By Bethan Parry-Jones, Third Year, History and Spanish
With complex female characters, striking colours and repeated collaborations with several actors, such as Carmen Maura and Penélope Cruz, Pedro Almodóvar is known for his distinctive style.
The winner of five BAFTAs, six Goyas (Spain's highest national film honours) and two Oscars, Almodóvar certainly does not lack recognition. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and All About My Mother (1999) often feature in celebrities’ Letterboxd top four and are studied by A-level Spanish students across the country. Yet there are under-discussed parts of his work and process to which I would like to draw the reader’s attention.
Almodóvar has said that it is pain that inspires him, not happiness. Born in 1949 in the Mancha region, he both experienced, and indeed contributed to, the radical changes which accompanied the end of Spain’s 36-year-long dictatorship under Francisco Franco in 1975. However, the director has said that he chose not to think about or discuss the painful memories of fascism or Franco in his earlier films. Almodóvar describes this as a way of getting ‘revenge’ on the dictator by depriving the deceased autocrat of the recognition he so desperately sought in life. In a 2021 profile of Almodóvar, Guardian journalist Simon Hattenstone describes Parallel Mothers (2021) - Almodóvar’s most explicit condemnation of the Franco legacy - as evidence of a ‘change of heart’. However, I would suggest that Almodóvar’s earlier films do reveal and critique the lasting effects of Franco's dictatorship, though are done so in a more subtle manner which deprives the perpetrator of any credit.
For example, in What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984), Almodóvar exposes this period as one which, beneath a veil of relative improvement, lay a number of darker issues, including severe unemployment and an addiction epidemic. The title of the film alone prompts viewers to question the cause of such suffering faced by the working-class family at the centre of this piece. The film undoubtedly belongs to the ‘movida madrileña’: an artistic, countercultural movement that took off in Madrid, where Almodóvar had moved to aged 18, in the build up to and following Franco's death in 1975.
This movement, like many of Almodóvar’s films, has been described as ‘punk, promiscuous, queer, anti-clerical and rampantly hedonistic’. Almodóvar recognises the liberation of La Movida and the joy of being young and alive at this time. Part of this change was seen in what themes could be discussed, written about and televised in Spain, including sexuality, the female struggle and that of the working class. During this transitional period, Almodóvar, who had previously gone relatively unknown, gained numerous underground followers in Madrid and Barcelona, who would end up contributing over $3,000 toward his debut film: Pepi, Luci, Bom and the Other Girls on the Heap (1980). In an interview this year, Almodóvar describes himself as a person who comes from this period, which, according to the director, meant ‘lots of drugs, lots of sex, lots of everything’.
Almodóvar’s cinematic sources of inspiration include the works of Alfred Hitchcock and Spanish-Mexican director Luis Buñuel. While Almodóvar draws inspiration from some of these directors' most innovative techniques, I would suggest that his work goes much further than that. The skill with which Almodóvar brings queer and feminist themes into the mainstream and blends genres, such as melodrama, thriller and dark comedy, within his films surpasses that of his idols. Penélope Cruz, who has appeared in eight of his films, also attests to the good atmosphere on Almodóvar’s sets. She describes having an amazing time on the set of Volver (2006), which was filmed in the director’s home region.
A key feature of many Almodóvar films is a tendency towards the meta. Meta, meaning self-referential, is a pretentious and over-used term but one which, in this case, is truly appropriate. In Almodóvar’s films, the meta manifests itself in multiple ways, whether as films-within-films, references to his own life and experiences or references to his own previous work. In his 2019 film Pain and Glory, Almodóvar dressed Antonio Banderas, who plays a struggling director, in the director’s own clothes. It is Almodóvar’s connection with his own material which is perhaps his greatest strength. Almodóvar’s predominantly female ensemble films have often been viewed as a testimony to the women from his childhood, particularly his mother. This can be seen in Volver, in which Cruz stars as a Raimunda: a sharp, steadfast mother willing to do anything to protect her daughter. Indeed, Cruz suggests that much of Almodóvar’s talent and humour came from his mother.
Charles Hubbard
Now 76 years old, Almodóvar declared this year that he does not ever want to rest. Almodóvar’s most recent film, Bitter Christmas (2026), is his 24th film - it appears that Tarantino’s ten films rule does not apply to everybody! Alongside demonstrating a distinct ability to work with extreme material, exploring complex themes such as grief and identity, Almodóvar also shows an artistic preference to use high heels as a key motif as opposed to bare feet.
Featured image: IMDb / Pedro Almodóvar
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