‘Talk to Her’ tops European awards

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar swept up the top prizes at the 2002 European Film Awards on Saturday night for his movie “Hable Con Ella” (“Talk to Her”). Almodovar’s intense drama about loneliness won best European film in 2002 and garnered Almodovar best European director and screenwriter.

“Talk to Her,” which opens here Friday, centers on a male nurse in love with his comatose patient and the friendship he strikes up with the boyfriend of another comatose patient -- an injured woman matador.

The movie has sparked some controversy for its sympathetic portrayal of a rapist.

Although most critics consider it Almodovar’s best film, it failed to win Spain’s foreign language film entry for the Academy Awards this year. “Talk to Her” lost out to “Mondays in the Sun,” starring Javier Bardem, about unemployed dock workers.