Pedro Almodóvar

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

Pedro Almodóvar’s colorful and controversial tribute to the pleasures and perils of Stockholm syndrome, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a rambunctious dark comedy starring Antonio Banderas as an unbalanced but alluring ex-mental-patient and Victoria Abril as the B-movie and former porn star he takes prisoner in the hopes of convincing her to marry him. A highly unconventional romance that came on the spike heels of Almodóvar’s international sensation Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, this is a splashy, sexy central work in the career of one of the world’s most beloved and provocative auteurs, radiantly shot by the director’s great cinematographer, José Luis Alcaine.

Film Info

  • Spain
  • 1990
  • 102 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Spanish
  • Spine #722

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Pedro Almodóvar and executive producer Agustín Almodóvar, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Pedro Almodóvar; Agustín Almodóvar; actors Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles León, and Rossy de Palma; production manager Esther García; and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine
  • New interview with Almodóvar collaborator and Sony Pictures Classics copresident Michael Barker
  • Conversation from 2003 between Pedro Almodóvar and Banderas
  • Footage from the film’s 1990 premiere party in Madrid
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A 1990 piece about the film by Pedro Almodóvar, a conversation between critic Kent Jones and filmmaker Wes Anderson, and an interview with Almodóvar from 1989

    New cover by Malika Favre

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Pedro Almodóvar and executive producer Agustín Almodóvar, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Pedro Almodóvar; Agustín Almodóvar; actors Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles León, and Rossy de Palma; production manager Esther García; and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine
  • New interview with Almodóvar collaborator and Sony Pictures Classics copresident Michael Barker
  • Conversation from 2003 between Pedro Almodóvar and Banderas
  • Footage from the film’s 1990 premiere party in Madrid
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A 1990 piece about the film by Pedro Almodóvar, a conversation between critic Kent Jones and filmmaker Wes Anderson, and an interview with Almodóvar from 1989

    New cover by Malika Favre
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Cast
Victoria Abril
Marina
Antonio Banderas
Ricki
Francisco Rabal
Máximo Espejo
Loles Léon
Lola
Julieta Serrano
Alma
María Barranco
Berta
Rossy de Palma
Motorcycle girl
Lola Cardona
Director of psychiatric hospital
Francisca Caballero
Mother
Credits
Director
Pedro Almodóvar
Writer
Pedro Almodóvar
Executive producer
Agustín Almodóvar
Director of production
Esther García
Original score
Ennio Morricone
Director of photography
José Luis Alcaine
Editor
José Salcedo
Sound
Goldstein & Steinberg, S.A.
Costume design
José María de Cossío

Current

The Birth of Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
The Birth of Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

The director explains the inspiration for his provocative erotic comedy, and how he dove into it even before finishing his previous movie.

By Pedro Almodóvar

Aubrey Plaza’s Top 10
Aubrey Plaza’s Top 10

The star of Emily the Criminal and Ingrid Goes West chooses favorite films by John Cassavetes, Ingmar Bergman, and other art-house masters.

Dash Shaw’s Top 10
Dash Shaw’s Top 10

The acclaimed animator behind Cryptozoo shares a selection of his favorite films, including works by Godard, Cronenberg, and Almodóvar.

Almodóvar, From Now to Then
Almodóvar, From Now to Then

Rejecting the repression of Franco-era Spain, Pedro Almodóvar made his name with exuberant films set in an eternal present. But by the turn of the century, his cinema began to drift toward memories of a not so distant past.

By Colm Tóibín

Pedro Almodóvar in Philadelphia

Repertory Picks

Pedro Almodóvar in Philadelphia
Last month, the International House Philadelphia, in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania, kicked off a series called Cinema, Censorship, and the Scandal of Sex, selecting four films that “have been seen as an outrage to decency, moralit…
Penélope Cruz on Pedro Almodóvar
Penélope Cruz on Pedro Almodóvar
In this short interview, a Criterion online exclusive, the Oscar-winning actor Penélope Cruz talks about the immense inspiration she drew at a young age from the work of Pedro Almodóvar, who would later become a friend and collaborator of hers—a…
Visions of Desire: Kent Jones Talks to Wes Anderson About Almodóvar
Visions of Desire: Kent Jones Talks to Wes Anderson About Almodóvar

The filmmaker and critic discuss the pleasures and provocations of the Spanish auteur’s work.

Explore

Ennio Morricone

Composer

Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone

After making a name for himself scoring spaghetti westerns, Ennio Morricone went on to work with some of the most renowned European and Hollywood moviemakers of all time in a career that has spanned five decades. The maestro was born in Rome and educated in trumpet and choral music at Italy’s National Academy of Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, during World War II. Early in his career, he wrote background music for radio dramas, composed classical pieces, and performed in jazz bands, but it was his sixties movie scores for Sergio Leone—specifically his now ubiquitous woodwindy wah-wah for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly—that put him on the international map. Thanks to the iconic themes from these films, Morricone would be commissioned to write music for more than forty other westerns, but he would also work with such filmmakers as Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket), Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salò), and, when he began scoring American films, Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven), Samuel Fuller (White Dog), Brian De Palma (The Untouchables), and John Carpenter (The Thing). Moving easily between B movies and prestige films, adventure and romance, Morricone has remained one of cinema’s most adventurous, active, and versatile composers.