"All about My Mother"

I found it interesting the different 'range' of women in the film and how it just wasn't the regular group of women who were all straight. I liked that it was different from what you would consider as normal. I would never have expected that a nun would have sexual relations with a man who looks like a woman, who is a woman on the outside. The way the film states about gender, femininity and sexuality to me, gender is defined as the sex of a person or what they are categorized as, either a man or a woman. In the film there were transexual women who break that definition as in they were one gender and then they were transformed into another just by adding breast, defining hips and face. The female gender is being defined by the shape and the movement and personality of a person. Though they are not true women, Lola and Agrado both give off attributes of women and are defined when seed as women because of the way they dress, their personality and how they carry themselves. Femininity is a female quality that must have helped Lola and Agrado decide that they wanted to be women and that femininity though is a trait that is associated with women are in everyone as well as masculinity is in everyone. This is a film though that is centered on women and in each they show their femininity. With sexuality which is defined as the quality or state of being sexual and in the film there is a lot of sexual activity, contact, messages. There is the almost rape of Agrado in the beginning and then the circle of whores, prostitutes that men were driving around and checking out. There is the way the Agrado and Manuela greet each other and hold each other. Then, there is the way that Nina is trying to see Agrado's penis and then the guy actor trying to get Agrado to suck it. Sexuality in this film is portrayed as normal in this film and is an everyday thing. Some people make it a part of their living and others want something different when it comes to sexuality. 

In the film "All about My Mother", to me there is more than one mother in this film, or more than one type of mother being portrayed in the film. There is Manuela, who is not only a mother to her son but also a mother to the nun Rosa who turns to her when she finds herself pregnant. She is also a mother like figure to the actress Huma and Nina as she takes care of them and sees that things are done for them or covers up for them like she did when Nina got to high to speak and was unable to act out her part.
Then there is Rosa's mother, who is not only mothering her husband who looks to have Alzheimer but she is a mother to Rosa though she is not supportive in her desire to go to El Salvador. She is a typical mother who feels that she knows best for her child even though her child is now a grown woman and can make her own decisions. She is also a person who judges as she turned Manuela away, believing in her story and judging her by her looks that she was a whore and would have nothing to do with her, not even caring about her as a person or what she had for skills or anything. 
There is also Rosa who is about to be a mother and she does care for the needy and the unemployed, trying to help those in need. She is not prepared to be a mother but her morals tells her to keep the child and though she does not live to be a mother she still looks out for her child and makes sure that her child has someone to look after them.
I think that Esteban is speaking in the story as even after he dies his notes are read and they speak about his mother and what he thinks about her and what he feels in their relationship. He is brought up a lot in the movie and in the end he is brought up when Manuela and Rosa meet at the cafe and Esteban's last words were read out loud.

I found the dedication at the end of the movie interesting and it got me thinking when brought up as a topic in interest about the film. When it says "To all actresses who have played actresses" brings up the way Manuela played Stella in an amateur theater group and then played Nina's part as Stella. Then there is Huma who I think plays as another famous actress. Then the dedication goes on to "To all woman who act" which to me means to the women who act all these different parts in life, as a mother, a sister, a lover, a friend, a care giver. Then it could also be interpreted as the women who hide behind a part or act in front of others to conceal what they don't want others to see. I liked the line "To men who act and become women", it immediately makes me think of drag queens and of course in the film or Agrado. They are men who act like and transform themselves into women. In the film there there is Lola and there is Agrado who were once men but are now women and act as feminine as women, though Agrado and Lola both screw girls even though I would think if you wanted to be a woman you would want the whole deals as in wanting a male partner as well. The last part was sweet with it going as such: "To all people who want to be mothers. To my mother." That makes me think of those women who can't have children or women who don't live to be mothers. That seems to tie with Rosa who gets pregnant and wants to be a mother but sees that she won't be able to and won't live to be one which is why she makes Manuela promise to take care of her child should anything happen to her. It also makes me think of the Huma and Nina's relationship and how Nina left Huma for a man and has kids already with him. Lesbian couples can't have true children of their own that are made of their own genes, that contains their own DNA because they are missing the other half that makes a baby. Huma was hurt that her lover turned her down to be with a man and that she got what she wanted that they could never have together as a woman-woman couple. The last part was a clear dedication to his mother, to the one that supported him and continues to do so and if not for her, he would not be in this world or who he is now.