1. Robert Pippin is a philosopher from America who has studied English and philosophy for a long time. He has written multiple books on those subjects and has also looked into the philosophy of certain films, including 'Talk to Her' due to its controversial main characters and plot lines.

2. Robert Pippin Pippin is an American Philosopher.
His influences: G. W. F. Hegel, Immanuel Kant, Stanley Rosen, Bernard Williams, Herbert Marcuse, Wilfrid Sellars

3. Films That Relate. Kill Bill Vol.1 Uma Thurman rape scene
 'We hesitate to place this brutal attempted rape in the same category as Alicia's rape'.
Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock. 

4. Points Addressed - Fairy Tale.
There are parallels of fairytales within the films narratives; similarities between Sleeping Beauty and Snow White – In both films the woman were in a comatose state, and could only be awoken by the kiss off a prince.
Benigno is portrayed as a more of a perverted character, however the people in the fairytales are portrayed as being Prince Charming.
 In both of the fairytale's and Talk to Her, these kisses are nonconsensual which qualifies as rape in the eyes of the law.
Alicia wakes up in the end after the doctors said she wouldn’t. This is another correlation between the fairytales and Talk to Her.

5. Benigno.
Upon several viewings, Benigno's actions become even more perverted and troubling to the viewer. Pippin states that the audience begins to notice things throughout the film that would have been missed on the first viewing. Which suggest Benigno's unstable mental state before the acts have happened. Such as his infatuation with Alicia and how casual he is about her nudity.
'We seem to hesitate to judge Beningo because we appreciate his psychopathology'
The portrayal of Beningo raping Alicia demonstrates how unstable he is – he is delusional
'Benigno seems to be treated with some sympathy from Almodovor'

6. Benigno wakes Alicia
Robert Pippin raises the fact at the end of this chapter that it seems that without the rape and impregnation of Alicia at the hands of Benigno, she would likely never have woken up. The brutal truth is that Benigno's love and obsession over this woman is what ultimately saved her life. From a certain point of view you could say that Benigno made the biggest sacrifice he could for Alicia, his actions that allowed her to live again were the same actions that caused him to be shunned by society and become the reason why he commits suicide. 

7. The change of character
Robert Pippin says that Benigno's 'character changes very dramatically after the exposure of what he has done'. He was originally seen as a kind and compassionate man that really cared for Alicia and was hoping desperately for her to awake. Pippin says that these sweet and kind qualities quickly become the opposite when the rape has been revealed. His intimate caring turns into a more sinister preying, his will power and want for her to awake becomes an obsession. This follows the twisted fairytale theme as prior to the reveal of the rape, the relationship between Benigno and Alicia was seen as an innocent caring and nice affair. This represents the fairytale like version of the relationship. Post-rape however we see the cold truth which is that this is a one-sided, non-consensual relationship between an obsessed man and an unconscious woman. 

8. Similarities between Benigno and Norman Bates.
Both Benigno and Norman Bates look after their Mother and live in the same house as them
Both Norman Bates and Benigno dress, care for and move an unconscious/dead body
There are

9. First and Second Order Moral Judgments.
First Order Moral Judgment – 'in this case the judgment that what Benigno did was rape and was wrong.' - This is a judgment at face value, taking everything for what it is.
Second Order Moral Judgment – 'in this case, whether or to what degree to blame Benigno, to hold him to account' – taking into account his mental state.
'Moral Philosiphers argue that the former judgment can be made without requiring the latter. They also distinguish between the act itself and its consequences, and in this case that might lead one to say that whatever Benigno had intended by having sex with Alicia (and it is very difficult to infer what exactly he thought he was trying to do or bring about), her recovery can not be credited to him.'

10. The other side of the bad guy
At the reveal of the rape Almodovar presents us Benigno at his absolute worst, a disgusting rapist. The rest of the film however is spent trying to make the audience question the instinctive reaction of hatred against Benigno. Pippin puts this as Almodovar making the point that while this incident is a 'reason to condemn, it is not a reason to abandon'. This point is shown through Marco, he is appalled by Benigno's actions but he sympathizes due to his knowledge of how much Benigno did care for Alicia and knows that his friend has been lost in an obsession. Through positioning the audience with a character they align with (Marco), Almodovar has created a way for the audience to fully judge and possibly sympathize with a character they do not morally align with. 

11. Not a typical villain
Pippin makes the point that 'Talk To Her' represents a rapist in a whole new light compared to most films, Benigno isn't simply a 2 dimensional bad guy, he has been completely humanized by the film to make the audience struggle to figure out what they think of him. Pippin compares Benigno to the rapist in Kill Bill, an example of a more typical rapist character. He is an undeveloped character that takes advantage of the protagonist when they are in their most vulnerable state for his own personal gain, this is the typical villain character audiences are used to. 

12. 'The Hesitation'
Pippin talks about a Hesitation a lot in his writing. He states that there are many different things which attribute to this hesitation of judging Benigno and Marco's actions.
He notes that an understanding of Benigno's mental state helps towards this hesitation, as well as Almodovor's treatment of Benigo's character, originally portraying him as a selfless person who only wishes to help others. But after a second viewing his motifs seem more perverted and strange.

13. The Ending 
Pippin points out that the key scene in 'Talk To Her' (where Benigno tells Marco that he needs to talk to his partner in a coma) is the lesson trying to be pushed across throughout the whole film. Benigno dies at the end of the film and Marco stands over his grave and talks to him which provides useful closure for him. The film revolves around this idea of talking to people that cannot talk back, Benigno sees it as a mutual conversation which adds another perspective to the rape as the Benigno it didn't feel as non-consensual as it truly is. Marco sees talking to her as one-sided and futile but at the end has clearly changed his opinion on this as he talks to Benigno's grave. Marco's character has developed to become far more alike Benigno's.