The Doors in ​Bad Education

 
 
 
 
 
 
Student: Yasnaya Guibert Masso
Course: Narrative Theory
Instructor: Marina Ludwigs
Stockholm University - Autumn 2018

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Due January 11th

The written assignment is a structured essay of 2.500-3000 words. In this essay,

you are supposed to discuss how a literary text or film of your choice confirms,
offers possibilities, or raises problems for a certain type of narrative analysis or
narrative problematic studied in the course. Does the text invite or complicate
the use of particular narratological concepts? Does the theoretical framework
under consideration help uncover interesting patterns or meanings within your
text? You are allowed a great deal of freedom in how you interpret this
assignment. Be selective and look both for challenges and confirmations that the
text presents for narrative theory. You are welcome to consult with me about
your ideas and selections.

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 The Doors in​ Bad Education

“Why do we not feel that in each door a small god of threshold is incarnated? Maybe it is
the same being who opens and closes the door? There are two 'beings' at the door, the
door invokes in us two directions of dreaming. It is symbolic twice”.

Gaston Bachelard. ​The Poetics of Space​ (1964).

The question of the doors in ​Bad Education (Pedro Almodovar, 2004) is broader than what
we see in the first place. At first sight seems that the doors assume traditional functions. The
door as an architectural element that shows the identity of the building. The door as a device
to accept or refuse access to visitors. The door as a connector between two different areas
simultaneously. The door as a boundary and as protection. Nevertheless, besides these basics
functions, Almodovar employs the doors to give us information in a subtle way. Doors
become powerful metaphors with a particular meaning that will be uncovered in the
following pages.

The main narratological concepts related to the doors revised in this text are ​chronotype (the
door chronotope) based on Bakhtin theories and the ​indirect presentation (characterization)
describe by Rimmon-Kenan, both authors were studied during the seminars. Besides, have
been included a reflection about the doors as cinematic devices to communicate and convey
meaning.

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The chronotope of the door

Events ​take place (​ Bal, 1997, p. 138) at the doors. They become suitable frames of a ​topos
(Bal, 1997, p. 141) of the negotiation between characters. Juan/Angel's entry to the film
production company El Azar begins with a confrontation with Martin (Juan Fernández), who
denies him access to the production office of Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez).

—Hello, I'm an actor and I'm looking for Enrique Goded.

—Enrique is not here.
—But I'm seeing it, dude.
—Ah, yes; but, anyway, we do not have any project at the moment, so...
—I would like to talk to him. We are old school friends. My name is Ignacio
Rodríguez.
—Ok, come in. But I don't think he can receive you because he's very busy. ​Wait a
minute.

Martin lies to Angel about the presence of Enrique in the offices. Angel has to insist to
Martin and to claim that he is an old friend from his childhood, but the truth is that he has
usurped his brother identity and has stolen his screenplay ​La Visita​. These immoral acts are
the core intrigue of the film. After this first conversation at the door, —just 3 minutes after
the introduction of the film—, we will find other events that occur in different doors
throughout the narration.

Almodovar transforms the doors into a metaphor of the disagreement between characters with
different interests, sometimes opposed. For example when Paca and Zahara argue hilariously
at the doors of the motel room. At the same time, both friends concrete the plans to steal
Enrique's motorcycle, and Paca implores to Zahara a felatio to the young fiction character
Enrique Serrano (Alberto Ferreiro) “that not even slept his penis goes down.”

The doors are spaces for sharing wishes and information between the visitor and the guest.
Let's take for instance when Father Manolo (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is informed at the door
of his office by Father Jose (Paco Maestre) that all valuable objects of the church have been
stolen after the mass. At this same door, Zahara is beaten and tied by Father Jose in order to
avoid her escape from the office.

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Doors are also a device to bring the ghost from the past to the present. We can see it when
Angel gives Enrique Goded the last letter of Ignacio at the metal door of the house and
confirms his lack of scruples. In all these sequences, a simple diegetic gesture, the opening of
a door, put the plot in motion towards unexpected events.

