Film: All About My Mother

This is one of my very favorite films. What more can I say?

The first 15min or so are the cinematic equivalent of a perfect short story: when has the special love between a mother and son been shown with such palpable force and gentleness? What follows is wonderful too. The loving depiction of the various types of 'woman' in the picture is one of the film's greatest treasures, reaching its height in the scene of the four central characters sitting talking on Manuela's sofa. My only problem is the depiction of Lola, which I find unconvincing, the only stain on a film that grows in my appreciation the more I see it.