High Heels (1991)

High Heels is a total melodramatic delight. This is campy fun that's also serious. In the vein of La Ley del Deseo and Atame! especially. There are murders, there are lost pistols, there are prison lesbians, there is a drag queen performing as one of the other characters. There's an outrageous dance sequence (in the women's prison) and an incredible sex scene. This has something for everyone. What is especially important are the Joan Crawford–Lana Turner connections here. Daughters trying to live up to mothers, Mildred Pierce, Autumn Sonata, Imitation of Life, Mommie Dearest. All of these films come up numerous times in Tacones Lejanos. I was especially reminded of Where Love Has Gone with Susan Hayward and Bette Davis, a film ostensibly about Lana Turner and her daughter. And there's Douglas Sirk, who made melodramas exactly like this in the 1940s and '50s and is obviously an enormous influence on Almodóvar in general. In any case, all of this makes the film even richer.