Pedro Almodóvar’s I’m So Excited To Open LA Film Festival

In Los Angeles, the time is nearing to break out that famed Pointer Sisters record and maybe a Spanish dictionary because according to Film Independent in celebration of its 19th year, the LA Film Festival will kick off with the North American Premier of Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited as the opening night film.

The Spanish director” is the cinematic gift who keeps on giving,” David Ansen, the festival’s artistic director said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  “For four decades he’s amazed us with movies that are funny and dangerous, lovable and challenging, subversive and wildly inventive.  It’s a privilege and pleasure to present his latest comic treasure as our opening night film.”

The official synopsis is this: A very varied group of people are in a precarious situation aboard a plane flying to Mexico City. A technical failure (a kind of justifiable negligence, even though it sounds contradictory, but that is what human actions are) has endangered the lives of the passengers on Peninsula Flight 2549. The pilots, hardened, experienced professionals are striving, along with their colleagues in the Control Center, to find a solution. The flight attendants and the chief steward are atypical, baroque characters who, in the face of danger, try to forget their own personal problems and devote themselves body and soul to the task of making the flight as enjoyable as possible for the passengers, while they wait for a solution. Life in the clouds is as complicated as it is at ground level, and for the same reasons, which could be summarized in two: sex and death.

The travelers in Business Class consist of a pair of newlyweds, partygoers, worn out by their wedding celebration; a financier and embezzler; unscrupulous in business but also a father afflicted by his daughter’s estrangement; an inveterate Don Juan with an uneasy conscience who is trying to say goodbye to one of his women (girlfriends); a rural psychic; a queen of the gossip magazines and a Mexican with an important secret. Each of them has a project in Mexico City, either to work or to escape. They all have some kind of secret, not just the Mexicans.

Their defenselessness in the face of danger provokes a general catharsis among the passengers and the crew, and this ends up becoming the best way to escape from the idea of death. This catharsis, developed in the tone of a riotous, moral comedy, fills the time with sensational confessions that help them forget the anguish of the moment.

The cast includes Paz Vega, Lola Duenas, Javier Camara, Raul Arevalo, and Carlos Areces with cameos by Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas.

The last piece of news we heard about the film was that it did amazingly well in Almodovar’s home country of Spain where it achieved the director’s best opening weekend earning €1.9 million ($2.6 million) and even came close to Oz The Great and Powerful, which earned $1.98 million.

I’m So Excited will premiere at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles this June 13, and Sony Classics will release it to the rest of the United States on June 28, a WHOLE 16 DAYS AFTER its LA debut. While I try to get over my jealousy I have to tell you I can’t hide my eagerness to go watch this film. For the younger Almodovar fans, like me: 23 years old, I don’t think he represents humor since most of the movies he has directed in the last 14 years have been mostly dramas. With his new project, we have a chance to meet a side of him no one has seen since “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and “Volver” film that made Penélope Cruz an Oscar nominee.

So now that you are pumped and have cleared June 28 on your calendar, be on the lookout as we keep you informed on where you will be able to catch this historic event.

How many Almodóvar films have you seen? Which is your favorite one? Leave your comments below. Thanks!