Posterized: The Almodóvar 19
Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at 10:00AM 
It was with great shame Friday that I realized I'm So Excited had landed and I hadn't done that Entire Retrospective of Pedro Almodóvar's Filmography that I suggested I'd be doing all spring. And here we are in July. My plans are always much larger than the hours filling each day as you know.
I know a lot of people aren't crazy about the new picture I'm So Excited (reviewed) which is a very silly raunchy gay comedy but I laughed a lot. I'm going again with friends this weekend because what better way to celebrate America's Independence than... uh... catching a Pedro movie! Support your world class auteurs so that all movies without superheroes don't end up going straight to VOD by 2017.
Herewith the Almodóvar Filmography with a few notes...
1978 His first full length film was on Super 8 and called Folle, folle, fólleme, Tim... (Fuck Me Fuck Me Fuck Me Tim) starring Carmen Maura, the first muse. Sometimes I don't believe this movie exists. I've never been able to find it and it sure would be a cool curio to see.
1980 Pepi, Luci, Bom which is officially his debut film (sorry, Tim!) and also difficult to find. These first two -- I wanted to go chronologically -- tripped up my plans for that retrospective.
1982 Labyrinth of Passion (The Film Debut of Antonio Banderas. Pedro's only significant male muse)
1983 Dark Habits I always think of this one about drug-addled sex-crazed nuns as Pedro's John Waters movie... though obviously Pedro is a far superior filmmaker. It's just that they share a love of bad taste.
1984 What Have I Done To Deserve This This oddity about an apartment block housing a telekinetic child and a woman with a terrible idea of parenting (yes, do sell off your son to that pervy dentist!) is definitely worth seeking out
1986 Matador This was the only Almodóvar movie I ever (initially) hated but on second viewing for Hit Me With Your Best Shot I became a fan.
1987 Law of Desire is my personal favorite for nostalgia and queer reasons. This was the first Pedro film I was culturally aware of (I read a review in the Detroit Free Press and was desperate, but too young, to see it). I saw it for the first time in college in the early Nineties and to date it's the Pedro film I've seen the most often with four viewings.
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was my first moviegoing trip to Almodóvarland. Many people around the world can claim the same. This neurotic gazpacho loving comedy was the auteur's global breakthrough becoming a huge arthouse hit in many countries, winning his first Oscar nomination and establishing Pedro as his own must-see "brand".
1990 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! This erotic drama about a man kidnapping a porn actress started the short-lived reign of Victoria Abril as chief muse. It was rated NC-17 and very scandalous at the time for its nudity and epic simultaneous orgasm sex scene. It's also, prurient-interest scandals aside, very good.
1991 High Heels I can't explain or remember why I haven't seen this one. Have you?
1993 Kika Abril's last moment as Almodóvar's principle muse. Why'd they break up so quickly? I've only seen this once and the most vivid memory, beyond the costuming, is a sticky one. Almodovar was making jizz-on-the-face jokes four years before Happiness & There's Something About Mary were doing it in American cinema.
1995 The Flower of My Secret is generally regarded as the turning point in his oeuvre when he became "respectable" and less campy. Starring Marisa Paredes who has appeared in six of his films
1997 Live Flesh (Enter Penélope Cruz... albeit briefly) I know many people who swear by this movie and though it has its moments, I've never been particularly fond of it despite an excellent utilization of Javier Bardem in an early charismatic performance.
1999 All About My Mother the Oscar Winning masterpiece
2002 Talk to Her Another Oscar winning masterpiece
2004 Bad Education Pedro's third consecutive awesomeness in his most acclaimed period. Gael García Bernal was more than worthy of a Best Actor & Best Actress nomination, right?
2006 Volver (Penélope Cruz Ascends) Here Pedro suddenly entered that weird career position, familiar only to greats but dichomotously enviable/pitiable, of 'so great you're taken for granted'. The Film Experience is firmly of the position that this belongs in the same hallowed hall, with no conditions, as his two most universally lauded pictures (i.e. All About Talking to My Mother). Instead the response was curiously shruggy, like, "well, it's no Talk To Her"... as if that sort of universally successfully definitive career capper from a famous director (box office + critical hosannas + oscar + different enough but also exactly that director beauty) happens like every other week and we should expect it!
2009 Broken Embraces I've never warmed to this one, despite luminous work from Cruz.
2011 The Skin I Live In (The Return of Antonio!) Underloved but then it's far chillier than his films generally are. The auteur's first "horror" film of sorts, though he's always played with genre riffs.
