Pedro Almodóvar
Date of Birth:
24 September 1949, Calzada de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Birth Name:
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero
Mini Biography:
The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study filmmaking because he didn't have the money to afford it. Besides, the filmmaking schools were closed in early 70s by Franco's government. Instead, he found a job in the Spanish phone company and saved his salary to buy a Super 8 camera. From 1972 to 1978, he devoted himself to make short films with the help of of his friends. The "premieres" of those early films were famous in the rapidly growing world of the Spanish counter-culture. In few years, Almodóvar became a star of "La Movida", the pop cultural movement of late 70s Madrid. His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release. In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company: El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world, making his films very popular in many countries.
Trade Mark:
Often uses symbolism and metaphorical techniques to portray circular storylines.
His films often portrays strong female characters and transsexuals.
Uses only his last name for his "Film By" credit ("Un film de Almodóvar").
Los abrazos rotos Broken Embraces 
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The film centres on a four-way tale of dangerous love, and was shot in the style of a hard-boiled 1950s American film noir.
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What was simply supposed to be just another tour for the release of a new record ended presenting Caetano Veloso with a tough series of challenges. "Errante Navegante" (Wandering Heart) intimately follows Caetano from São Paulo, New York to Japan, during the release of his first album recorded solely in English. It takes considerably more than a week-long series of shows at Carnegie Hall, accolades in the New York Times, or the admiration of friends like Pedro Almodóvar, David Byrne and Michelangelo Antonioni to make Caetano feel comfortable outside of Brazil. "Wandering Heart" is an enjoyable journey in search of answers to a series of questions that reveal Caetano in unprecedented intimacy.
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A bourgeois woman is driving alone on a dirt road, becomes distracted, and runs over something. In the days following this jarring incident, she is dazed and emotionally disconnected from the people and events in her life. She becomes obsessed with the possibility that she may have killed someone. The police confirm that there were no accidents reported in the area and everything returns to normal until a gruesome discovery is made. Lucrecia Martels third feature examines the intricacies of class status and the role of women in a male-dominated society.
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Based on Thierry Jonquet's novel "Mygale", this revenge tale tells the story of a plastic surgeon on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter.
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