We could say that doors become spaces of dialogue and opposition. The conflicts at the gates
gain in intensity because these mark the limit of the worlds of two characters. The visitor
sometimes wants to communicate a message or deliver something or get a benefit. The guest
wants to satisfy his/her curiosity regarding the mission of the visitor. The first one has
decision-making power at the sequence because he/she allows to the other character the
entrance or not.

From these perspectives, the concept of the chronotope is the most thought-provoking. “We
will give the name chronotope (literally ‘time-space’) to the intrinsic connectedness of
temporal and spatial relation that are artistically expressed in literature” (Bakhtin, 1981, p.
84), in this case, the film. We might see the chronotope of the door with similarities to the
chronotope of the threshold of Bakhtin, “connected with the breaking point of life, the
moment of crisis, the decision that changes a life” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 248). Almodovar's
chronotope of the door link two people in the same space and time to unfold narrative twists
while Bakhtin's chronotope of the threshold contains a greater drama.

These twists or bifurcations coming from the events at the doors might open reflections on
the spectator and I will address to four of the possible questions that could arise: ​1) What
would happen if that door does not open? When Enrique Goded visits the brothers' house
in Galicia the terrified and senile aunt scream: “Get out of here, or I will call the police.”
Enrique desists immediately and we feel disappointed by what we believe will be a failed
trip. Nevertheless, suddenly Ignacio's mother opens the door, excuses the demented aunt and
talks to Enrique. ​2) ​How could these same sequences be configured without doors? For
instance, in a hysterical moment, Zahara is screaming and hitting the doors of the office of
Father Manolo to escape from him. How easy could be to Zahara to go away if the visit takes
place in an open space? ​3) How the door intensifies, modulates or weakens the emotion of

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the scene as a tangible obstacle between the actors? ​For example ​when Father Manolo
shout with jealousy and anger to the young Enrique and Ignacio that are awake at midnight
and playing at the toilets of the school: “Open or I will throw the door down so that the whole
school finds out what you are doing.” The door is the protection that separates the two
terrified boys from the evil Father Manolo. The kids are sweating, trembling in one side and
Father Manolo is blind to jealousy and anger on the other side and the door in the middle
increases the tension of the moment. ​4) ​What happens if instead of giving us the view from
outside to the inside and vice-versa we could move with the actors through the doors
with a subjective camera in a tracking shot​? Probably a more vivid and psychologically
intense experience could be generated in the events at the door if Almodovar plays with a
mobile camera.

Bakhtin does not explicitly mention the chronotope of the door, but his chronotope of the
threshold is helpful to uncover a new time-space on ​Bad Education.​ But not only this
chronotope is interesting, if we analyze the physical aspect of the doors we could also get
information about the characters.

The door as a characterization device

Almodovar uses the doors as a characterization device in a subtle way. ​Doors are resources
for the ​indirect presentation of the characters (Rimmon-Kenan, 2002 p. 61) because they give
us specific information about their social status, psychological and emotional states. This
technique is not new, not even original. We can find it in literature and many films.
According to Rimmon-Kenan, “a character's physical surrounding (room, house, street,
town), as well as his human environment (family, social class), are also often used as
trait-connoting metonymies” (Rimmon-Kenan, 2002 p. 63).

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 Fig. 1. Enrique’s house entrance view from the inside. Source: screenshot of Bad Education capture on Youtube.

For example, the door of Enrique's house shows his successful social position (Fig. 1). It is a
sliding metal garage door that also functions as the main door of the house. It is painted in a
dark gray color that makes it look colossal. Visitors announce their presence with a buzzer
number that establishes a secure bounder for the house owner. Once the visitor has crossed
this threshold, enter the house through a nude and presumptuous ascending ramp. This door
communicates from the outside a sense of security and modernity.

Fig. 2. Ignacio and Juan’s house door. Source: screenshot of Bad Education capture on Youtube.

