Additionally, both films consist of religious theme, Catholicism in particular. In Bad Education, young Ignacio was in a Catholic school and an altar boy. Many important events in the film take place inside the church, such as the confrontation, the rape and the service. In Law of Desire, Tina and Ada who is living with Tina, visit the church and build a Virgin Mary shrine in their living room praying and making wishes. Confidentially or not, what they wish for always become true.
Both films focus on the emotions instead of the nature of the stories they tell. Although Almodovar’s films deal with domestic violence and homosexual content, these films do not make any statement about the Catholic Church or homosexuality. The films do not suggest…show more content… There are many distinctions, and even some of their similarities vary from each other. Although both actors in films display homophobia, the natures of their homophobia are quite different. In Antonio’s case, his homophobia comes from his conservative family background, and he soon learn to accept his own feeling after being in a relationship with Pablo. Antonio stopped being homophobic after his first sexual encounter with Pablo. There is no doubt that he loves Pablo, maybe to the point of madness. On the other hand, Juan grew up with a transsexual sibling, and he had a sexual relationship with Father Manolo before he met Enrique. Nevertheless, it seems like his phobia of homosexual relationship is even greater. The relationship between Juan and Enrique is sexual, but it is not love involved. The film just cut to Enrique and Juan’s sex scene. The sex has no kissing or conversation. The lack of communication at this kind of moment of intimacy could mean that their relationship is only physical, and Juan has never get over his…show more content… Even though Almodovar is known as the director of melodrama which mainly consist women’s struggle under patriarchy, Bad Education is a very masculine film with the exception of female impersonators. There is almost no female cast in this film. Zahara and Ignacio are played by actors who are biologically born as men. However, in Law of Desire, the trans-woman who is Pablo’s sister Tina, is played by a woman. On the other hand, Ada’s mother is played by a famous Spanish trans-woman Bibiana Fernandez. This yields some suggestive thoughts on impersonation, gender, nature and reality that perhaps, reality is a form of impersonation. As Judith Butler pus it, “ drag is not... An act of expropriation or appropriation that assumes that gender is the rightful property of sex” (Butler, 312). Transvestites serve as metaphors in Almodovar’s films. The reoccurring theme in the films that reality is not real, and nothing is natural. “There is no ‘proper gender’ (Butler, 312). People are not what they appear to be. Identities are constantly reinvented with deception, imagination and surgery. Transsexuals change their own nature and challenge the nature of everyone else around