Live Flesh by Pedro Almodovar: Scene Analysis

Pedro Almodovar’s 1997 film Live Flesh (Carne Tremula), is rich in both visual and story elements, making in the perfect candidate for a scene analysis. Upon writing this paper, however, this was almost to my disadvantage. I watched it through and whittled it down to about five scenes I considered analyzing. This self-challenge is a testament to not only this film, but Almodovar’s whole body of work; he has created so many thoughtful, intricate, and all together entertaining films in his career, I had to somehow forgive myself for just choosing one short scene out of only one of his movies for analysis. So, without further ado, here is an analysis of a scene from Live Flesh.

The scene I chose to analyze is the one in which David (Javier Bardem) returns home from a basketball game, only to find out his wife, Elena (Francesca Neri) has slept with another man. It occurs at roughly an hour and 17 minutes into the film, and is relatively short, but extremely powerful.

The opening shot to the scene of Elena returning home from her tryst early in the morning. She enters the shower and begins to smell her naked body, seemingly bringing back memories from the previous night. Every time she inhales, she lets out an orgasmic sigh, which makes it clear to the audience exactly what she is recalling. With each sigh it seems that she not only had an amazing sexual experience, but that she also doesn’t regret it at all. This is until her last deep breathe. After this, she pauses for a beat, and in this moment, a look of full realization about the events of the past night washes over her face. This moment is fleeting, however, because right when she turns the shower on, she closes her eyes, as if she is recalling not only the scents of the night before, but even the sights and sounds.

As soon as she stops moving and cracks a smile, the shot quickly changes to David’s cab pulling up. The cab symbolizes David’s dependence, in that all he can do is sit in the back and tell the driver where to go, showing that his disability has forced him to become dependent on so many different people. The fact that David’s cab was shown right as Elena began to smile shows that David’s dependence is preventing Elena from truly being happy, which I’m sure is a struggle in any relationship involving a handicapped person.

As David emerges from the cab, we are treated to an extended shot of him assembling his wheelchair, an image we have not seen up to this point in the movie. In earlier shots, David’s wheelchair appears to just be an extension of him, the way he wheels around so effortlessly on the basketball court, and even in the scene where wheels over a filthy sidewalk lined with obstacles. It is only now that we get a chance to see David take the time to assemble this extension of him, proving to us that it is truly not an extension of him; it is holding him back just like it is for Elena

As he enters the house, it becomes even clearer that his daily life is far more difficult than previously shown in the movie. He wheels in with a strange look on his face, almost as if he knows exactly what happened the night before. He does not look happy to be home, and when it is finally revealed that it is Elena on their loft bed, an immense sense of separation sets in. Previously, it had not been shown that David must use a mechanical contraption to do something as simple as get to his bed. That we are shown this at this point in the movie only goes to show that once Elena slept with not only another man, but an able-bodied one, that she and David are no further apart than ever. A task such as going to sleep takes her a simple three-second walk up the staircase, but it is here a prolonged ordeal for David.

As we see Elena lying in bed, her hair is wet. It is clear she has just gotten out of the shower, but it also appears as though she is having sex right then and there. The water in her hair from the shower makes her head look drenched in sweat and her facial expressions here match the ones she was making in the shower, only here it is unclear why. She looks to be a combination of ashamed, orgasmic, and frightened. When this visual cue recalls her having sex the night before, we begin hearing a strange mechanical sound. Because this is the first time David is seen using his chair contraption to amble up the stairs, it creates confusion. As soon as Elena hears the sound, she closes her eyes, and it becomes extremely obvious what that sound represents to her: her husband’s arrival.

As the sound of the chair contraption links the pictures, there is then a shot of Elena’s legs open on the bed. After 3 seconds, David’s head comes into the frame from the staircase as he ascends, and we experience one of the longest shots of the movie (20 seconds). In this, the camera slowly zooms in on David’s face as he ascends