• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 10 / 18 / 2010

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Without a doubt, Pedro Almodovar is one of favorite directors of the Cinemateca de Cuba. Not in vain whenever Todo sobre mi madre and Hable appear on billboard they cause a revolution on 23rd and 12 streets. Queues round the block, notwithstanding many have likely seen it now and those who haven’t; await outside with a prudent time ahead.

These two, plus Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, Carne trémula and Tacones lejanos have surpassed the border of fashion that makes the audience run from one movie to the other because someone has told them: “You cannot miss that film”, though you forget it some months later.

For all the chauvinism of our people, Almodovar has got bogged down in the present along with the songs by Roberto Carlos, Jose Jose, La niña de los hoyitos and other works and artists like that… give or take some obvious differences and tastes, of course.

Almodovar’s transvestites, his ingenuous prostitutes, his prurient nuns and priests, his enamored nurses, his murderous girls… all his characters are the living manifestation of postmodernism to critics and sociologists.

But the director, who hasn’t deigned a lot to puzzle out the ins and outs of his filmography either, has actually managed to remark that he does not intend to make parodies, nor to mock genres like melodrama. He seriously believes what he says. He’s what is seen, without formal games or double intentions.

Maybe our people have managed to see that better than the academy. They know that deprived people carry a heart in the chest too and that’s why, when “Todo sobre mi madre” or “Hable con ella” are over, the audience face the lights hiding their tears, which as is evident are not inspired by the  makeup or photography, but life itself, which can be as wretched as Almodovar describes it.

So that everything is said, makeup and photography make theirs too. And the stage design of a declining world which features fussy characters, who often can be repulsive. We’ve seen in them actresses such as Carmen Maura, Penelope Cruz, Cecilia Roth, who often have lost their own names to take that of their characters forever.

The fact is that Almodovar gives lives beyond female roles, due to his deep interest and knowledge for women. His work can be seen as a great tribute to that sex.

However, men have also managed to occupy a nutritious place in his work.  Dario Grandinetti, Antonio Banderas and Gael Garcia have passed in front of his camera to stay forever. And let it be clearly understood that this is not only a list of names. Each of them, Gael’s Ignacio and Grandinetti’s Marco have questionable psychologies.

Joaquin Sabina, in turn, prefers to be an Almodovar girl, as he says in one of his songs. Maybe because his women, sooner or later, manage to look at life straight and overcome the fear of being what nobody expects. I think that’s the grain of courage that turns his films into cult works.

By Justo Planas

Cubasi Translation Staff