Winning an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, it is one of the most moving melodramas of the last few decades and a beautiful tribute to mother-son relationships. What to watch nextĪll about My Mother, recently voted one of the 10 best LGBT films of all time, is one of Almodóvar’s most accessible films, with a strong story, touching performances and a return to some of his favourite themes. For many novices, though, this will be love at first sight. If you’re new to Almodóvar, this is a good litmus test – if you don’t like this film, then Almodóvar may not be for you. It stars many of his favourite actresses, including Carmen Maura, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma and my favourite of all his stars, Chus Lampreave. It was a breakthrough for the director, earning an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film, and was one of his earliest female ensemble films. It’s a wild, hysterical tale of women scorned, incompetent terrorists and drugged gazpacho. You could do a lot worse than kick-start your journey into Almodóvar territory than by joining the Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988).
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) But there are certainly some films in his canon where familiarity with his other films will add to the enjoyment. Unlike other world cinema greats such as, say, Michael Haneke, Jean-Luc Godard or Béla Tarr, there aren’t really difficult or overly challenging works that viewers need to work their way up to. While some of his films may be too provocative for some palates, one of the many joys of Almodóvar – who is nothing if not a brilliant storyteller – is his accessibility. The best place to start – Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 33 amazing fashion moments that make you wish life was more like an Almodóvar film.Pedro Almodóvar: 13 great Spanish films that inspire me.
Ironically, despite his success with actresses, Antonio Banderas is the biggest star to have started their careers in an Almodóvar film ( Penélope Cruz was already an established actor by the time she starred in Live Flesh). The rapes-played-for-laughs in Matador (1986) and Kika (1993), in which the male attacker, rather than the female victim, are the butt of the joke, are an acquired taste.
Pedro Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas on the set of The Skin I Live In (2011)ĭespite a well-earned reputation for being a great director of actresses (although his male-dominated Law of Desire, Bad Education and, especially, Talk to Her are often brilliant), his rejection of political correctness, sometimes at the expense of women, isn’t for everyone. From 2009, his films have been trickier to pigeon-hole, including Hitchcockian tale Broken Embraces (2009), outrageous sex thriller The Skin I Live In (2011), daft farce I’m So Excited! (2013) and chamber drama Julieta (2016). From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, when All about My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002) and Volver (2006) were released, Almodóvar was on a critical winning streak, winning multiple awards. At last his films began to be taken seriously on the world stage. With the possible exception of Jacques Tati, whose comedies are low on dialogue, there is no more successful director of foreign-language comedies in the English-speaking world.īy Law of Desire (1987), he had perfected his screenwriting, and all the main characters – an outré bunch consisting of a young gay murderer, a lovelorn porn director and his caring trans sister ( Carmen Maura is brilliant here), who would be supporting roles in films by a more conservative director – are fully drawn and sympathetic. One of his greatest achievements is making comedies (the hardest type of film to market to foreign audiences) that make people laugh around the world. Almodóvar burst onto the film scene as part of La Movida Madrileña, a cultural explosion that took place in Spain following the death of Franco, when artists took advantage of the new freedom of expression to create vibrant, uncensored works across film, music, art and literature.Īlmodóvar is by far the most famous of the filmmakers to emerge from this period. Watch Pedro Almodóvar films on BFI PlayerĪlthough there are familiar tropes in Pedro Almodóvar’s films – striking visuals, larger-than-life characters, women at the end of their tether, gender and sexuality issues, a celebration of LGBT lives – it’s tricky to guide a novice through his work, as there are so many potential entry points.The Pedro Almodóvar season runs at BFI Southbank from August-October 2016.