Pedro Almodovar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (born September 25, 1949 in Calzada de Calatrava, Ciudad Real ) is a Spanish film director , producer and screenwriter .
Almodóvar is considered to be the most internationally known Spanish director of contemporary cinema. His tragic comedy Everything About My Mother won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best foreign language film in 2000.
Life
Pedro Almodóvar was born in a small Spanish town in the province of Ciudad Real, part of the La Mancha region . When he was eight years old, his family moved to Extremadura . There he attended elementary school with the Salesians and secondary school with the Franciscans . The bad experiences with his religious upbringing made him lose faith in God. At that time, he became interested in film art to interest and regular cinema in the provincial capital Cáceres to visit.
At the age of 16, he moved to Madrid with no family and no money , where he got by with odd jobs. He was a short film maker, comic book writer, editor of photo novels, actor and musician before he accepted a position as an employee at Telefónica in 1969 . The simple work there allowed him to write stories and make his first serious cinematic attempts. During these years he wrote a serial column for the Spanish magazine La Luna about the experiences of Patty Diphusa, his literary alter ego.
Almodóvar began his film career as an underground artist of the Movida madrileña , which after the end of the Franco dictatorship wanted to experience everything shrill, exalted and hedonistic . With his first feature film Pepi, Luci, Bom and the rest of the gang (Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón) he became an important figure in the Madrid Movida and known beyond the borders of Spain.
Together with his brother Agustín Almodóvar he founded the film company El Deseo in 1985 , with which all Almodóvar films have been produced since The Law of Desire to this day. In addition to his own films, he also produces the works of other filmmakers with El Deseo , such as B. Lucrecia Martel , Álex de la Iglesia and Isabel Coixet . In April 2016 it became known that the Almódovar brothers were named in the Panama Papers in connection with possible tax and money laundering offenses .
In Germany, Almodóvar made his breakthrough with his Madrid city comedy Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown. Except for the first film, Pepi, Luci, Bom , all films have now been dubbed into German. Overall, the German-language dubbed versions are characterized by a high degree of fidelity to the original, both in terms of the sound of the voices and in the dialogue books, which may also be related to the fact that the director has the last word in the casting and text.
From the beginning, Almodóvar's openly lived homosexuality was a thematic focus in his films. This soon made him a symbol of the lesbian and gay movement internationally . Arnaldo Gancedo, President of the Spanish Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals, criticized Almodóvar's longstanding reluctance to talk to the press about his private life and sexual orientation. The director "never supported us or any other gay movement," Gancedo said in 2005.
In an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014, Almodóvar and other members of the European Film Academy pleaded for the release of the imprisoned Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov .
In 2017 he was selected as the jury president of the 70th Cannes International Film Festival .
Quotes
Commenting on his upbringing in the monastery, Pedro Almodóvar remarked:
“At that time I was completely against religious education. I knew from the start that the priests had nothing to say to me. In 'The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,' a Richard Brooks film that epitomized sin for the Church and based on the work of Tennessee Williams, I recognized myself completely and I said to myself: To this world of sin and I also belong to the degeneracy. "
About him:
“Pedro Almodovar doesn't just make movies. Almodovar is the movies. He revels in everything forbidden and forgiving that can transform life into art. "
“ Pedro Almodóvar doesn't just make films. Almodóvar is the cinema. He indulges in everything forbidden and forgiving that can turn life into art. "
Influences
Almodóvar counts the Nobel Prize laureate Alice Munro among the authors of short stories he admires most. Munro's collection of Heaven and Hell (originally: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage , 2001) is the background inspiration for his film Broken Hugs (2011). The protagonist of his film The Skin I Live In (2011) reads Tricks in Munro's book of stories (in the original: Runaway , 2004). The film Julieta (2016) is loosely based on the three short stories Decision (Chance) , Soon (Soon) and Silence (Silence) from Tricks.
Filmography
Direction and script
- 1978: Salomé
- 1980: Pepi, Luci, Bom and the rest of the gang (Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón)
- 1982: Labyrinth of Passions (Laberinto de pasiones)
- 1983: The Monastery of Holy Madness (Entre tinieblas)
- 1984: How did I deserve this? (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?)
- 1985: Matador
- 1987: The Law of Desire (La ley del deseo)
- 1988: Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios)
- 1990: tie me up! (¡Átame!)
