Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar (born September 25, 1949, Calzada de Calatrava, Spain) is a Spanish filmmaker known for colorful melodramatic films that often feature sexual themes. Almodóvar’s notable movies include Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), All About My Mother (1999), and Pain and Glory (2019). He won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Talk to Her (2002).

Early life

As a young man, Almodóvar moved to Madrid with the hopes of attending the Spanish national film school, but it had recently been closed under dictator Francisco Franco’s rule. With this avenue blocked, he purchased a Super-8 camera and began making his own short films.

Films

Almodóvar’s first feature-length film, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (1980; Pepi, Luci, Bom, and Other Girls like Mom), which he also wrote, explores the punk rock scene in Madrid in the years after Franco’s death. Ostensibly a comedy, the film also traffics in themes of rape, corruption, and revenge. After several other early efforts, Almodóvar wrote and directed a series of films starring Antonio Banderas. The first two films, Matador (1986) and La ley del deseo (1987; Law of Desire), deal with the intersection between violence and sexual desire. A dizzying farce titled Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) won international acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film.

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Almodóvar followed that with ¡Átame! (1990; Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), which attracted criticism from women’s advocacy groups for a plot in which a mentally ill man (played by Banderas) successfully persuades a woman he has kidnapped to fall in love with him. Carne trémula (1997; Live Flesh), based on a Ruth Rendell novel and starring Javier Bardem, examines the tangled consequences of an accidental gunshot. It was also the first of numerous Almodóvar films to feature Penélope Cruz.

All About My Mother and Talk to Her

Almodóvar’s reputation soared with Todo sobre mi madre (1999; All About My Mother), which he also wrote. The film—the bittersweet story of a woman’s search for her recently deceased son’s father—won an Academy Award for best foreign-language film, and Almodóvar was honored as best director at the Cannes film festival. He received similar praise for the emotionally charged Hable con ella (2002; Talk to Her), for which he garnered an Oscar for best original screenplay, in addition to a nomination for best director. Almodóvar subsequently directed La mala educación (2004; Bad Education), which takes on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church; the family drama Volver (2006; “To Return”); and Los abrazos rotos (2009; Broken Embraces), a stylish exercise in film noir. The latter two films starred Cruz.

After more than 20 years, Almodóvar reteamed with Banderas for La piel que habito (2011; The Skin I Live In), a psychological thriller about a plastic surgeon who performs experiments on a woman he holds captive. The campy, socially pointed comedy Los amantes pasajeros (I’m So Excited!), set aboard an airplane preparing for an emergency landing, followed in 2013. Three years later he helmed and wrote Julieta, a drama about an estranged mother and daughter; it was based on several short stories by Alice Munro. Almodóvar then worked with Banderas and Cruz on Dolor y gloria (2019; Pain and Glory), about a director contemplating his life.

Later work

He and Cruz later earned acclaim for Madres paralelas (2021; Parallel Mothers), which centers on the relationship between two single women who give birth on the same day. Interwoven with that story is an examination of the lasting influence of Spain’s Civil War and the dictatorship of Franco. During the 2020s Almodóvar also began working in English. In 2020 he directed his first English-language film, the short The Human Voice, which starred Tilda Swinton and was based on the French one-act play by Jean Cocteau. Three years later he released the western short Strange Way of Life, led by Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. In 2024 Almodóvar made his first English-language feature-length film, The Room Next Door. The drama, based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez, focuses on a dying woman (Swinton) who reconnects with an old friend (Julianne Moore).

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