Spanish Twist… Pedro Almodovar

One of Spain's greatest ever directors, Pedro Almodovar is set to wow the world once again…

His latest effort, Broken Embraces, premiered at Cannes this week and Gentry takes the opportunity to look back at the career of one of cinema's most iconic and stylish auters.

Our fiends over at the New York Times have once again done a terrific job in putting together this gorgeous, intuitive collage of Almodovar's vibrant history. Below is a brief excerpt from their special article…

Pedro Almodóvar first visited the Cannes Film Festival in 1982, ‘‘almost like a tourist,’’ he recalled recently, to show ‘‘Labyrinth of Passion.’’ It went virtually unnoticed. ‘‘I was ignored throughout the ’80s,’’ he says. ‘‘My movies were a lot more underground then, and many intellectual critics didn’t take me seriously.’’ (His 1988 film, ‘‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,’’ was rejected at Cannes but received an Oscar nomination the next year.)

He served as a member of the Cannes jury in 1992, but it wasn’t until 1999, when Almodóvar won the festival’s best director for ‘‘All About My Mother,’’ that his international career really took off. ‘‘Bad Education’’ opened the festival in 2004, and ‘‘Volver’’ nabbed the best screenplay award in 2006 as well as the best actress award, shared by all the women in the picture.

This year, Almodóvar has high hopes for his new film, ‘‘Broken Embraces,’’ but he remembers how difficult it can be to select a winner. ‘‘It was an enormous moral responsibility because the future of fragile films was in my hands,’’ he says. ‘‘After that, I felt I could never judge a competition again.’’

Almodóvar has always worked with a tightknit group of collaborators. In the early days, he favored actresses like Carmen Maura, Victoria Abril and Rossy de Palma; his current muse is Penélope Cruz. ‘‘It’s very Latin to work and live with a clan,’’ he says. ‘‘Penélope is a great friend, but she also gives me wonderful results. When I have a good experience with someone, I tend to use them again.’’ (The same applies to props: he has used the same couch, upholstered in different fabrics, for four of his movies.)

His staff is also made up of friends and family: his brother, Agustín, has been in charge of El Deseo, his production company, since 1986. Aside from protecting Almodóvar’s vision every step of the way, El Deseo has produced films by other directors, like Lucrecia Martel’s dramas ‘‘The Holy Girl’’ and ‘‘The Headless Woman,’’ which both competed at Cannes. Almodóvar reads the scripts, then steps out of the picture: ‘‘I would get too jealous if I became involved in the directing process.’’

Essential viewing for Almodovar virgins: Volver, Bad Education, Talk to Her, Live Flesh.

For the full article and to enjoy the gorgeous visual presentation, just click here…

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Category: Art & Culture