Pedro Almodóvar refused to work with Hollywood because he wanted to retain his artistic freedom. Nevertheless, the Spanish filmmaker impressed audiences around the world. His films are now being showcased at MoMA.
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MoMA shows the oeuvre of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar
The Spanish film director is honored with an exhibition covering his entire oeuvre in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Pedro Almodóvar personally opened the show, while presenting his latest film.
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Honoring Pedro Almodóvar
Now Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has made it into a museum. The art temple that also covers the film world is presenting all works of the film director from November 29 through December 17. Being the theme of a MoMA show is yet another honor for Almodóvar who has already received Oscars, European Film Prizes and Palme d'Ors.
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Latest work: 'Julieta'
His 20th movie, "Julieta," will hit US movie theaters in late December. The exhibition offers New Yorkers the very first opportunity to watch the melodrama about a woman and her unhappy relationship with her daughter. "Julieta" opens the MoMA retrospective on works by Almodóvar. The filmmaker himself is on hand to present his work.
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Oscar in 2000
In general, European filmmakers first need to receive an Oscar before US audiences take any particular notice of them. In 2000, Almodóvar managed precisely that. He was awarded an Oscar for Best Foreign Film for "All About My Mother."
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A review of early works
The MoMA show now enables American audiences to take a look at earlier and less well-known Almodóvar films. His early films tend to be even wilder and crazier than the later ones. One particular theme seems to dominate the entire oeuvre of the Spanish filmmaker, and that is "The Labyrinth of Passion" - which is also the title of his second movie from 1982.
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A women's director
One good reason why Almodóvar's films enjoy a lot of popularity is that they tend to present beautiful women in a positive way. The Spanish filmmaker likes to work with the same actresses - and some of them became stars thanks to him. Although Penélope Cruz wasn't discovered by Almodóvar, she owes him some of her best performances - like in "Volver" (2006).
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Driven by strange ideas - or love
Almodóvar also attributes important roles to his male stars. In 2011, Antonio Banderas starred in "The Skin I Live In" as a surgeon dreaming of a "better" human skin - an idea he also put into practice. In Almodóvar's films, male protagonists tend to be characters driven by a particular vision - or by love.
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Spanish clichés
Antonio Banderas also performed in Almodóvar's early work "Matador" (1986) where he played a young torero. Many of Almodóvar's films feature Spanish customs and traditions, as the filmmaker loves to play with the clichés of his home country.
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Sensual cinema
Almodóvar's films are known for their particular visual effects. Fixtures and décors play a big role, as demonstrated here by a scene out of "The Skin I Live In." Loud and trendy, shrill and always extraordinary in some way - that's why many of his films have reached a worldwide audience, also in the US.
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"I think if all filmmakers really made the films they wanted to make, they would be more original," Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar once said. The statement contains an important explanation for the director's sustained success. Almodóvar is an artist behind a movie camera - or, as Germans would call it, an "author filmmaker."
Personal stories in Almodóvar's films
It has always been important to Almodóvar to tell his own stories and visions on the big screen, and he's always remained true to this goal. He has depicted incredibly original female characters and men obsessed with sex and greed, and he's given homosexuality a great deal of space in his work. And he's managed to fit all of that into a melodramatic cinematic concept. He has always been the author of his own films.
Cinemagoers love his films precisely because they are so eccentric, so surprising, and so exaggeratedly melodramatic - even for audiences in the US, where art cinema has always found a niche next to big-budget Hollywood productions.
It's no coincidence that the renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which has reserved a section for film since 1935, offering large exhibitions and carefully curated retrospectives, is honoring Almodóvar with an exhibition.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder a role model
Other European directors like Federico Fellini and Rainer Werner Fassbinder were also greeted with great interest in the US, at least in the art film scene. Both filmmakers have always offered their audiences spectacular productions. Fassbinder's actors in their over-the-top outfits and his fixation on the theme of homosexuality foreshadowed Almodóvar's work to some extent, though the latter's Spanish flair clearly shined through.
And like Fellini and Fassbinder, Almodóvar always refused to go to Hollywood. He certainly had plenty of offers, especially in 2000 after he won an Oscar for his celebrated film "All About My Mother."
But Almodóvar preferred to retain his artistic freedom, which would not be possible in the hamster wheel of Hollywood.
Almodóvar in MoMA
He is presenting his most recent film, "Julieta," on Tuesday in MoMA. On December 1, actress Rossy de Palma will be on hand at the showing of "Kika," and and December 3, Almodóvar will be discussing his work in a live presentation.
MoMA is showing the Spanish director's complete works through December 17.