- 1991: High Heels (Tacones lejanos)
- 1993: Kika
- 1995: My blooming secret (La flor de mi secreto)
- 1997: Live Flesh - With skin and hair (Carne trémula)
- 1999: All about my mother (Todo sobre mi madre)
- 2002: Talk to her (Hable con ella)
- 2004: La mala educación - Bad education (La mala educación)
- 2006: Volver - Returning (Volver)
- 2009: Broken Hugs (Los abrazos rotos)
- 2011: The skin I live in (La piel que habito)
- 2013: Flying lovers (Los amantes pasajeros)
- 2016: Julieta
- 2019: Sorrow and Glory (Dolor y Gloria)
production
- 1982: Labyrinth of Passions (Laberinto de pasiones)
- 1988: Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios)
- 1993: Aktion Mutante (Acción mutante) - Director: Alex de la Iglesia
- 2001: The Devil's Backbone (El espinazo del diablo) - Director: Guillermo del Toro
- 2002: My Life Without Me (My Life Without Me) - Director: Isabel Coixet
- 2004: La mala educación - Bad education (La mala educación)
- 2004: La niña santa - Director: Lucrecia Martel
- 2005: The Secret Life of Words (La vida secreta de las palabras) - Director: Isabel Coixet
- 2008: The Headless Woman (La mujer sin cabeza) - Director: Lucrecia Martel
- 2009: El último verano de la Boyita - Director: Julia Solomonoff
- 2014: Wild Tales - Everyone goes crazy! - Director: Damián Szifron
- 2015: El Clan
Awards
- In 1987 Almodóvar was the first director to receive the Teddy Award at the Berlinale for the film The Law of Desire .
- For the film Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown Almodóvar received the Goya Spanish Film Award in 1988 for the best screenplay.
- In 1999, the film All About My Mother received two Goyas ( Best Director and Best Film ), the European Film Award for Best European Film and, in 2000, both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film category, as well as the Director's Award at the Cannes International Film Festival 1999 .
- The film Talk to Her received the European Film Award 2002 and Almodóvar the Oscar 2003 in the category Best Original Screenplay.
- In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in the art category for the “masterly quality and sincerity” of his works .
- At the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival , Almodóvar was named best screenwriter for the film Volver . In addition, Almodóvar received the European Film Award 2006 in the category Best Director for this film .
- In 1997 Almodóvar was accepted into the French Legion of Honor .
- In 2008 he was elected as an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
- In 2013 he was awarded the European Film Prize in the category Best European Performance in World Cinema .
- Venice International Film Festival 2019 - Golden Lion - Lifetime Achievement Award
literature
Books by Pedro Almodóvar
- Conversations with Frédréric Strauss. Paris 1994. German edition: Films on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Conversations with Frédéric Strauss. Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-88661-192-2 .
- Fuego en las entrañas. La Cúpula, Madrid 1981.
- Patty Diphusa and other texts. Edition 406, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-9803433-7-5 . Spanish edition: Patty Diphusa y otros textos. Barcelona 1991.
- Todo sobre mi madre. Guión original. Munich 2005.
- Un guión de Almodovar. La mala educación. Madrid 2004.
Books about Pedro Almodóvar
- Frédéric Strauss, Sam Richard: Almodóvar on Almodóvar. Faber & Faber, London 2006, ISBN 0-571-23192-6 .
- Carlos Polimeni: Pedro Almodóvar and the kitsch español. Parthas, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86601-625-5 .
- Silvia Colmenero Salgado: Todo sobre mi madre de Pedro Almodóvar. Estudio crítico. Barcelona 2001.
- Bernhard Chappuzeau: Transgression and Trauma with Pedro Almodóvar and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Tübingen 2005.
- Tamara Danicic: Speech, diversity! Foreign speech and interlacing of dialogues with Pedro Almodóvar. Tübingen 2003.
- “Pedro Almodóvar. Frauenfieber. “In: du. Die Zeitschrift der Kultur, Issue 09/2002 No. 729. Zurich 2002.
- Paul Duncan / Bárbara Peiró (eds.): The Pedro Almódovar Archive . Taschen, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-8365-0282-5 .
