![]() ![]() ![]() Not overly in-depth, but there nevertheless. What lies beneath that exhale? What concerns separate Almodóvar’s cinema from those of others?Ī heads-up for any readers, there will be a section on sexual violence. The earlier films have a remarkable depth to them that is occasionally obscured by their sheer energy – one can palpably feel the exhaling of Spain’s creatives, outcasts, and misfits all at once after Franco’s death. Granted, whilst Almodóvar has enjoyed more international critical success during the second phase of his career, it shouldn’t stop those interested in his work from venturing into his early material. His most recent film I’m So Excited (2013), whilst rather unfairly dismissed by most critics, would likely be nearly as applauded as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) were it released back then. ![]() Of course, he didn’t stick to one genre in either phase either one of his greatest early films, The Law of Desire (1987), engages with sexual and gender identity amidst a burning romance as if it were the kind of melodrama that would make statues melt, and would fit snugly between All About My Mother (1999) and Talk to Her (2002) were it released then. He has in that time period been perhaps the only Spanish director to have achieved and maintained a sustained period of commercial and critical acclaim worldwide, with each new film of his an event amongst cinephiles almost everywhere (notwithstanding a few pernickety naysayers) – a problem that is likely to do with the pot-luck of cinema distribution deals than with any particular deficiency on the part of Spanish filmmakers.īroadly, his career can be split into two main phases: the bawdy transgressive sexual comedies and farces of his early years (stretching from his first feature film Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom in 1980, up to Kika in 1993), and the subtler, narratively complex high melodramas of his later years (The Flower of My Secret in 1995 to the present day).īoth sections of his career share broad interests thematically, though they tackle them in different ways, and there is a clear difference in the way Almodóvar crafted his films in the early days, and how he crafts them today. Pedro Almodóvar has been a mainstay of Spanish cinema for the last 30+ years, emerging in the years after General Franco’s death and the country’s shift towards democracy. ![]()
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