High Heels (1991 film)

High Heels
Theatrical release poster
SpanishTacones lejanos
Directed byPedro Almodóvar
Written byPedro Almodóvar
Produced byAgustín Almodóvar
Starring
CinematographyAlfredo Mayo
Edited byJosé Salcedo
Music byRyuichi Sakamoto
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 19 October 1991 (1991-10-19) (Spain)
  • 15 January 1992 (1992-01-15) (France)
Running time
112 minutes
Countries
  • Spain
  • France
LanguageSpanish
Box office$16 million (Spain/France/US)

High Heels (Spanish: Tacones lejanos) is a 1991 melodrama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes and Miguel Bosé. The plot follows the fractured relationship between a self-involved mother, a famous torch singer, and her grown daughter she had abandoned as a child. The daughter, who works as a television newscaster, has married her mother's ex-lover and has befriended a female impersonator. A murder further complicates this web of relationships.

The film has the feel of other mother–daughter melodramas like Stella Dallas (1937), Mildred Pierce (1945), Imitation of Life (1959) and particularly Autumn Sonata (1978), which is quoted directly in the film.

Despite mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success. It was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[1]

  1. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences