Dan Rowley
Professor Fallica
Intro to Film Studies
2/29/12
Bad Education The film Bad Education, like all films, is judged in two separate facets of the filmmaking process, the films structure or its formal issues and the films real world concerns or its social issues. This intricate film’s plot and timeline make for an interesting and methodically thought out effect on these issues. Bad Education’s use of both a nonlinear storyline and its timeline in Spanish culture show a calculating execution of director Pedro Almodovar’s design for the film. The narrative used in Bad Education is nonlinear and jumps back and forth between the past, present, and alternate telling of the past through the use of a film within a film. Ignacio,
With this being said, he begins to be portrayed as a man that continues to be taken advantage of in the story. The real Ignacio first blackmails him, followed by Juan seducing him into a plot to kill Ignacio, and quickly cutting ties with him forever. The viewer also finds out in the epilogue that Juan later kills him in a hit-and-run. While the character of Father Manolo and Manuel Berenguer is undoubtedly a contemptible, dreadful person, his continually being fooled and exploited in his final portrayal in the film makes him out to be more of an evil dolt or doofus than a calculated mastermind. The transitions of these characters could not be done as successfully without Almodovar’s use of the nonlinear timeline. If done chronologically we would know all the characters’ motivations as they happened instead of being continuously unsure of whether the character is acting or genuine. The film’s use of the narrative device of a film-within-a-film also works to misconstrue the characters’ true motivations. For example, when the viewer is first introduced to Zahara it is never clear that this is a different character from Ignacio/Juan. The viewer is led to believe that Zahara is an alter ego of Ignacio/Juan that he is not yet ready to show Enrique. The viewer is led to believe this up until the point that Enrique is shown filming