Almodòvar

and his women.


" Ivan: How many men have you had to forget? 
Pepa: As many as the women you remember. "

Pedro Almodòvar,

 Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, 1988

Pedro Almodòvar was born in La Mancha, Spain. Like Don Quixote.

His heroic slash romantic story as per Imdb is as follows:

The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study filmmaking because he didn't have the money to afford it. Besides, the filmmaking schools were closed in early 70s by Franco's government. Instead, he found a job in the Spanish phone company and saved his salary to buy a Super 8 camera. From 1972 to 1978, he devoted himself to make short films with the help of of his friends. The "premieres" of those early films were famous in the rapidly growing world of the Spanish counter-culture. In few years, Almodóvar became a star of "La Movida", the pop cultural movement of late 70s Madrid. His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release. In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company: El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world, making his films very popular in many countries.

(I put it in brown so to make it clear that the point of all this is not his biography.)

What I want to talk about is the way Pedro Almodòvar portraits women. The way he seems to understand them better than they do. With his daring style he likes to underline the metaphors and the sarcasm that are omnipresent in all his tragicomic artworks. In most of them he portraits the women's world with an incredible attention for details.

Being his recurrent themes The Mother, Homosexuality and Transvestitism, and The Church (corrupt), the talent of a great Master lays in the way they are intertwined in the different films forming all possible combinations. It is a witness of his genius the way he tells the life of women with cold sensitivity. In a world where "women" means not only those represented in the traditional way, but also all the others who think and live with a feminine sensibility, from Lola in All About My Mother to Benigno in Talk to Her. 

The Director's passion for the female universe leaves a mark in his choice for the actresses he features in his films: first of all, (also in chronological order) is that Carmen Maura who acts in many of his films from Pepi to Volver. Another favourite is Cecilia Roth, who is present in Almodóvar's filmography from the start but only in All About My Mother leaves her indelible mark. Then comes Victoria Abril, who stars in Atame! and High Heels and finally Marisa Paredes, the unforgettable character representative of the "mother" and "actress". Looking carefully at the Spanish film director's work, one realizes that he doesn't only use these four actresses. In fact, there's a whole universe of female "familiar" faces in Almodovar's filmography.

We can't say the same about males.