The films in this box set are all by Spain's high priest of hip, Pedro Almodóvar. That country's most celebrated filmmaker since Luis Bunuel. All eight films in the boxset have met with critical appeal, which include Matador (1985), a fable about sex, death and bull-fighting which Almodóvar proclaimed the ‘weirdest’ film of his career, The Flower of My Secret (1995), which signaled a new maturity and emotional depth which would continue to distinguish in films such as All About My Mother. Also included here are Law of Desire (1987) - a classic tale of romantic obsession starring a young Antonio Banderas. Visually assured, the films from Law of Desire onwards established the director’s working relationship with brother Augustin, with whom he formed production company El Deseo.

Talk to Her, Bad Education, All About My Mother, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Live Flesh rank as quintessential Almodóvar, and validate his status as one of the most consistently exciting filmmakers in the world.

A few notes: 4 of the DVDs (Live Flesh, Bad Education, Talk to Her and The Flower of My Secret) appear to be duplicates of the existing Region 1 releases (extras too) with Bad Education being the NC-17 (not visually censored) cut. All About My Mother and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown are different than the previously released individual discs (see samples below) - the Viva Pedro package contains superior transfers (from remastered prints). Matador and Law of Desire are seeing their first light of day - digitally-speaking - in region 1. We have compared both to their PAL counterparts (UK).

Where possible we have compared with the Region 2 - PAL Optimum (The Almodóvar Collection - Volumes 1 + 2). The NTSC editions show favorably in comparison.

7 of the feature films have ghastly yellow subtitles in optional French or English. Live Flesh has a white font in your choice of French, English or Spanish.

I detected no irregularities in the audio. All DVDs are coded for Region 1 only in the NTSC standard.

There is a commentary on Talk to Her and Bad Education (plus other extras indicated below), a theatrical trailer for Live Flesh, and a Making Of... featurette for The Flower of My Secret.

All About My Mother, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Matador and Law of Desire are bare bones (without any supplements).

The Bonus Disc has three major features on it - all optionally subtitled - totaling almost 2 hours. Deconstructing Almodóvar has input from Richard Peña (program director - Film Society of Lincoln Center), Javier Cámara, brother/producer Augustin Almodóvar, Esther Garcia and others as they genuinely sing the man's praises interspersed with supporting clips from his films. It is 52 minutes long. Directed by Almodóvar has some of the same principles as Deconstructing Almodóvar with the addition of input from actors - like Penelope Cruz, Leonor Watling etc. - and focuses more on his direct relationship with the performers and crew. It runs almost 30 minutes long. Viva Pedro tells the story of Almodóvar's roots and runs only 25 minutes. There is a preview of Volver and some other previews. 8 postcards - representing posters of the 8 feature films, are included in the package.

The box is a 5-teiered digipak with the eight films sharing 4 compartments (overlapping spindles) and a separate one for the bonus disc. This is contained in a thick sturdy cardboard box. It is quite beautiful with collage images from the films. SEE PHOTO ABOVE.

Extraneous comments will be briefly mentioned below if I have anything further to add.

P.S. Love Almodóvar's work and my favorite film of his remains Live Flesh. If you are requiring to update your library with some of his best films - this is the definitive package to date for arguably the most exciting filmmaker working today.