Pedro Almodovar is arguable the greatest and most internationally respected director to emerge from Spain, since Buñuel, and during February we celebrate his work in our Director’s Series screening on Sunday evenings.

Pedro Almodovar is arguably the greatest and most internationally respected director to emerge from Spain, since Buñuel, and during February we celebrate his work in our Director’s Series screening on Sunday evenings.

From a young age, Almodovar knew he wanted to be a filmmaker, but when aged 16 he left home for Madrid Franco had just closed the Official Film School. Instead of studying film he worked sporadic jobs until he settled into a 12-year career as an office assistant at the National Telephone Company of Spain. In his spare time Almodovar wrote scripts, short stories, was involved in theatre with the independent group Los Goliardos, and made films in Super-8. He was also a member of the punk rock group Almodovar and McNamara. All these life experiences fueled his stories and informed his style of storytelling.

Almodovar’s first film Pepi, Luci, Bom opened in 1980. It took a year and a half to film, was shot on 16 mm, and used a cast and crew who were new to the film world (except for actress Carmen Maura). There was, as you’d expect, no budget.

These days Almodovar is an award winning filmmaker with a production company that nurtures up and coming Spanish filmmakers. He’s never left Spain for the bright lights of Hollywood, preferring to make the films he wants to make, the way he wants to make them at home.

Almodovar’s films have been described as outrageous masterpieces, disturbing and brilliant, odd and interesting, and, occasionally, flawed and creepy. They make for excellent Sunday night viewing this month.

The selection of his film’s screening this month are:

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Sunday 3^rd February, 8.30pm)

This was Almodovar’s international breakthrough film, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film in 1989. The film stars Carmen Maura, who declared the shoot was a “living hell” and refused to work with Almodovar for years afterwards. It also stared Antonio Banderas, who has now appeared in six Almodovar films - Labyrinth of Passion, Matador, The Law of Desire, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!, and The Skin I Live In - although Banderas took a 21-year break between the last two.

The Flower of My Secret (Sunday 10^th February, 8.30pm)

In the words of David Rooney (Variety), “Propelled by stellar performances and a script that resonates with intelligence, subtlety and surprises, this is by far Almodovar's best film in years. The Flower of My Secret was released in 1995.

All About My Mother (Sunday 17^th February, 8.30pm)

Almodovar launched Antonio Banderas’s career in Hollywood, and also discovered Penelope Cruz, who stars in this 2000 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film. Cruz’s first Almodovar’s film was Live Flesh (1997), followed by All About My Mother (1999), Volver (2006), the first film Almodovar wrote specifically for his muse, and finally Broken Embraces (2009). Almodovar described his relationship with his Cruz in an interview recently saying, "I think in the relationship between a director and his muse there's a connection that goes beyond words. There's a feeling, even when we are on set surrounded by people and noise, that it's just me and her, that we are the only people in the room."

All About My Mother also won a Golden Globe, César, three European Film Awards, the David de Donatello, two BAFTAs, seven Goyas and another forty-five awards. Probably worth catching!

Bad Education (Sunday 24^th February, 8.30pm)

Almodovar worked on the script for this “film noir” for over a decade, and became aware that if he didn’t just get on and get shooting he’d more than likely spend another decade working on it. Almodovar describes it as an “intimate” film, and while it’s not strictly autobiographical, he draws on his own memories and experiences from the 60s and especially the early 80’s when Spain experienced an explosion of freedom.

Enjoy.