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In contrast, the door of the house of Juan and Ignacio's mother is made of old wood (Fig. 2).
The door is also gray, but it is aged and stained. It is divided into two horizontal sheets, as we
can see in many traditional towns of Galicia. To touch the metal knocker, the visitor has to
descend some steps and extend the arm. The knocker produces an old metallic sound. It is a
sad door that communicates a certain abandonment in rural space.

Fig. 3. Ignacio’s house main door of the building. Source: screenshot of Bad Education capture on Youtube.

The door of Ignacio's house in Valencia also has a shiny gray tone (Fig. 3). It is a narrow
door with a ceramic ​trencadis —ornament typical of the modernist architecture—. These
ceramic pieces with multiple colors, textures, shapes, fill the retina with chaos, fragmentation
and artistic creativity. This door personifies the transvestite who lives there, a character who
is as fragmented as the ceramics and who tries to rebuild his future blackmailing to Mr.
Berenguer in order to get money for going to a detoxification clinic and get a complete
change of sex.

In these three previous examples, the doors unite their physical and psychological dimensions
to anticipate elements of the identity of the tenants. The doors tell the story of the lives within
the houses and at the same time they induce different experiences of accessibility in the
visitor, as well as in the spectator. People do not experience the same kind of feelings in front
of a huge metal door, or a wood old door, or an ornamented narrow door. The first one could
be cold, distant and generates the sensation of inferiority on the visitor. The second one

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involve us in the melancholia of the ancient country villages of Spain, some forgotten and
almost uninhabited. The last one triggers our curiosity and provokes a playful mood. We
could say that these doors are not the typical warm entrance that make us feel welcome
before even knocking or trespassing the threshold.

Fig. 4. Ignacio’s house interior doors. Source: screenshot of Bad Education capture on Youtube.

Fig. 5. Ignacio’s house interior doors. Source: screenshot of Bad Education capture on Youtube.

Although, no only external doors serve to the characterization purpose. Inside Ignacio's
apartment, we see two interesting colorful doors that remind us of the aesthetics of the
eighties in Spain (Fig. 4 and 5). After the drowsiness that Franco's dictatorship introduced in
the country, new fresh values where breaking around on interior decoration, clothing, arts and

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literature during the seventies and eighties. This cultural movement that changed Spain is
known as La Movida, an extraordinary phenomenon that led to the decriminalization of
homosexuality, experimentation with drugs in the circles of artists and intellectuals, the sale
of contraceptives, the revitalization of feminism and secularism in the society. Almodovar is
one of the leaders of this movement. His movies tell the stories of all the subjects that the
dictatorship intend to hide: transexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts and modest characters from
the lowest social strata.

These two colorful internal barriers have chaotic and asymmetric patterns superimposed.
Almodovar evokes pop-art freedom —intriguingly similar to a detail from ​Woman in Gold by
Gustav Klimt—. Through these bright patterns, Almodovar gives us access to Ignacio's
interior universe —a mixture of intense emotions and desires, breaking with conventions—
that is deeply connected to the post-dictatorial drastic changes still alive in the collective
memory of Spanish people.

The doors as cinematic devices

Fig. 6. Representing subjective view inside El Azar. Source: screenshot of Bad Education captured on Youtube.

I want to point your attention to the first glimpse of the film where Almodovar anticipates
that the doors will be relevant. The film begins with a movement of the camera from a wall
poster of one of Goded's film. Through the open doorway we see him for the first time.

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Enrique and his assistant, Martin, are looking between newspapers for a passionate story for
the next film (Fig. 6). The blue door frame —as a frame within a frame— make us believe at
the beginning of the film that we are visitors in an unreal world.

Bad Education is a constellation of visits. Angel's visit to Enrique Goded to get a job as an
actor at the opening of the film. The visit of Mr. Berenguer to the brothers Juan and Ignacio
to feed his ephebophilia and to provide money for Ignacio's drugs and caprices. Enrique's
visit to the mother of the brothers at a small village in Galicia to discover that the authentic
Ignacio is dead. The visit of Mr. Berenguer, the ex-priest, to Enrique Goded during the
filming to tell him the details about the murder of Ignacio.

