Pedro Almodóvar (born September 25, 1949, Calzada de Calatrava, Spain) is a Spanish filmmaker known for colourful melodramatic films that often feature sexual themes.
As a young man, Almodóvar moved to Madrid with the hopes of attending the Spanish national film school, but it had recently been closed under dictator Francisco Franco’s rule. With this avenue blocked, he purchased a Super-8 camera and began making his own short films.
Almodóvar’s first feature-length film, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (1980; Pepi, Luci, Bom, and Other Girls like Mom), which he also wrote, explores the punk rock scene in Madrid in the years after Franco’s death. Ostensibly a comedy, the film also traffics in themes of rape, corruption, and revenge. After several other early efforts, Almodóvar wrote and directed a series of films starring Antonio Banderas. The first two films, Matador (1986) and La ley del deseo (1987; Law of Desire), deal with the intersection between violence and sexual desire. A dizzying farce called Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) won international acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film. Almodóvar followed it with ¡Átame! (1990; Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), which attracted criticism from women’s advocacy groups for a plot in which a mentally ill man (played by Banderas) successfully persuades a woman he has kidnapped to fall in love with him. Carne trémula (1997; Live Flesh), based on a Ruth Rendell novel and starring Javier Bardem, examines the tangled consequences of an accidental gunshot. It was also the first of numerous Almodóvar’s films to feature Penélope Cruz.
Almodóvar’s reputation soared with Todo sobre mi madre (1999; All About My Mother), which he also wrote. The film—the bittersweet story of a woman’s search for her recently deceased son’s father—won an Academy Award for best foreign-language film, and Almodóvar was honoured as best director at the Cannes film festival. He received similar praise for the emotionally charged Hable con ella (2002; Talk to Her), for which he garnered an Oscar for best original screenplay, in addition to a nomination for best director. Almodóvar subsequently directed La mala educación (2004; Bad Education), which takes on sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church; the family drama Volver (2006; “To Return”); and Los abrazos rotos (2009; Broken Embraces), a stylish exercise in film noir. The latter two films starred Cruz.
After more than 20 years, Almodóvar reteamed with Banderas for La piel que habito (2011; The Skin I Live In), a psychological thriller about a plastic surgeon who performs experiments on a woman he holds captive. The campy, socially pointed comedy Los amantes pasajeros (I’m So Excited!), set aboard an airplane preparing for an emergency landing, followed in 2013. Three years later he helmed and wrote Julieta, a drama about an estranged mother and daughter; it was based on several short stories by Alice Munro. Almodóvar then worked with Banderas and Cruz on Dolor y gloria (2019; Pain & Glory), about a director contemplating his life. He and Cruz later earned acclaim for Madres paralelas (2021; Parallel Mothers), which centres on the relationship between two single women who give birth on the same day. Interwoven with that story is an examination of the lasting influence of Spain’s Civil War and the dictatorship of Franco.