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A Life Dedicated
to Film
a short bio of Pedro Almodovar by Debel
In
Almodovar on Almodovar edited by Frederic
Strauss, Pedro Almodovar recalls the land
of his birth, La Mancha, as a vast flat redness
without interruption which meets the sky on
the horizon. The first streets he saw were
the white streets and the white-washed walls
of his village. An empty landscape which gives
birth to artists with great imagination who
must fill it with their dreams. It is a place
to which he belongs but a place from which
he yearned to escape, feeling like an astronaut
at the court of King Arthur.
 The exact date of his birth is as diffcult
to define as the man himself. Born in the
late 40s or early 50s, depending on which
press release or book you check for such facts,
in the village of Cazalda de Calatrava. He
bought his first book at the age of nine.
He did not see his first movie until he was
about ten years of age. By twelve years he
was a self-professed nihilist. The priests
had nothing to say to him, but in the film
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which was considered
by the church to be the apotheosis of sin,
he recognized himself and felt he belonged
to the world of sin, of degeneracy in a life
which had no meaning.
That
is until his arrival in Madrid in 1968, where
he found there were other people who shared
his interests. He had passed the equivalent
of the Baccalaureat and had thought to go
to university and study film. But he didn't
have enough money and Franco had closed down
the film school. He attended the Film Institute,
read, bought himself a Super 8 camera and
lived a great deal. A job as an administrator
at Telefonica from nine to five gave him a
great deal of knowledge of the urban bourgeoisie,
which later had a profound influence on his
films.
During
the seventies he made films after work and
on weekends and would often go to Barcelona
to show them at Super 8 festivals. The underground
movement was very strong at the time and conceptual
cinema in which nothing happens was considered
to be very much in fashion. But Almodovar's
films always told a story and telling a story
was something very old-fashioned. He felt
left out of a movement he naturally belonged
to.
 The people, however,
enjoyed watching his films and he became quite
well known as a Super 8 director. He describes
those days in Almodovar on Almodovar
in this way: "I attempted all genres
in my films. Quite a few of them were influenced
by the Cecil B. DeMille biblical epics. We
shot them in natural light without any professional
equipment at all. The shoots always turned
into a party. People used to plunder their
sister's or mother's wardrobes for costumes.
Eventually, I started imitating the programme
of a real cinema; I'd make fake newsreels,
fake adverts, then the main feature. The programmes
were successful because they became a kind
of Happening. Since all the films were silent
- sound recording for Super 8 is difficult
and the results always unsatisfactory - I'd
also provide a running commentary and sometimes
criticize the actors' performances. And I'd
also sing. I had a little tape recorder and
would insert songs in the films. These were
live shows and the audiences loved them. The
screenings were held at friends' houses but
I'd organize them as if they were eagerly
awaited world premieres. They were a big party.
And they became more and more successful.
Soon, I was screening my programmes in bars
and discos, then in the private film schools
which had just been set up in Madrid, in art
galleries and finally - and this was the high
point of this period - at the Madrid Film
Institue."
After
the success of the Super 8 movies he made
his first commercially released film in Spain,
Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del monton
1980, with very little money and
a crew of almost all first-timers, but with
the backing and the interest of a well-known
Spanish actress, Carmen Maura.
The
movie, as flawed as it was, contained the
ingredients which interested Almodovar then
till the present day and his international
success with All About My Mother (Todo
sobre mi madre) 1999. He refers to it
this way, "...cinema speaks of reality,
of things which are true, but must become
a representation of reality in order to be
recognizable. Theres a very important difference
between me and Morrissey or Warhol. They simply
stuck their camera in front of the characters
and captured everything that happened. It's
very powerful cinema, but I'm not patient
enough to wait for something to happen in
front of my camera. I love the artifice which
is a part of a director's work. The artifice
is precisely what communicates a film-makers
intentions."
And
in order to communicate his intentions Almodovar
invests himself fully in his films. Writing
the scripts, casting the actors, selecting
the colors, working intimately with the set
design and title sequences, selecting the
music, editing after each day's filming. He
becomes obsessed, "...it's the only way
I can work. It's perhaps the worst way because
it eats up one's life and becomes a sort of
passion; one can no longer control oneself.
I only know how to work by becoming the victim
of my passion for it." The product of
his obsession are his films ...his children.
But until the establishment of his production
company El Deseo (Desire) with his brother
Augustin, he felt as if his first five films
were children he had had all by different
fathers with whom he was always disagreeing.
