Pedro Almodovar

by Acevedo-Munoz, Ernesto R.

• ISBN13: 9781844571499
• ISBN10: 1844571491
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-24
• Publisher: British Film Institute

Summary

The book provides a detailed introduction to the essential themes, style, and aesthetics of Pedro Almodvar's films, put in the context of Spain's profound cultural transitions since 1980. With precise and close analysis, the book covers the major concerns of the most successful of all Spanish film directors and makes direct, clear connections to the logic of Almodvar's aesthetic and stylistic choices. By spanning the entirety of Pedro Almodvar's feature-making career, the book emphasizes the director's sensibility to make the outrageous believable and to always give a unique spin to the issues of Spanish history, culture and identity. A detailed and comprehensive approach to all of Pedro Almodvar's feature films from the outrageous 1980 Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap to the sophisticated 2004 Bad Education, this book provides more than an introduction and intimate look at the topics, style, aesthetics, and cultural sensibilities of Spain's most distinguished and celebrated film director since Luis Buuel. By focusing on a film-by-film, and often scene-by-scene analysis, this book offers a meticulous interpretation of characters, situations, allusions, and cultural intersections as well as emphasizes the meaning and weight of cultural, historical and social contexts. The book traces the evolution of Almodvar's career, from the perspective of aesthetic, narrative and stylistic concerns, and places those changes in the logical context of Spain's historical trajectory from the end of Franco's dictatorship to the transition to democracy, exploring Almodvar's interest on issues of identity, sexuality, and nationalism.

Author Biography

Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz is Associate Professor of Film Studies, Comparative Literature & Humanities, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Table of Contents

Introduction : Almodovar's cinema in context	p. 1
The aesthetics of bad taste	p. 8
Memory, identity and style	p. 63
Figures of desire : the melodrama of longing	p. 135
The body and the nation	p. 204
Conclusion : bad bodies, good hearts	p. 285
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