TSPDT - Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodóvar

See Also

Vicente Aranda (External Link)

Luis Buñuel

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Julio Medem

Carlos Saura

Douglas Sirk

John Waters

Billy Wilder

Director / Screenwriter / Producer

1951 -

Born September 24, Calzada de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, Spain

Key Production Countries: Spain, France

Key Genres: Drama, Melodrama, Comedy Drama, Black Comedy, Psychological Drama, Comedy, Sex Comedy

Key Collaborators: Jose Salcedo (Editor), Agustin Almodovar (Producer), Chus Lampreave (Character Player), Alberto Iglesias (Composer), Carmen Maura (Leading Player), Rossy De Palma (Character Player), Antxon Gomez (Production Designer), Kiti Manver (Character Player), Antonio Banderas (Leading Player), Jose Luis Alcaine (Cinematographer)

Highly Recommended: All About My Mother (1999)

Recommended: Live Flesh (1997), The Flower of My Secret (1995), Talk to Her (2002), Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009)

Worth a Look: What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1985), Matador (1986), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), Bad Education (2004)

Links: [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ Wikipedia ] [ Official Spanish Page ] [ NPR Interview (Audio) ] [ Sony Classics Profile ] [ New York Sun Article (2006) ] [ Close-Up Film Interview (2006) ] [ Guardian Article (2008) ] [ Almodóvarlandia ]

Books: [ Almodóvar on Almodóvar ] [ Pedro Almodóvar (BFI World Directors) ] [ All About Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema ] [ IMDB ] [ IMDB ] [ A Spanish Labyrinth: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar ] [ Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar ] [ Pedro Almodóvar (Contemporary Film Directors) ]

DVD's: [ Amazon ]

1,000 Greatest Films: Law of Desire (1987), All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002)

21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films: Talk to Her (2002), Bad Education (2004), Volver (2006)


	"A maverick talent, he worked in the theatre before beginning to make short films on Super 8, and graduated to features in 1978. He took full advantage of the post-Franco cultural freedom to develop a distinctive directorial style, and has matured from the 'bad boy' of Spanish cinema into a sophisticated European auteur. He is noted for creating sublime melodramas and writing superb roles for women." - (Chambers Film Factfinder, 2006)

	"Luridly improbable plotting may evoke Buñuel's surrealist legacy, but Almodóvar's vision of Spain is determinedly post-Franco: more concerned with the heady pursuit of pleasure than politics, and gleefully amoral - rather than genuinely shocking - in its celebration of all forms of sexual preference (his early films were mostly bawdy sex comedies)." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)

	"Pedro Almodóvar's outrageous and provocative films have made him the most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since the death of Franco in 1975...Almodóvar's forté is in incorporating elements of underground and gay culture into mainstream forms with wide crossover appeal, thus redefining perceptions of Spanish cinema and Spain." - Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)

	"Yes, women are stronger than us. They face more directly the problems that confront them, and for that reason they are much more spectacular to talk about. I don't know why I am more interested in women, because I don't go to any psychiatrists, and I don't want to know why." - Pedro Almodóvar

	"I also wanted to express the strength of cinema to hide reality, while being entertaining. Cinema can fill in the empty spaces of your life and your loneliness." - Pedro Almodóvar