A FEW MORE TIDBITS
My 5 favorites...
- Law of Desire
- Talk to Her
- Volver
- All About My Mother
- Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Javier Camara (Talk To Her, Bad Education) gets his third plum Pedro gig with "I'm So Excited"10 Most Frequent Repertory Players... (lemme know if i missed someone)
- Carmen Maura - 8 films (all but one are leading roles)
- Chus Lampreave - 8 films (supporting only)
- Antonio Banderas - 7 films (lead & supporting)
- Cecilia Roth - 7 films (lead & supporting)
- Marisa Paredes - 6 films (one lead, otherwise supporting)
- Rossy de Palma -6 films (supporting only... but that face!)
- Penélope Cruz - 5 films (lead & supporting)
- Julieta Serrano - 5 films (supporting only)
- Victoria Abril - 4 films (all but one are leading roles)
- Lola Dueñas - 4 films (supporting only)
Carmen Machi - 4 films (supporting only)
Kiti Manver - 4 films (supporting only)
So go see I'm So Excited (2013) because how many more Almodóvar's are we going to see in theaters? The Oscar winning auteur is now 63 years old. How long do you think he'll keep up his usual post-80s pace of a new movie every other year? He has nothing left to prove and with Penélope Cruz only intermittently available given her Hollywood success, he might actually be muse-free at the moment.
Reader Comments (25)
Your planned retrospective was so threatening to me because I hadn't seen all of them and you certainly would have spoiled their secrets if you posted screenshots and your overly opinionated plot synopsis — thank god none of this occurred.
Oh, I was craving for this one!!! Thank God you didn't ask for a favorite poster. Too much beauty here.
"Fuck Me Tim" does exist. I've never seen it and YES it's impossible to find, but I know for sure it was screened at San Sebastian Film Festival in 1993 during a tribute or something.
I've seen them all at least twice. For years Law of Desire was the one with most viewings -the things I had to do to see that one- but since Volver stole my heart in 2006 I watch it once every year... well, sometimes twice. I totally agree it was overlooked.
Nat, I personally loved Broken Embraces; in fact, I think that I prefer it to Volver.
I haven't seen all that many Almodovar films, for a variety of reasons, but I did see High Heels in first-run, but not since.
Law of Desire: I couldn't agree with you more, Nathaniel.
In fact, our top 5s are pretty similar:
Law of Desire
All About My Mother
Volver
Bad Education
Talk to Her
I am totally with you re Volver. To me - much like All About My Mother and Talk to Her - that's one for the ages - easily among my Top 3 films of the aughts.
As for my own journey with the greatest working director - since we're taking things chronologically:
"Fuck Me Fuck Me Fuck Me Tim" sounds both fabulous and like a sentence I never thought I would type. I shall seek it out.
"Pepi Luci Bom" isn't technically a very good film but for the fact that over three decades later it retains its shock value, it's its own kind of remarkable. Also, was this the one with the weird underwear ads starring Cecilia Roth? Those were genius.
"Labyrinth of Passion" kinda bored me, I must confess. By far my least favourite of his films but it has its moments.
"Dark Habits" also has its moments but finds Almodovar still struggling to find his footing.
"What Have I Done to Deserve This" is where he really hit his stride.
I'm more muted towards "Matador" than I tend to be towards Pedro's better-regarded films but I do nonetheless quite like it. I remember finding it rather unsettling, and I also remember Chus Lampreave being wonderfully and effortlessly snappy with a policeman at her door.
When I first saw "Law of Desire" I was a deeply homophobic teenage boy from the Balkans. So I was scandalised. And disgusted. And compulsively rewinding that sex scene with Senor Banderas, who may very well have been instrumental to my (eventual) sexual awakening. It was only upon a second viewing that I properly and madly fell in love with the movie, though I find "Bad Education" covers similar ground a tad more resonantly (and underratedly).
For the title alone I went to "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" with high expectations and emerged disappointed. Again - as with the majority, if not all, of Almodovar's films - it took Maura, de Palma and co. two viewings to legitimately seduce me.
I still feel slightly guilty for finding "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" thoroughly delightful. But I do. I really really do.
"High Heels" I still haven't seen simply because I like the feeling of having a 90s Almodovar discovery to look forward to. I know it's not meant to be one of his best, but still - I like knowing it's there for me to turn to one day when I'm feeling particularly low for whatever reason.
