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The French researcher was Alexandre Parent (aka Parent-Duchatelet). Concerning the imdb.com negative consensus you describe...
... well, I think one of the things Almodovar does really well is to spend time with characters who are vulnerable to being judged harshly—whether they are powerless (Lena in 1994, the time of her father's illness) or not. I've not lived in Spain, and certainly was not living there in the 1990s, so I can't say what the balance between public and private health care was then, or now. It seems to me, though, from the current American health care debate that the idea of a family or a woman being financially ruined through a health crisis which cannot be paid for is not uncommon. All to say I don't think "a regular job" would have solved the crisis of her father's poor treatment in what I presume was a state-run hospital, or a more modest private hospital.
One reviewer I read when the film was released, I recall, took issue with a scene at Lanzarote where Lena (PCRUZ) is on the lam from her miserable and cruel older lover, Martel. She looks in a mirror and remarks how awful she looks. The reviewer, iirc, couldn't help but remark how fond Almodovar is of letting the camera linger on PCRUZ in this film and others, and that the scene was weak or implausible because of this. Well, whether or not there is an objective standard of "awfulness," there's a lot to be said about this image: first, the "awfulness" here is tiredness and mussed hair, rather than the open wounds and blood we see after she has spent time with Martel. Second, Almodovar shows her image in the mirror, defamiliarizing it, and showing us what Lena (and PCRUZ sees) rather than offering an "unreflected," direct view of her. All to say it's a more mundane "awfulness" than the kind she has been trying to escape in Madrid, and I find that touching.
I think, even here, Almodovar takes the time to put someone in front of the camera we are tempted to judge, and then he encourages us to wait, and to see someone more completely, first.
So Who Saw What Last Week? (me - nada) {nm} Jan 04, 11:20
Vantage Point- B {nm} Jan 04, 11:23
500 Days of Summer - B-, Changeling, - A, Up in the Air - B+, Squeakquel - B {nm} Jan 04, 11:28
The Lovely Bones - B, Universal Soldier: Regeneration - B-, {nm} Jan 04, 11:37
Up In the Air: A, Princess and the Frog: A-, Avatar (again): A, The Young Victoria: B- {nm} Jan 04, 11:37
Midnight (1939) A , The Palm Beach Story (1942) A , Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: Paris 1959 B + , and... Jan 04, 11:38
It's complicated. B+ {nm} Jan 04, 11:46
Nine, B+; Paul Blart - Mall Cop, C; Emipre of the Sun, B+ {nm} Jan 04, 11:50
Ocean's 13 (B)...Inglorious basterds (B)...Aliens (A) Jan 04, 11:57
UPAIR A-, Brothers B, The Road B, Sherlock Holmes D for Dreck, A Serious Man (A), Out of the Past (A), Eyes Without a Face (A) Jan 04, 12:01
! You're the only one besides myself that I've seen put a D on Holmes. I'm more of a Jeremy Brett guy, though. {nm} Jan 04, 15:34
i didn't see it cuz it looked like poopoo but in no way should Sherlock Holmes be mixed up with Steampunking... {nm} Jan 04, 19:38
Steampunk/Steampunking.. What does it actually mean? I didn't get the reference... {nm} Jan 04, 21:52
Nevermind, I googled it - that wasn't hard... {nm} Jan 04, 23:30
Avatar A+, The Road B, Tron C- (hasn't held up well over the years). {nm} Jan 04, 12:08
Charlie Wilsons War B, The ( J. Lewis ) Bellboy C+, Conf. of a Shopaholic B, Let the right one in ( 2nd viewing ) A- {nm} Jan 04, 12:47
Hurt Locker, A // Up In The Air, B+ // I Love You Beth Cooper, B // Ghost Town, B- // Invention of Lying, B+ {nm} Jan 04, 13:05
9 (not Nine) B; Forrest Gump A+; Blind Side B+ ; Invictus FAIL {nm} Jan 04, 13:41
Nine, Sherlock Holmes and Avatar all in one evening. Triple Bill !! {nm} Jan 04, 14:01
looks like a lot of people had very good movie weeks, nice :) Hopefully I will have time to catch one this week {nm} Jan 04, 15:23
I have big beefs with Broken Embraces. Jan 04, 17:13
Well, okay, good and serious answer, but Jan 04, 21:33
A couple of years ago I gave a talk on the courtesan / prostitute who was the model for the hero... Jan 04, 22:06
More excellent, informative and valuable points, but Jan 04, 22:25
The French researcher was Alexandre Parent (aka Parent-Duchatelet). Concerning the imdb.com negative consensus you describe... Jan 05, 05:48
A couple of things there (one spoiler) Jan 05, 09:41