and his 1989 hit, Time Me Up, Time Me Down.
While it sounds like a movie about a masochist who can't make up his mind,
it is in fact the story of Marina, played by the gorgeous Victoria Abril,
an actress in Spanish horror films who is kidnapped by an ex-one-night stand, Ricky,
played by Melanie Griffith's new beau, Antonio Banderas,
who has recently been released from a psychiatric centre.
The character that is, not Banderas.
It is the next section of the film that created controversy when it was initially released.
Ricky keeps Marina tied up in her flat, claiming that eventually she will grow to love him.
This theme of victim falling for her kidnapper outraged a few of the more straight-laced critics,
and in America there was talk of the film being banned, or at least heavily censored.
Almodovar himself refuses to comment on the actions of his characters,
so if you're looking for moralistic endings, you'll have to wait for repeats of the Brady Bunch.
Certainly there are some scenes, especially earlier on, that might make you wince,
but they're not to be taken out of context.
Just remember, this is a very black comedy, and also a very bloody good one.
Here it is. Tie me up, tie me down.
SPS advises that the following program has been classified MA.
It contains strong sex scenes, nudity, and coarse language.
Whether you're still in shock or storming around the lounge in moral outrage,
you've got to admit it's a powerful and funny film.
Some critics claimed it was a grim examination of the power games implicit in marriage.
Others said that it just implied that relationships are all about a form of paranoid dependency.
But ultimately, by the film's end, I thought it was quite a tender love story.
But then maybe I'm just as twisted as Almodovar is.
Next week on The Cult Movie, we have a film from an actor-director
who is currently Flavour of the Month, Jackie Chan,
and the movie that nearly killed him, one of his best, Armour of God.
I'll see you then.
There's only one leader in mobile design and technology.
Nokia.
Look to the way forward.
Look to the way other businesses have used Australia's cultural and linguistic diversity
to get ahead and learn from business, government, academic, and community leaders.
The Way Forward Conference at Canberra's National Convention Centre on the 25th and 26th of July.
Phone 06 282 5755 for more information or fax 06 282 5734.
This week on the Book Show, a trip through food and memory with Marianne Halligan.
Writing after apartheid in South Africa with Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordama.
And the debut novel of Indian author Vikram Chandra.
That's the Book Show, Sunday at 5.30 or after the movie on Friday night.
I would like to listen to my dear partner,
Mr Longlois, who has done so much for films in the world.
I think he would die for the films he's collected and they are the largest film collection in the world.
Who is this man?
The man who saved half a century of cinema, Citizen Longlois on Masterpiece, 8.30 Monday.
Wednesday, a searing drama from the Philippines about a young wife's nightmare
and a husband's blind rage.
Hell has no fury like a husband scorned and where is a wife to go?
Love My Wife, 9.30 Wednesday.
I wanted the night.
You are not the only one.
Discover the woman behind the legend.
He said you have an illness.
A film by Stephen Frears.
Kellogg's Corn Flakes, kernels of sun-ripened corn toasted into crunchy golden flakes drenched in ice cold milk.
Excuse me, can we borrow some Kellogg's Corn Flakes, please?
Get set and scratch.
Beat the Olympic record and win.
There are great prizes.
It's a race off board Mondayo, so race out for Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
Oh, God, I haven't got anything to wear.
What am I going to wear?
I have to buy something new.
I have to buy something new.
I have to buy something new.
I have to buy something new.
Look at them.
They are a lot.
Don't complain.
At least you have everything at your disposal.
And no one is sending you.
Although sometimes you have to feel alone, don't you?
I live as a woman.
Look at that pretty little girl.
Margarita, Margarita, what a beautiful girl.
A woman needs...
I live very comfortably in this house alone with my mother.
I don't need her.
I don't need her.