 Law of Desire (La Ley del
deseo), 1986 ,was the first movie to be
produced by the Almodovar brothers. In practice
it is Augustin on whose shoulders the daily
tasks of production rest. Pedro describes
him as at ease with figures and very brilliant
in that field. A chemist, as well as having
been a metallurgist, a professor of mathematics
and an accountant and the person who understands
his famous brother the best. Pedro Almodovar
has described his brother in this way, "Augustin
has always been my first audience. The minute
I have an idea, even before I develop it,
I tell him about it. He's always present.
Oddly enough, --actually, I don't know whether
it's odd or not--Augustin is the person who
understands me best. He's always had a profound
understanding of everything I've done. I don't
know whether being the witness of such things
is a burden or a privilege because we never
discuss it. Augustin is the only witness to
my whole life. My first memory of him is of
a child observing me. There are five years
between us. He remembers me since he was three
and sometimes tells me things about myself
I've forgotten."
At
the time Almodovar on Almodovar was
first published in France in 1994, Pedro described
Law of Desire as the key film in his
life and career. "It deals with my vision
of desire, something that's both very hard
and very human. By this I mean the absolute
necesssity of being desired and the fact that
in the interplay of desires it's rare that
two desires meet and correspond. This is one
of the tragedies of the human condition. Eusebio
(Eusebio Poncela/Pablo Quintero) has a great
need to feel desired but, as he tells Antonio
(Antonio Banderas/Antonio Benitez) not by
anyone. There's something very pathetic about
an artist or intellectual who confronts his
own condition and identity. For Antonio, desire
is something immediate and physical. But Eusebio
translates it through his intellect into a
medium. Which explains why, at the end, he
cannot see that the object of his desire is
standing right next to him. That's his personal
tragedy."
 In a later film Tie Me Up!
Tie Me Down! (Atame!) ,1989, Almodovar
speaks of love as expressed through the character
of Ricky (Antonio Banderas). "...its
true, I do identify completely with what's
said about Ricky. I perfectly understand his
problem; the difficulty a lover has in proving
his love to his beloved, the insecurity he
feels in never knowing whether his partner
understands his feelings, uncertainties which
are an integral part of love. I need to be
told I'm loved every day, and every day it's
as if I were being told for the first time.
I never take it for granted. Love can disappear
in a day, it's like a miracle and miracles
must be acknowledged each day."
Some
would say that Amodovar's career itself has
been a miracle, a miracle which has culminated
in a second Oscar nomination for Best Foreign
Film for All About My Mother ...the
first being for Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un
ataque de nervios) ,1987.  Both films with strong female leads. He is
a director well known for his exceptional
work with actresses and an intense directing
style. In a recent interview for the The
New York Times he himself admits to having
"burned up" relationships with longtime
friends; of the actresses that he's famous
for working with---and famous for falling
out with---he says: "I have problems
with all of them. My relations with them are
so intense, sometimes it's very similar to
the worst part of love and sex relationships."
Cecilia Roth, who appeared in Almodovar's
first four films and returns after 14 years
in All About My Mother, says: "He
is like a lover! He asks everything about
you! He needs everything! He's curious and
intense and possessive, like a boy."
Another actress who has also felt the intensity
of Pedro's observation, Penelope Cruz, who
has appeared in All About My Mother and
Live Flesh, describes him this way,
"With him I feel like that: that he sees
everything that's going on inside, all the
time."
The
intensity is still there, but even Almodovar
has had to modify his lifestyle. Once notorious
for his late-night club crawling, Almodovar
insists that he no longer goes out. "In
the last two years," he says, "I've
isolated myself a lot. I can't continue to
lead the same life I led 20 years ago in Madrid.
Aside from the fact that I would die, I would
be very bored." Almodovar says he "did
a lot of cocaine in the 80s," and just
four years ago stopped "experimenting"
with drugs. "In my 40s something changes,"
he says. "You can't be out the whole
night and pretend to have a clear brain to
write wonderful lines. No wonderful lines
at all. Its a pity, because, at 40-something,
I've got the same needs as when I was 20."
 The isolation which
Almodovar speaks of has not been evident during
the past year as he and Augustin have accepted
numerous awards from around the globe for
All About My Mother. While in the United
States he often visits the Los Angeles home
of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith,
whom he refers to as "my American family".
Its a long way from the white streets of La
Mancha to Hollywood, but Almodovar has brought
with him elements which remain fixed, both
in himself and his characters. In a recent
interview for DGA magazine he said, "I
feel that no matter what they do, no matter
where they come from, their sex, their circumstances,
their origin, there's a lot of heart and a
lot of emotion in all of my characters. And
a lot of autonomy. The same freedom and autonomy
I have in my life as a director I have given
to my characters."
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