Bad Education

AMG Review of Bad Education

James Christopher Monger
All Music Guide

Pedro Almodóvar's noir-ish comedy-omance-Catholic school pedophilia drama Bad Education benefits greatly from the haunting and achingly beautiful score from longtime collaborator Alberto Iglesias. A somber blend of classical, choral, and Hitchcock-era Bernard Herrmann, the Spanish composer's reverent compositions both aggravate and diffuse Almodóvar's controversial images, bringing an elegance to the film's darker moments and a somber beauty to its sweeter ones -- Iglesias builds a surprisingly secular sounding piano-led collage around Rossini's Kyrie. Like his flamenco-infused score for the director's award-winning Talk to Her, Bad Education is as jarring, enlightening, romantic, and sinister as the film itself, resulting in one of the year's finest moments in film music.