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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
All hail King Pedro
One name looms over the current crop of Spanish
directors. Pedro Almodóvar, his outlook shaped by
Madrid’smovidageneration, isn’t interested in the
Franco years, or portraying social realism. Instead he
offers personal narratives, exaggerated, subversive
tales set in a contemporary, passionate Spain of
prostitutes, transvestites and dodgy priests.The
characters are usually flawed but never judged; instead
they’re laid bare for sanction or disapproval from the
viewer. He began in the 1980s with films likePepi,
Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón(1980) andEntre
tinieblas(1983), stocked with drug taking, maverick
sexual encounters and twists on the established icons
of Spain, from nuns to bullfighters. How many films
have a golden shower scene in the middle of a knitting
class? Or a lesbian nun on heroin?
In recent years Almodóvar has calmed down a bit.
Characters remain larger than life – the main guy in
La mala educación(2004) kills his transvestite brother
and takes on his identity – but the core themes are
weightier (child abuse by Catholic priests inLa mala
educación).Almodóvar, openly gay, has often been
called, perhaps to his irritation, a great director of
women, and the female leads of modern Spanish
cinema – Victoria Abril, Penélope Cruz and Carmen
Maura – all have a strong connection with him and his
work.Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios(1988),
a funny, accessible work about a woman trying to track
down her lover, won plaudits worldwide. More recently,
Volver(2006), set in Almodóvar’s home region of La
Mancha, was a paean to female resilience.
You can take the
boy out of La Mancha
Almodóvar’s choice of
subject matter has
often been viewed
as a reaction to his
upbringing. Raised first
in a small, listless town
in La Mancha and then
an equally torpid
Extremaduranpueblo,
Almodóvar came from
conservative, dourly
religious stock.
Unsurprisingly, he
couldn’t wait to leave.
His early films reflect an
exploration of Madrid’s
licentious new scene, yet
a later effort,Volver,
revisits the backwater
towns of his childhood.
Volveralludes to the
figure of his mother
through a matriarchal
ghost. His father isn’t
referenced. A muleteer,
Almodóvar’s dad
apparently threatened
to call in the National
Guard (notoriously
unsympathetic to
homosexuals back in
Franco’s day) when 17-
year-old Pedro ran away
to Madrid.
