Matador (Pedro Almodóvar, 1985)

Assumpta Serna and Nacho Martínez

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar and Jesús Ferrero

Cast: Assumpta Serna, Nacho Martínez, Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura, Eusebio Poncela, Eva Cobo, Chus Lampreave, Julieta Serrano.

Synopsis: Bullfighting, sex, and death. Sometimes all at once.

This is a bit of an odd one -and Almodóvar admits that he can understand why (to the viewer) the themes (death and destiny) may appear more important than the story (Strauss 2006: 53). The two most memorable scenes (at least, the ones that I remembered ten years after seeing the film for the first time) are the beginning and ending. In the first, we hear the retired bullfighter, Diego (Martínez), describing the perfect kill (in the bullring) to a class of students while we see (meanwhile) María (Serna) killing her lover by the method being described. The closing sequence brings together the same themes (and characters) in an elaborate 'death-as-the-ultimate-orgasm' finale. 

¡Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? / What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Pedro Almodóvar, 1984)

Verónica Forqué and Carmen Maura

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Carmen Maura, Chus Lampreave, Verónica Forqué, Kiti Manver, Angel de Andrés López.

Synopsis: Gloria (Maura) is a prescription drug-addicted working mother struggling to make ends meet for her family.

'Almodóvar-does-social-realism' but with mordant black humour, children being sold to paedophile dentists to cover the bill, the Hitler diaries, death by hambone, and a little girl with telekinesis. Darkly funny and probably the first of Almodóvar’s films to show what Maura is really capable of.

Laberinto de pasiones / Labyrinth of Passion (Pedro Almodóvar, 1982)

Imanol Arias and Fanny McNamara

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Cecilia Roth, Imanol Arias, Antonio Banderas, Marta Fernández-Muro, Helga Liné

Synopsis: Heirs to fallen Arab empires, nymphomaniacs, terrorists who track people through sense of smell, test-tube babies, incest, and squabbling band members.

Sexilia (Roth) and Riza Niro (Arias) are ostensibly the couple at the centre of the film, but the plot is a bit of a mess -there are simply too many characters and too much going on. Highlights: Imanol Arias joining a band and having a blast on stage; and a baby-faced Banderas as a gay terrorist who tracks people through his powerful sense of smell.

Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón / Pepi, Luci, Bom and other girls on the heap (Pedro Almodóvar, 1980)

Alaska, Eva Siva and Carmen Maura

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Carmen Maura, Alaska, Eva Siva, Félix Rotaeta

Synopsis: When Pepi (Maura) is raped by a policeman (Rotaeta) she vows revenge -she ropes in her rock star friend Bom (Alaska) to help compromise (and liberate) the policeman's seemingly docile wife, Luci (Siva). 

This is not one of my favourite Almodóvar films, but despite its crudity (in form and content) it nonetheless has moments of infectious fun. Stylistically there is little to connect this to the director's later work, but his sense of humour (a combination of the outrageous and the mundane) is in evidence, and what would become the recurring theme of female friendship and solidarity is also apparent in the relationship between Luci and Bom.

Almodóvar Month begins…

So August has arrived, the countdown to the UK release (on the 26th) of La piel que habito / The Skin I Live In starts, and it’s Almodóvar Month here at Nobody Knows Anybody.

I haven’t managed to do quite what I wanted (in a previous post I said that I hoped to write about my ten favourite Almodóvar films), but I think I’ll actually manage to say something (however short) about all seventeen films and will write something about the eighteenth once I get to see it.

Here’s what will be appearing on the blog throughout August:

• I’ve written a paragraph on each of the films and those will be posted up in chronological order with basic credits and a synopsis.
• There will be an Almodóvar ‘book list’ in the style of the Spanish cinema ones I have posted previously.
• There will be a series of longer posts looking at specific films –including High Heels, Live Flesh, Talk to Her, and Volver. These won't be going up in chronological order because I'm still writing the High Heels one.
• There may also be some other things –for example, I’d quite like to write something about his film posters, but it depends on how much time I have.

Anyway, hopefully there’ll be something for everyone (providing they like the films), and please feel free to chip in via the comments section with your thoughts about the various films –have I underestimated one? Or over-praised another?