- María Antonia García de Leon, Teresa Maldonado: Pedro Almodóvar, la otra España cañí. Sociología y crítica cinematográficas. Ciudad Real 1989.
- Christoph Haas: Almodóvar. Cinema of passions. Europa-Verlag, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-203-84119-3 .
- Antonio Holguín: Pedro Almodóvar. Madrid 1994.
- Hermann Kappelhoff / Daniel Illger (eds.): Film Concepts 9. Pedro Almodóvar , edition text + kritik, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88377-921-8 .
- Kerstin Huven: Gendering Images. Gender stagings in the films of Pedro Almodóvar. Frankfurt am Main 2002.
- Stefanie Karg: Trabajar y formar una familia, como una persona normal. A sign of identity in Pedro Almodóvar's cinematic work. Dissertation. Saarbrücken 1997.
- Isabel Maurer Queipo: The aesthetics of the hermaphrodite in the cinematic work of Pedro Almodóvar. Frankfurt am Main 2005.
- Cordula Rabe: Pedro Almodóvar. Post-French Spain and Film. Frankfurt am Main 1997.
- Manfred Riepe: Intensive care unit longing. Blossoming secrets in the Pedro Almodóvar cinema. Psychoanalytic forays on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Bielefeld 2004. ( online in the Google book search)
- Frédéric Strauss: Pedro Almodóvar, un cine visceral. Madrid 1995.
- Nuria Vidal: El cine de Pedro Almodóvar. Barcelona 1989.
- Brad Epps, Despina Kakoudaki, editors: All about Almodóvar: a passion for cinema. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-8166-4960-0 .
- Mechthild Zeul: Pedro Almodóvar: his films, his life. Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-86099-629-4 .
Web links
- Pedro Almodóvar in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Pedro Almodóvar in the catalog of the library of the Instituto Cervantes in Germany
- The films of Pedro Almodóvar Official German website
- “My school was the night” - Interview with sueddeutsche.de, August 5th, 2009
- Lauren Laverne interviews Pedro Almodovar , video, 2010
- Sergio G. Mondelo: Pedro Almodóvar and his women , documentary, 2015
- Literature by and about Pedro Almodóvar in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Awards for Everything About My Mother imdb.com, accessed March 27, 2013.
- ↑ The life of Pedro Almodóvar ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. almodovar.de, accessed on March 27, 2013.
- ↑ Carlos Polimeni: Pedro Almodóvar and the Kitsch español book excerpt, October 24, 2005, accessed on February 25, 2012.
- ↑ DT Max: The Evolution of Pedro Almodóvar. In: The New Yorker. Condé Nast., November 28, 2016, accessed July 9, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Self-presentation by El Deseo eldeseo.es, accessed on March 27, 2013 (Spanish)
- ↑ Alfonso Rivera: Pedro Almodóvar producing another Isabel Coixet film. In: Cineuropa. January 22, 2020, accessed on July 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Pedro Almodóvar, Former King's Sister And Wife Of Miguel Arias Cañete Appear In Panama Papers ( Memento of April 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Junkerjürgen, Ralf: “Almodóvar in German. Challenges to dubbing from Spanish " . In: Bridegroom, Thomas; Peiler, Nils (Ed.): Film in the transfer process. Transdisciplinary studies on film dubbing . Schüren, Marburg 2015, p. 178 .
- ↑ Jumana Farouky: Acceptance - One Reel At A Time. Time Magazine, October 2, 2005. Source: time.com , accessed March 27, 2013.
- ↑ Anastassia Boutsko: Oleg Sentsov: "I am not a serf". Retrieved July 22, 2014 .
- ↑ Pilar Somacarrera: A Spanish Passion for the Canadian Short Story: Reader Responses to Alice Munro's fiction in Web 2.0. In: Pilar Somacarrera (Ed.): Made in Canada, Read in Spain: Essays on the Translation and Circulation of English-Canadian Literature. de Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-83-7656-017-5 , pp. 129–144, here p. 143 ( online open access ).
- ↑ Pedro Almodóvar Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at labiennale.org, June 14, 2019 (accessed June 14, 2019).
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Almodovar, Pedro |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Almodóvar Caballero, Pedro (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish film director, screenwriter, film producer |
DATE OF BIRTH | September 25, 1949 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Calzada de Calatrava , Ciudad Real, Spain |