This is essay will attempt to examine the film All About My Mother using different interpretations and theories about gender roles in society to create a view of Almadovar’s work. I shall explore Almadovar’s work in terms of his difficulty to show female identification and how he uses social interactions as a short cut to portraying women and men as one. The film was released in 1999 at a time when homosexuality was still politically oppressed especially in relation to gay marriage. Almadovar uses his film to show a more politically accepted view towards homosexuality between both men and women in a radical way than at the time of release were accepted. As Stephen Maddison suggests Almadovar is believed and been labelled as a ‘Women’s director’ in as much as he, as well as others (typically Tennessee Williams), signify a standard for the identification of women and/or homosexuality.

All About My Mother, predominately uses scenes from Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire and it can instantly be seen that this is a benchmark for Almadovar’s concerns in relation to the character’s and their backgrounds, especially that of the film’s female protagonist, Manuela. We also repeatedly see the same scene from Streetcar which is never the less done on purpose. The scene is that of the end of the play where Stella ‘supposedly’ leaves her husband, Stanley. The director obviously wanted us to see this scene for what it was as he shows this scene in relation to women and their strength. The fact that this scene is shown repeatedly throughout the film (Manuela and her son watch it together and we see the scene and again after he dies) shows us how varied productions of the same play have changed William’s ending, most notably from the original where Stella is left sobbing on a step while Stanley kneels beside her and puts his hand across her blouse therefore regaining his control over her. In Almadovar’s film however, Stella leaves stage right just after calling Stanley a ‘bastard’. In Almadovar’s case, he is trying to show how heterosexuality seems insufferable today as it appeared in William’s play. It also denotes that women have choices in life and are not controlled by men.

As Mulvey suggests in Performance analysis with the relation of women to men “women are [simultaneously] looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.” All about my mother seems to take this assumption and turn it on its head and throughout the entire film there seems to be this allure towards creating a performance that is different from the way established performances are held.