"Kika" I also haven't seen, though I will very soon, since everyone says it's bad, so there's no point in me delaying gratification.
"Flower of My Secret" is indeed a turning point for Almodovar and strange in a very un-Almodovarian way. I like it more for where it stands in Almodovar's development as an artist than for its own storytelling merits.
"Live Flesh" is a perfect example of how even 'minor Almodovar' makes for the kind of cinema you can get drunk on. (I'm talking about more than just the abundance of criminally sexy men and women).
"All About My Mother" is bliss and very immediate in its impact.
"Talk to Her" on the other hand I was very resistant towards upon first viewing. Expecting an "AAMM" rehash, I didn't connect to it at all, and while I admired the silent sequence, I found the rest of the story far too emotionally muted.
Fortunately an older and wiser Goran decided to tackle this oddity one more time in the mid-Aughts, and older and wiser Goran cried like a little girl.
I went to film school the following year, and when we were asked to play a film that inspired us, this is the title I selected.
I love this movie like I love very few movies - indeed like I love almost no movies made after 1968. It's the movie highlight of the decade for me and still one of the reasons I'm glad I'm alive.
With "Bad Education" I had a similar - if slightly less intense - journey. Impressed but reserved upon first viewing. Breathless and emotionally devastated upon a second viewing. It's a near-masterpiece and in some ways, his most underappreciated work.
Then came "Volver", which upon first viewing I was enjoying on a relatively superficial level, up until that hypnotically casual climactic mother-daughter revelation left me completely disarmed only for that final image of Maura ascending the stairs to leave me in a state of movie nirvana. Once again, let me reiterate - this is no 'minor pleasure': this is layered, inspired, galvanising humanist cinema of the highest order. Its deceptive/astonishing depth really only becomes apparent with repeat viewings. As far as I'm concerned, there were no other movies made in 2006.
And then we get to "Broken Embraces", which is technically a lot of fun and fabulously visualised, and in my top 10 for that (crushingly weak) year. And yet after Pedro's canonical 1-2-3-4 punch, it still feels like something of a lapse. Penelope is in some ways even more complex and astonishing here than she was in Volver, and the imagery is to die for, but ultimately there was just one bloated monologue too many. In fact, I remember being far more entranced by its teaser trailer than I was by the movie. Perhaps if Pedro didn't feel compelled to explicate every last facet of the story, I would have been more moved. Or perhaps, I just need to see this film for a second time already.
"The Skin I Live in" is a thrilling, gorgeous, impeccably constructed (if small-scale) gem, and didn't deserve to be taken for granted the way it was.
"I'm So Excited" is yet to reach these antipodean shores. But despite the tepid reviews, let me just say: I'm freaking excited.
For the record my Top 5 goes:
1. Talk to Her
2. Volver
3. All About My Mother
4. Bad Education
5. Law of Desire
But really, you could play me any random five minutes from this man's filmography, and I would be in movie heaven.
I am totally with you re Volver. To me - much like All About My Mother and Talk to Her - that's one for the ages - easily among my Top 3 films of the aughts.
As for my own journey with the greatest working director - since we're taking things chronologically:
"Fuck Me Fuck Me Fuck Me Tim" sounds both fabulous and like a sentence I never thought I would type. I shall seek it out.
"Pepi Luci Bom" isn't technically a very good film but for the fact that over three decades later it retains its shock value, it's its own kind of remarkable. Also, was this the one with the weird underwear ads starring Cecilia Roth? Those were genius.
"Labyrinth of Passion" kinda bored me, I must confess. By far my least favourite of his films but it has its moments.
"Dark Habits" also has its moments but finds Almodovar still struggling to find his footing.
"What Have I Done to Deserve This" is where he really hit his stride.
I'm more muted towards "Matador" than I tend to be towards Pedro's better-regarded films but I do nonetheless quite like it. I remember finding it rather unsettling, and I also remember Chus Lampreave being wonderfully and effortlessly snappy with a policeman at her door.
When I first saw "Law of Desire" I was a deeply homophobic teenage boy from the Balkans. So I was scandalised. And disgusted. And compulsively rewinding that sex scene with Senor Banderas, who may very well have been instrumental to my (eventual) sexual awakening. It was only upon a second viewing that I properly and madly fell in love with the movie, though I find "Bad Education" covers similar ground a tad more resonantly (and underratedly).