Moreover, in the film within the film, ​La visita, we notice the same diegetic resource again.
Zahara visits Father Manolo to blackmail him. We see the visit of Sara Montiel to the nun in
the film at an old cinema where Ignacio and Enrique touched each other for the first time.
Even the fact that Ignacio's screenplay name is ​La Visita​ anticipate its cinematic role.

In these visits, the door appears as a physical intermediary that marks a limit in the meeting.
The visitor passes the threshold to enter the world of “the other” and generate a
transformation with his presence. This rupture of equilibrium is born in the door as the
threshold where two worlds meet and after each ​tête à tête n​ othing is the same again.

Fig. 7. Representing voyeur view from the outside of Ignacio’s house. Source: screenshot of Bad Education captured on Youtube.

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At the diegetic level, some sequence assigns doors an important narratological role. For
example, when Juan enters Ignacio's house and we all know he will find him dead.
Almodovar increases our disquiet by leaving us on the other side of the door, waiting in the
rain with a voyeur experience, a subjective glance of Juan's dark legs climbing the stairs to
meet his victim (Fig. 7). Controlling the amount of visual information offered to the spectator
through the door has a psychological impact. This fragmented view of Juan's body generates
anxiety. Besides, the distance between the viewer and the character makes difficult the
identification with Juan emotions but at the same time enables any moral judgment of his
acts.

Fig. 8. Representing the return of the past to the present. Source: screenshot of Bad Education captured on Youtube.

Near the end of the movie, Juan/Ángel/Ignacio goes in search of Enrique who flees from the
filming site that is also a kind of warehouse with many doors. Juan who appears in outer
clarity is followed by Mr. Berenguer who emerges from the darkness of the filming space
(Fig. 8). The contrast between light and shadow is established through the door and
anticipates the triumph of Juan. At this point in the film, we know that Mr. Berenguer is
obsessed with Juan, the audience is moved by his weakness. Even he is the “evil one” when
he tells the truth to Ignacio, Mr. Berenguer seems sick and is coughing. Ignacio feels pity and
recommends him to go home and take an aspirin.

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 Fig. 9. Enrique’s garage door impose and end. Source: screenshot of Bad Education captured on Youtube.

Another sequence where the door has an important narrative role is when Juan is outside
Enrique's house who slowly, and with a serious face closes the garage door holding the last
words written by Ignacio (Fig. 9). The door carries the full weight of the emotional dynamics
of the drama and becomes a metaphorical object. We know that Juan —an immoral,
ambitious and homophobic Cain— has lost the game because Enrique hates him and push
him away of his life. In this sequence, the door is a physical obstacle that adds drama and
draws the attention towards the rupture between both. The door is a physical representation of
an emotional barrier or an illustration of the characters cold relation.

Fig. 10. Enrique’s garage door as a storytelling device. Source: screenshot of Bad Education captured on Youtube.

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The ending sequence shows the stories of each character through fragments of Enrique's
garage door (Fig. 10). These texts superimposed on this dark gray background clarifies the
future. Nevertheless, we could interpret this ​dénouement as a metaphor of unification of the
destinies in the same symbolic dimension, again the door is this space where converge the
ending of the main character's journey.

The cinematic use of the doors in ​Bad Education invites us to pay attention to the details
when we are facing an experienced film director. Almodovar takes advantage in an ingenious
way of every cinematic aspect to generate an immersive experience where apparently
insignificant devices work together to subjugate the senses of the viewer.

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REFERENCES

Bachelard, G. (1957).​ The Poetics of Space.​ Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Bakhtin, M. (1981). ​The dialogic imagination: four essays.​ Austin: Univ. of Texas.

Bal, M. (1997). ​Narratology: introduction to the theory of narrative (Second edition).

Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.

Rimmon-Kenan, S. (2002). ​Narrative fiction: contemporary poetics.​ (Second edition)

London: Routledge.

Cover Image: official poster of the film, retrieved from IMDB website
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275491/

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