MovieChat Forums > Los abrazos rotos (2010) Discussion > (possible spoiler) What's on Judit's fac...

(possible spoiler) What's on Judit's face?

posted 16 years ago by ilikecinema
32 replies | jump to latest

There is a scene, just when Judit's coming back from Barcelona and meets her son, where her son stares at some scar-like marks on her face, and she tells him something like "yes... didn't have time for anything today, but I thought you were already used to it!".

Does anybody know what this has to do with the story at all? Has this something to do with the accident? Don't think so (she didn't show any injuries in the scenes that are supposed to happen just after the car accident).

Any hint on this?

Thx!

[–] loveantinoo 16 years ago

Many people i know are wondering about the same thing. I can´t find the reason. I just guess it was explained in the long version of the film, cause I heard it was 180 minutes long, and finally was cut into a 120 minutes film.
I remember when I watched the film, that i thought it was related to the same illness that her son was suffering but finally cured, something about allergy. Is this possible? That dialog was so fast... who knows

[–] sheilalorquiana 16 years ago

I'm wondering the same thing... I also thought it had something to do with the accident... but now I'm not sure...

[–] elgranizo 16 years ago

I actually thought those marks are just evidence of her getting old... I didn't pay any more attention to them anyway.

[–] Shaheen03 16 years ago

I haven't seen this movie; but based on your description of the scene it sounds like maybe she usually covers these marks with makeup but "didn't have time for anything today." Just a guess. Don't know what the marks are, though!

[–] pablocar 16 years ago

It's one of those thing that Pedro does and will keep us guessing, You'll find this things in many of his movies.

[–] medea08 16 years ago

I think it's because she has no make-up on that day. Another completely superfluous scene...like the one with Ernesto and his boyfriend!
I really did not like this film...it clearly left some questions, but strangely i don't care.

[–] scum_manifesto 16 years ago

I think she's got the HIV. Don't know why, but the marks look like that, they talk about them in a really taboo way. Previously in the movie it's mentioned that she had a one night stand with a boy who turned out to be gay.

It would made sense if Almodovar agreed to include something like that, as far as I know his work.

[–] schagris 16 years ago

I thought they were just age spots that she forgot (or didn't have time) to cover on that day.

I loved the movie! And I think that little "unexplained" scenes like this one (or the one with Ernesto and his boyfriend) make the film more real and more life-like.

[–] bloovee 15 years ago

So if they're lesions, does that mean it's a reference to "Philadelphia"?

[–] coolhandphil 15 years ago

I think she got them playing racket ball.

"Congratulations, you're going to go down in history as the man who killed Superman."

[–] pedrothefish 15 years ago

To me it seemed that they were sun damage or possibly malasma, an over production of melanin which can become more evident as people age - nothing to do with the accident or her one night stand

These scenes make help to make his films so engrossing and life like - life is not made up of the tidy wrapping up of loose ends, it is messy and chaotic - right to the very end !

[–] RobertUK 15 years ago

The thought of her having HIV never even entered my mind.

Besides, just because she had slept with a gay man doesn't mean she would have comtracted HIV....

[–] scum_manifesto 15 years ago

Of course I know, in fact I'm gay, but things like this are never gratuitous in Almodovar's movies. The years in which he grew up were the years of the explosion of HIV in the gay community, so it wouldn't be so strange if he decided to include this tiny trick in the movie.

[–] panoulis 15 years ago

As an answer to scrum_manifesto

In these days, meaning today, people do not get marks like those in the film, due to HIV. Also, if someone is gay, it does mean automatically that he or she is an HIV carrier.

[–] x-press-on 15 years ago

She has melasma... which is hyper pigmentation of the skin and a lot of women suffer from. It is a hormonal imbalance ( it happens a lot to pregnant women and women on the pill ) and in this movie it merely points out of how busy and stressed she was that she didn't have time to cover the spots with make up. People who have melasma are very sensitive ( embarrassed ) of this condition and always cover up their spots.

[–] DjMethod 14 years ago

She has age spots that she is embarrassed about and did not have time to cover up. They are evidence of her stress levels and quick aging. Throughout the film, her guilty conscience is slowly revealed to the viewer. As her internal struggle comes to light and she confesses it to Mateo Blanco, only then do you truly realize the extent of how much this has been ripping her apart inside. If you watch the deleted scene of the dark restaurant, it demonstrates this even more. The beauty of this film lies in the density of the characters and how well they are weaved into the complex story and Almodóvar's stunning vision.

[–] kat0163 15 years ago

I'm fairly sure they're lesions. HIV and AIDs come up now and again in his films as do the issues with bisexual/gay relationships.

I like that he gives all his characters a bit more depth than personality, the fact that they've got a life away from this particular story, think it makes you feel more involved in whats going on!

[–] michael-lea 15 years ago

Of course she hasn't got HIV. She has no health problems at all, the marks on her face are simply used as signs of aging.

It's not easy getting an actor to play the same character at two separate times, especially 15 years apart. Both Lluis Homar and Blanca Portillo were given new hairstyles and different skin toning to emphasise the transition. I think the film did this as successfully as possible.

[–] x-press-on 15 years ago

Michael-lea,I agree with you of course she does not have HIV. But age spots are not so big or wide, trust me she has melasma. I should know. I suffer from it as well and exactly where she has it.

[–] Natashashkd 15 years ago

I think people shouldn't try to over-analyse every single tiny ep, like it's bound to have some hidden deep meaning.

[–] jockey-1 15 years ago

Rubbish. Nobody can explain it satisfactorily. The closest anyone can come is that it is as a result of a cut hour... making it quite a serious flaw.

[–] leelamaleela 15 years ago

regardless of what they are they are "lesions". That just medical term for an "abnormality". If what you're referring to is whether or not they're Kaposi's sarcoma (the skin disease that patient's with AIDS get...it's an AIDS-defining illness) the answer is no. That's not what they usually look like. And it is quite rare for people with AIDS to manifest with KS lesions anyway. They were prevalent in the time before antiretrovirals were more effective. If someone is at the point where they have KS, they're pretty sick.

[–] j-stjackson 15 years ago

I thought that the marks/blemishes/lesions were there to show that she'd been concealing things, like the way that she'd been hiding important information from her son. In a sense, she'd almost been wearing a mask. Her story has just been revealed to her son - and us the viewer - so we are now seeing her as she really is.

[–] loveantinoo 15 years ago

I totally agree with you.

[–] maxmillion99 15 years ago

@ j-stjackson Oh, that's a brilliant interpretation! Perfect!!

Also, to those who keep talking about how she might have AIDS bc she slept with a guy who turned out to be gay, isn't that the FAKE fling she says produced her son?! To explain the father's absence to her son?

[–] loveantinoo 15 years ago

Maxmillion99, no, she really had sex with that gay guy, but I dont know why she has to point out that he was gay. She was always saying to Diego that his father was a runaway lover and she says that story was real.
I think (not 100% sure) I read a story from Almodovar. He said he had sex with a woman he was like dating or something (he is gay), and one day that woman got pregnant, and he thought he was the father, but finally he wasn't. I think this is the only reason of introducing that story on BROKEN EMBRACES. But everybody is finding that a little off the line.

[–] ahnji 15 years ago

Could it not possibly be scars from the accident? ie Judit was driving the car that killed Lena? Just a thought!

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] granadainfo 15 years ago

Just finished watching the movie. I didn't think much of the scene. She had been out location scouting in Barcelona with an American production crew for several days. I just figured they were sun spots from her trip.

[–] imightbedesperate 15 years ago

Does the actual actress have these spots when she is not wearing make up?