance student who lies in a coma and is taking care by Benigno whom obsessed with her
Lydia
- a bullfighter and Marco’s girlfriend
- in deep coma after an accident during a bullfight

6. Pina Bausch’s dance - Café Muller
The opening scene → the clue and theme of Talk to Her
“In the opening scene, you see these women who are walking around blind and sleepwalking. From that moment on, I am telling the audience that there are going to be two women with closed eyes who will be facing this world full of obstacles. We don't know what these obstacles are but they have to face them. There are two men watching this spectacle. They are sitting next to each other but they do not know each other. One of them cries and the other one is curious about why the other is crying.”
(guardian.co.uk)

7. Pina Bausch’s dance - Mazurca Fogo
The ending scene → a clue that Marco and Alicia will become a couple
Begin with the sadness and long sigh → Benigno ends up his life by committing suicide
several couples are dancing in the country then leave only a men and a woman on stage in kind of happy atmosphere → represents Marco and Alicia are going to become a couple

8. mouth Functions: - eat and drink →for surviving
- kiss → love and desire
- communication → express the emotions inside and also response to the outside world
an organ of desire, both physical and mental
Kiss scene between Marco and Lydia →
the scene Marco wipes spit form his lips

9. Marco & Lydia ‧Marco’s love → only one way, like monologue
Both of them are loneliness and they are lack of communication
They both love their ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend
Marco can't stop expressing himself → cannot listen to what Lydia want to tell him
Lydia → like her father's son
Caetano Veloso's song → a metaphor for what Marco is going through.
‧Marco’s love → only one
way, like monologue

10. Benigno & Alicia Alicia cannot express herself at all.
Benigno →almost like his mother's daughter, not a son
Alicia is the meaning of Benigno’s life →he project his mother on Alicia
Amante Menguante (Shrinking Lover) → a metaphor for what goes on in the clinic, Benigno’s desire toward Alicia and the ending as a symbol of Benigno’s death

11. Marco & Benigno
The scene Marco talks with Benigno in the prison → special feelings between them
“There was almost this sense of two bodies becoming one. At that moment, there is nobody in the world that loves Benigno as much as Marco does. This is almost a moment of romantic love.” (guardian.co.uk)
Benigno leaves his house for Marco which he prepares for himself and Alicia → Marco lives in Benigno’s house and watch the dance classroom that Benigno used to do
Marco and Alicia will become a couple

12. Works Cited & References
Almodóvar, Pedro. Talk to Her
Hable con ella en Pedro Almodovar, pagina oficial 27 April 2011
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Guardian/NFT interview: Pedro Almodovar. guardian.co.uk 27 April 2011
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