9. Party Song In Pedro Almodovar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
A charming love story about a man who tries to make a porn star/actress love him by tying her up in her apartment until she gives in to him due to a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is quintessentially Almodovarian. Obsession, desire, and big bold colors light up a film that gets you to root for a mentally deranged kidnapper (but who wouldn't fall in love with Antonio Banderas?). The film starts out as being a movie about a movie, the porn star is making her way into legitimate filmmaking with a famous director trying his hand at a B-movie (Almodovar self-reflexively commenting on the extreme nature of his melodramas, of course). Performance becomes a central idea in the film: Banderas's kidnapper wants her to act like they are a couple already so that they can live the rest of their lives together. But to what extent is the tied up actress acting to please her captor? Is he in love (i.e. obsessed) with her or his image of a pornographic goddess? The musical sequence is from a party scene immediately after the actress has been kidnapped, her sister seductively sings at the wrap party for the B-movie shoot. The full scene isn't available on Youtube, but a portion of it can be seen in the trailer starting at the 38 second mark. The audience is given the perspective of the director of the film, who harbors his own obsession with the actress, as he watches the actress's sister hike up her dress as she dances along to the song she is singing. She is performing for no one in particular, but her presentation is the point: she is on display for your viewing pleasure. She looks directly into the camera, at the interested spectator looking for something to latch on to.