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Continuing the rewarding collaboration begun on 1995's "The Flower of My Secret," composer Alberto Iglesias infuses director Pedro Almodóvar's 2002 meditation on love, obsession, and loss with a score of quiet, sophisticated grace. It ranges from the evocative Spanish guitar, violin, and vocal flourishes of "Hable con Ella" (showcasing contemporary flamenco stars Vincente Amigo and El Pele) and Brazilian vocalist Caetano Veloso's gorgeously spare rendition of the international hit "Cucurrucucu Paloma" to the Latin classicism of Ellis Regina and Tom Jobim's "Por Toda a Minha Vida" and a slate of moody string-driven, autumnal orchestral cues. The eight-minute "El Amante Menguante" for string quartet features compelling, almost playful modern flourishes while tracks like "Trincheras/Decadence" and the tense "A Portagayola" suggest a rewarding Spanish take on Hitchcockian romance and suspense. That it all meshes almost seamlessly with Purcell's closing "The Plaint: O Let Me Weep" is ample testimony to the transnational flavor and ever-subtle mastery Iglesias brings to bear here.

This is the story of two men who become friends based upon a shared love of women who are in comas, although their individual instances are completely different. First, there is newspaper journalist Marco (Grandinetti), who meets and falls in love with a famous female bullfighter, Lydia (Flores), just as she is breaking up with another famous matador. After they've been together for just a few months, however, she is gored in the ring, and her battered and torn body goes into a coma, her brain severed from communicating with the rest of her. At the hospital, Marco meets a male nurse, Benigno (Camara), whose only job it appears is to care for a beautiful young dancer, Alicia (Watling), who is also in a coma. The intensity of care that Benigno is willing to give Alicia belies secrets about his true relationship with her, secrets that Marco discovers as he finds solace in his friendship with him in the months that follow... (The film is bookended by dance performances, with characters from the movie watching from the audience, and in the middle, it has a "movie-within-the-movie", as Benigno describes a strange old silent movie he once saw, which serves as a parallel for his story line). Stars Dario Grandinetti, Leonor Watling Geraldine Chaplin, and Roberto Alvarez. 2002

1 Sabana Santa 1:03
2 Hable Con Elle 5:17
3 Cucurrucucú Paloma 3:50
4 El Grito 3:29
5 Por Toda A Mina Vida 2:02
6 La Mesita De Noche 1:45
7 Jordania 2:51
8 El Amante Menguante 8:28
9 Maria Santisima De Araceli 2:12
10 La Noche Y El Viento 1:10
11 Trincheras / Decadence 3:29
12 Habitacion De Alicia 1:49
13 A Portagayola 1:48
14 La Discusión Viaja En Coche 3:43
15 Alicia Vive 2:46
16 Los Olivos 1:15
17 Amanecer Agitato 1:57
18 Soy Marco 2:21
19 Raquel 4:11
20 The Plaint: O Let Me Weep, For Ever Weep 7:52