Pedro Almodovar

Film Director

• Born: September 25, 1949
• Place of Birth: Calzada de Calatrava, Spain

Pedro Almodóvar is a Spanish film producer, director, and screenwriter. One of Spain's premier filmmakers, Almodóvar has won dozens of international awards. His films portray life on the fringes of society and sexuality. He has said that women fascinate him, and his films chronicle their solidarity, their sexuality, and the violence that sometimes confronts them. Self-educated, Almodóvar began his career using a Super 8 camera with no sound. He established himself in the shadow of Spain's Franco regime to become a world-renowned filmmaker who is unafraid of making mistakes and pushing the envelope.

Early Life

Pedro Mercedes Almodóvar Caballero was born on September 25, 1949, in Calzada de Calatrava, a rural municipality in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, during the regime of General Francisco Franco. His father supported their family of six by working as a muleteer, hauling wine by mule. Almodóvar's family sent him to a Catholic boarding school in Cáceres in hopes that he would become a priest. It was in Cáceres that Almodóvar developed a passion for movies at the local cinema. He also noticed the peculiar relationship that one of the priests had with some of the students, the inappropriate nature of which came to light later. While Almodóvar was aware of the pedophilia at the school, he was not a victim of it. The sexual nature of the abuse would later become the subject of some of his films.

Almodóvar moved from Cáceres to Madrid at age sixteen to study film, much to the displeasure of his parents. However, Franco had recently closed the National School of Cinema, so Almodóvar had to teach himself. He got a job as an administrative assistant at Telefonica, the national telephone company, where he saved enough money to buy a Super 8 camera with which to make short films. Unable to record sound on the thin tapes, he would bring along a tape recorder with music to his screenings and supply the dialogue himself, reciting the lines of the individual characters.

In his ten years working at Telefonica, Almodóvar was a key figure in La Movida Madrileña (the Madrilenian movement), the counterculture movement that took root in Madrid following Franco's death in 1975. In the context of a cultural revolution enjoying its newfound freedom, Almodóvar joined a drama club called Los Goliardos. During this time, he met the famed Spanish actor Carmen Maura, who would go on to collaborate with him on six films. Almodóvar also joined a punk-glam-rock band, for which he performed dressed in drag; contributed articles to various magazines; and wrote several short stories and pornographic photographic novels. All the while, he continued to make short films on his Super 8.

Film Career

In 1980, Almodóvar produced his first commercial film, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap). It was his first sixteen-millimeter film, financed through the help of Maura and other friends from Los Goliardos. The film portrays separate stories of the main characters, all women and all connected. Featuring rape, violence, and sexual masochism, Pepi, Luci, Bom displays a sort of feminine solidarity that has become a theme in many of Almodóvar's films. The film developed a strong underground following and brought him national recognition. The revenue generated from the film financed his next venture, Laberinto de pasiones (Labyrinth of Passions, 1982). A dark, comedic tale of sexual adventure, the film is noted for the interest generated by its secondary characters, as well as for being the film debut of actor Antonio Banderas.

Almodóvar went on to make Entre tinieblas (Dark Habits, 1983); ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? (What Have I Done to Deserve This?, 1984), his first film distributed internationally; and Matador (1986). Also in 1986 same year, Almodóvar began his own production company, El Deseo, with his brother, Agustín Almodóvar. Together, they produced La ley del deseo (Law of Desire, 1987). Throughout his films, Almodóvar explores the interrelated nature of sexuality, religion, violence, identity, and death.

In 1988, Almodóvar produced Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), which won critical acclaim and was nominated for an Academy Award. Mujeres follows the main character, Pepa, through two hectic days trying to track down her married lover. The story is fast paced and, because it lacks some of the more sexually explicit material in his other films, is fairly accessible to a larger audience. The film received an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language Film and introduced Almodóvar to a worldwide audience.

