Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781404931916
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1404931910
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: April 12, 2005
Running Time: 103 minutes
Sales Rank: 22906
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: March 08, 1996
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Pedro Alomod贸var made this misfired, rambling comedy about a romance novelist (Marisa Paredes) whose crumbling marriage has left her depressed and unable to work. At a low point, she writes a scathing indictment of her own books (which are penned under another name), with no one realizing critic and author are one and the same. Almod贸var (Law of Desire) has the start of a great idea here, and for once, he's direct about his sympathy for a character. But nothing else about The Flower of My Secret is so clear. Despite its unusual allegiance to the straightforward 'women's films' of the 1950s, this movie blows it by becoming needlessly complicated over extraneous junk, forcing one to grope in the dark for Almod贸var's point. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Charming two hours in Spain
The Flower of My Secret is a charming surprise about a middle-aged, Spanish romance writer who is devastated when her husband leaves her. The plot is actually fairly predictable. What makes this movie so enjoyable is the main character, Leocadia, who is beautiful, talented, and flawed. In fact, it is her flaws (her penchant for melodrama and booze, to name two of them) that endear her to the viewer. This movie is the perfect way to spend a rainy weekend afternoon. Highly recommended.
Rating: - Abandonment and recovery
"Flower of My Secret" is a more reflective, less manic film than viewers of Almodovar have come to expect, and I for one am glad. One of his favorite themes, the fluid elusiveness or complexity of personal identity, comes through here loud and clear. There's a lot going on in the film--way too much, as a matter of fact--but Almodovar followers have come to expect this, too. But this film is easier to navigate than many of his movies (such as the dreadful "Kiko"), and it has its genuinely sweet moments.
The film focuses on Leo (wonderfully played by Marisa Paredes), a romance novel queen whose life is falling apart. She's too dependent on Paco (Imanol Arias), a husband who's lost interest in her and too fixated on her own grief. She's not an utterly self-centered woman; she takes good financial care of her sister (played by the ever-good Rossy de Palma) and mother. But she's too clingy, and her inability to hang onto Paco is leading her to despair, drink, and a botched suicide attempt.
Enter Angel (Juan Echanove), editor of a newspaper who falls in love with her and in the utterly selfless way that we expect of angels helps her to recover from her sense of abandonment and recognize that life must be taken as it comes.
This exploration of romantic abandonment would've been quite enough for one film. But Almodovar's fertile imagination just can't hold back from cramming lots more into the movie. So there's the theme of authorial integrity and identity that ... Read More
Rating:  - Not Almod贸var's best, but it presaged his great stretch
I'm a big Almod贸var fan and of Marisa Paredes, too. But to get right to the point: Skip this one. Chronologically, 'Flower' came right after the dreadful Kika (the Almodovar Collection) [Region 2 Import, English Subtitles] and while it's a step up from there, it's a far cry from the incredible string of four films starting with 1999's All About My Mother.
Wikipedia says that 'Flower' "remains one of the director's humblest films." That's a euphemistic way of saying "this is dreadfully boring stuff." Four years later, Almod贸var turned on the jets with All About My Mother, followed in succession by masterpieces Talk to Her (Hable con Ella), Bad Education (R-Rated Edition) and Volver. He can put that quartet up against any director in history.
Rating:  - Pain and life . . .
The wonderful achievement of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almod贸var is his ability to take the material of melodrama and soap opera and with the lightest touch turn it into life affirming entertainment. This 1996 film set in Madrid has another of his women on the verge of a nervous breakdown - several, in fact - and follows her through a series of life crises to a happily bittersweet ending. Marisa Paredes plays the woman, a hugely successful romance writer, who has a tempestuous marriage to an army officer that's headed for divorce, a mother and sister who never stop berating each other, and a best friend who as a grief counselor could give them all lessons on how to give and take bad news but has some bad news of her own she's not revealing.
Add a faithful housekeeper and her son, trying to persuade her to return to a career as a heart-stopping flamenco dancer, plus a soft-hearted newspaper editor ready to come to the rescue, and you have most of the elements of a closely interwoven story that doesn't stop moving until the last breakable object has been thrown and the last tear dabbed away with a tissue. The music track ranges from tango motifs to Miles Davis; there are references right and left to other movies and literature; and the sets and costumes are all bright colors with an emphasis on red. No Almod贸var fan will be disappointed. The DVD includes a short making-of featurette, with interviews of the director and cast.
Rating:  - Disappointing Almodovar
Pedro Almodovar has been getting better and better with age. He's made remarkable and unforgettable films--All about my Mother, Talk to Her, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!--and his latest movie, Volver, was a masterpiece.
But even geniuses fail sometimes, and The Flower of my Secret is, in my opinion, a blemish on the outstanding career of the Spanish filmmaker. It's not so much a terrible film as a dull and mundane one--and coming from Almodovar, there might not be a greatest sin than that.
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