For the title alone I went to "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" with high expectations and emerged disappointed. Again - as with the majority, if not all, of Almodovar's films - it took Maura, de Palma and co. two viewings to legitimately seduce me.
I still feel slightly guilty for finding "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" thoroughly delightful. But I do. I really really do.
"High Heels" I still haven't seen simply because I like the feeling of having a 90s Almodovar discovery to look forward to. I know it's not meant to be one of his best, but still - I like knowing it's there for me to turn to one day when I'm feeling particularly low for whatever reason.
"Kika" I also haven't seen, though I will very soon, since everyone says it's bad, so there's no point in me delaying gratification.
"Flower of My Secret" is indeed a turning point for Almodovar and strange in a very un-Almodovarian way. I like it more for where it stands in Almodovar's development as an artist than for its own storytelling merits.
"Live Flesh" is a perfect example of how even 'minor Almodovar' makes for the kind of cinema you can get drunk on. (I'm talking about more than just the abundance of criminally sexy men and women).
"All About My Mother" is bliss and very immediate in its impact.
"Talk to Her" on the other hand I was very resistant towards upon first viewing. Expecting an "AAMM" rehash, I didn't connect to it at all, and while I admired the silent sequence, I found the rest of the story far too emotionally muted.
Fortunately an older and wiser Goran decided to tackle this oddity one more time in the mid-Aughts, and older and wiser Goran cried like a little girl.
I went to film school the following year, and when we were asked to play a film that inspired us, this is the title I selected.
I love this movie like I love very few movies - indeed like I love almost no movies made after 1968. It's the movie highlight of the decade for me and still one of the reasons I'm glad I'm alive.
With "Bad Education" I had a similar - if slightly less intense - journey. Impressed but reserved upon first viewing. Breathless and emotionally devastated upon a second viewing. It's a near-masterpiece and in some ways, his most underappreciated work.
Then came "Volver", which upon first viewing I was enjoying on a relatively superficial level, up until that hypnotically casual climactic mother-daughter revelation left me completely disarmed only for that final image of Maura ascending the stairs to leave me in a state of movie nirvana. Once again, let me reiterate - this is no 'minor pleasure': this is layered, inspired, galvanising humanist cinema of the highest order. Its deceptive/astonishing depth really only becomes apparent with repeat viewings. As far as I'm concerned, there were no other movies made in 2006.
And then we get to "Broken Embraces", which is technically a lot of fun and fabulously visualised, and in my top 10 for that (crushingly weak) year. And yet after Pedro's canonical 1-2-3-4 punch, it still feels like something of a lapse. Penelope is in some ways even more complex and astonishing here than she was in Volver, and the imagery is to die for, but ultimately there was just one bloated monologue too many. In fact, I remember being far more entranced by its teaser trailer than I was by the movie. Perhaps if Pedro didn't feel compelled to explicate every last facet of the story, I would have been more moved. Or perhaps, I just need to see this film for a second time already.
"The Skin I Live in" is a thrilling, gorgeous, impeccably constructed (if small-scale) gem, and didn't deserve to be taken for granted the way it was.
"I'm So Excited" is yet to reach these antipodean shores. But despite the tepid reviews, let me just say: I'm freaking excited.
For the record my Top 5 goes:
1. Talk to Her
2. Volver
3. All About My Mother
4. Bad Education
5. Law of Desire
But really, you could play me any random five minutes from this man's filmography, and I would be in movie heaven.
I obviously have only seen his seven latest features and out of those two I'm not really fond are Broken Embraces and Talk To Her.
Pedro's films are always something I look forward to because whether it's a hit or miss, I know I'm getting something, like a good story or performance. Whether it's a drama, thriller, kinky or raunchy.
I have seen all his films ( except this last one that hasn't landed in my city yet ). My top three:
1.All About My Mother
2.High Heels
3.Volver
Only 7! The only pre-All About My Mother film I've seen is Woman on the Verge... I own a number of others on DVD and have been meaning to watch them forever. Perhaps this will give me the needed kick in the pants.
I love everything from The Flower of My Secret to The Skin I Live In. I don't like his camp phase at all, except for the magnificent Tie me Up Tie Me Down. I don't like anything from the 80's.
I think the great Almodóvar is this somber one, dark and emotional.
Talk To Her is like the best movie of the 2000's, tied with Kings and Queen.
Make me cry again, Pedro!
Talk to Her is by far my favorite Pedro film,,,
Does anyone else get the plots of many of his films confused with each other like I do?
