I now know of at least two instances when songs appear in films by Wong Kar-Wai and Pedro Almodóvar. It seems that Almodóvar is borrowing from WKW, but I can’t say for sure. All I know is that “Cucurrucucú Paloma” showed up in both Happy Together (WKW) and Talk To Her (Almodóvar) and that WKW used Nat King Cole’s version of “Quizàs, Quizàs, Quizàs” in In The Mood For Love and Almodóvar had a drag queen mimicking Sara Montiel perform it in Almodóvar’s latest, Bad Education (Spanish title: La mala educación).

I really am not sure what is going on with this back-and-forth, and I somehow doubt that Almodóvar and WKW know each other, but I love the fact that these two “difficult” and visually stunning directors are similarly inspired by the same music.

I hate to admit that I wasn’t very impressed with Talk To Her — generally considered to be Almodóvar’s masterpiece and one of the best films of the decade (according to Time magazine). Honestly, I think the movie was too hyped up for me and I plan to revisit it in the future.

Prior to Talk To Her, Almodóvar created All About My Mother, a movie I do genuinely love. It takes a lot for a movie to make me cry, but I vaguely recall crying when main character’s son is killed within the first fifteen minutes of the movie. That says something, if you ask me.

I’m not quite sure whether I like Bad Education more than All About My Mother, but I will say (immediately after watching it) that I do like it more than Talk To Her. Like Talk To Her it has a story-within-a-story thing going on, though I think what was toyed with in Talk To Her was more fully realized and better executed in Bad Education.

Another thing I love (in case you cannot tell by the title of my blog) is the idea of doubles. Sometimes I think my desire to “double” everything makes movies seem unnecessarily complicated to me (i.e. 2046), but overall I think it makes movies much more enjoyable for me. I loved that in Bad Education there were doubles and doubles of doubles and sometimes the person you though someone was a double of was in fact the double of someone else. Although it sounds confusing, Almodóvar knows what he’s doing and the movie is shockingly easy to follow.

Seeing Bad Education inspires me to check out some of Almodóvar’s earlier films and to re-watch All About My Mother. It also makes me want to give Talk To Her another chance — maybe in a couple of months or so. I’m not yet ready to call him one of my favorite directors, but I think the possibility is there.