Almodóvar followed this success in 1990 with ¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!). While the film was successful in Spain, it met with problems upon its American debut. Due to a sexually explicit scene, it was given an X rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which labeled the film as pornographic. It also came under fire from feminist groups because of the sadomasochism in the film. The X rating hindered sales, and ¡Átame! did not have the same financial success as Almodóvar's previous film.

After moderate success with Tacones lejanos (High Heels, 1991), Kika (1993), La flor de mi secreto (The Flower of My Secret, 1995), and Carne trémula (Live Flesh, 1997), Almodóvar released Todo sobre mi madre (All about My Mother) in 1999 to unprecedented critical acclaim. Todo sobre mi madre tells the story of a woman who, after her son dies, searches for the boy's father to tell him about the son he never knew about. The film features a range of eccentric characters, including a transvestite prostitute, a pregnant nun, and a lesbian actor. It won Almodóvar his first Academy Award for best foreign film as well as the Cannes Film Festival Best Director Award and earned him recognition at other international film festivals.

In 2002, Almodóvar scored another international hit with Hable con ella (Talk to Her), which won an Academy Award for best original screenplay. It tells the story of a developing friendship between two men who are both caring for comatose women. Almodóvar followed this film with La mala educación (Bad Education, 2004). The plot, which involves child sexual abuse by a priest at a Catholic school, was drawn from Almodóvar's own experiences in boarding school. Almodóvar has said that he worked on the screenplay for more than a decade.

In 2006, Almodóvar released Volver (return), starring Penélope Cruz. Volver, which won the Cannes Film Festival awards for best actress and best screenplay, is the story of Raimunda, who is widowed after her daughter kills her husband. The two women hide the body and try to lead normal lives with the other women in their family by running a restaurant, until they are confronted by the spirit of Raimunda's dead mother.

Almodóvar's film Los abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces) was released in 2009. His next film, La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In, 2011), was a psychological thriller starring Antonio Banderas, the first collaboration between the two since Laberinto de pasiones in 1982. It won the British Academy Film Award for best international film.

In 2013, Almodóvar released Los amantes pasajeros (I'm So Excited!, which starred several alumni of his earlier films, including Javier Cámara (Hable con ella, La mala educación) and Antonio de la Torre (Volver), and featured cameos by Banderas and Cruz. The film was financed entirely by global presales.

A musical adaptation of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown premiered on Broadway in November 2010, but it was poorly received and closed after only two months. A revamped version starring British comedic actor Tamsin Greig debuted in London's West End in December 2014 to much more favorable reviews; upon viewing it, Almodóvar called the production "an incredible tribute to my country."

In 2013, Almodóvar was presented with the European Film Academy's Achievement in World Cinema Award. He continued pdirecting films during the 2010s and 2020s. Some of his most notable works during this period included Julieta (2016), Pain and Glory (2019), and Parallel Mothers (2021). Almodóvar's first English-language film, The Room Next Door, was released in 2024. The film was a critical success, winning a Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival.

Bibliography

Brooks, Brian. "European Film Awards to Fete Pedro Almodóvar." Film Society of Lincoln Center. Film Soc. of Lincoln Center, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

Brown, Mark. "Pedro Almodóvar Says Musical Version of Women on the Verge Is 'Wonderful.'" Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 11 Jan. 2015. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

Davis, Clayton. "Will 'The Room Next Door' Bring Pedro Almodovar His First Best Picture Nomination and Tilda Swinton's Second Oscar?" Variety, 7 Sept. 2024, variety.com/2024/film/awards/the-room-next-door-oscars-pedro-almodovar-best-picture-1236136795/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

de la Fuente, Anna Marie. "Almodóvar Puts Education to Use." Variety. Variety Media, 4 Nov. 2004. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

Mendelsohn, Daniel. "The Women of Pedro Almodóvar." New York Review of Books. NYREV, 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

Pérez, Sergio Ríos. "Pedro Almodóvar Returns to Comedy with Los amantes pasajeros." Cineuropa. Cineuropa.org, 10 July 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.