It’s hard to believe that this movie was made less than a decade after the death of fascist dictator General Franco and only three years after Spain decriminalised homosexuality.

As his second movie, Labyrinth of Passion was already embedded in what was to become Pedro Almodovar’s trademark style: larger than life characters on a series of amoral adventures.

In this case the cast of characters includes a gay Muslim terrorist who can track down his victims through his acute sense of smell, the gay son of a Middle Eastern dictator who turns straight after an encounter with a nymphomaniac pop singer, the pop singer’s therapist who wants to sleep with her father, and a woman who leaves her sexually abusive father only to end up sleeping with the pop singer’s father. And that’s to name only a few!

It’s typically Almodovar – bad taste in the extreme, lots of sex and the occasional perk of a youthful Antonio Banderas parading around in his jockey shorts. And despite the seemingly chaotic group of characters, there is a cohesive story line that more or less reaches a logical conclusion at the end.

And did I mention a youthful Antonio Banderas in his jockey shorts?

https://youtu.be/MykXQ0akeD8