"Volver' was the first Almodovar film I saw, and I was instantly hooked. I bought my friend an Almodovar collection for his birthday just so I could borrow it and watch all of the ones I'd missed. Then when "Broken Embraces" came out, I saw it with a fellow Hitchcock and Almodovar fan, and we walked out of the theater practically squealing.
I'm going to express an unpopular opinion and say that "The Skin I Live In" is my favorite film. I fully acknowledge it isn't his *greatest* film, but it's my personal favorite. It's a technically superb, beautifully composed film and even upon multiple viewings it remains chilling and intense. I'm not usually one for the thriller genre, but it draws me in every time.
I've seen 8, although I saw Women on the Verge... long ago and barely remember it. I'm not a fan of Bad Education, which seems to me to meander everywhere without grabbing me. I think Almodovar is better with women.
I think Volver is absolute perfection.
A ranking:
1. Volver
2. Talk to Her
3. Broken Embraces (I love! love!)
4. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
5. All About My Mother
6. The Skin I Live In
7. Bad Education
(Not ranking the one I don't remember.)
I think I'll go with the list of the films I like least:
- Matador. I can't stand it. I just can't. It helps that I find bullfighting repulsive. Not as an intellectual standpoint. it literally makes me sick in the stomach. Also, Eva Cobo must be the worst actress that ever worked with him.
- Kika. I think it's just a misfire.
- Bad Education.This is one case when I admire and respect everyone's work, but I can't love it, because I find Law of Desire better, probably for sentimental reasons.
- Live Flesh. Another misfire, sometimes I wonder how last minute cast changes affect his movies. I can't feel any empathy for Francesca Neri's character, and I think Javier Bardem is far from his best work here.
I adore All About My Mother. Without the final appearance of the father in drag, I think it would a perfect movie. I didn't like it in a first viewing, but interestingly enough my boyfriend by then made me see it a second time, and then I loved it. Maybe I should've kept that boyfriend?
You should watch High Heels, it''s an over the top head to head acting showcase for both Victoria Abril and Marisa Paredes (co-leads) with some scenery chewing, murders, jail musical numbers and travenstites.
My comment above sounds too negative. I made a negative lidt because I just can't make a list of my favourite ones, because they change all the time, but I love most of his films. I haven't seen that first rarity nor the last one. It went by and couldn't catch it, but in general I could see a new Almodóvar film every month and I'd be happy.
Remember when Pedro and Antonio were in Madonn's Truth or Date...amazing.
Hi Nathaniel:
I work for iN DEMAND and we distribute all the new release movies to cable's VOD platform (which we call Movies On Demand). We work with all the major studios and all the indies. Most titles are either same day as DVD, or around the same time as theatrical. would you like to get early listings of the titles coming up each month?
/3rtful -- do you read the same site I write? my reviews are always careful never to reveal plot details past like the first 1/2 hour. Anyway... but in retrospectives it's true there is more freedom to spoil because it is assumed people will want to discuss the movies in detail.
Rankings:
1 All About My Mother
2 The Skin I Live In
3 Volver
4 Bad Education
5 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
6 Talk to Her
7 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
I pretty much like all of these but my Top 5 can easily change and move around.
Pedro went from good lightweight entertainer to master film maker with "Live Flesh" . "All About My Mother" and "Talk to Her"- form the early films "Law of Desire" and "Matador" are my favorites.
I've seen them all but Tim. I love Pedro. He's my favorite director...
I think I knew I was gay with "Matador"...
Fólleme Tim (which is toying with similarly sounded Folletin (soap) and fuck me Tim) is a short film, so no, his first feature film is Pepi.
I've been a life long fan of Almodovar, to the brink of obsession, watching almost all of his films in theaters since Matador. But it was when I went to see La ley del deseo that I was completely stunned by it. It remains my #1 Almodovar film to this day and one of the most satisfying and freeing experiences I have at the movies.
I don't recommend his latest film, I'm so exited, because for me it is a sad reminder that he is losing track with the world and starting to repeat himself. It wouldn't mind if the film were funny or entertaining, but it is neither. I'm eager to see what his next project is because I always wait for the best I know he is capable of.
seisgrados -- according to IMDb, "Tim" is a 90 minute full length feature. anyone know why there is so much discrepancy about the existence of this movie?
It's a movie shot in Super8 that never got properly released in theatres. Only in private parties and, as I said before, at San Sebastian Film Festival in 1993.