Live Flesh

Live Flesh (Carne trémula, 1997), directed by Pedro Almodóvar, is a Spanish thriller-melodrama you can watch online on iFILM. A single gunshot in a stranger's apartment wrecks five lives at once and ties them together for years.

Victor turns up at Elena's door, an argument flares, two cops step in, and a shot goes off that leaves David in a wheelchair and Victor in prison. Years later he walks out to find that David has become a basketball star and married Elena. From there Almodóvar tightens a knot of desire, guilt and revenge in which everyone owes someone. Javier Bardem plays David, with Francesca Neri opposite him and a very young Penélope Cruz appearing in the brief opening.

The story is loosely adapted from a novel by British crime writer Ruth Rendell, relocated to Madrid and framed by Spain's shift from Franco-era curfews to a freer country. It is one of the director's tightest and most underrated films: less camp, more nerve. Stream Live Flesh (1997) online on iFILM.