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The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films
The films of Pedro Almodóvar teem with characters who at once are and are not alter egos of the director. In film after film, the Spanish auteur mines his past for alternative selves, telling and retelling formative stories from his own life, plumbing the depths of his memory while exploring other lives he might have led. What can Almodóvar’s work tell us about the quest for self-knowledge—for understanding who we are and who we might yet become?
James Miller considers seven of Almodóvar’s most personal films, arguing that together they offer a revealing self-portrait of the director and his search for meaning. Beginning with Volver, Miller traces Almodóvar’s signature obsessions backward and forward through the director’s filmography. Deeply shaped by the counterculture of the 1960s—which arrived belatedly in Franco’s Spain—Almodóvar has long been fascinated by the exhilarating power and devastating limitations of artistic and sexual transgression. In rich readings, Miller shows how Almodóvar tests the blurry line between fiction and reality, the bounds of individual freedom, and the durability of a sense of self. In so doing, the director turns cinema into a form of philosophical investigation and self-exploration. A keenly observed, masterfully written portrait of one of world cinema’s greatest creative forces, The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar finds in film new ways to tell the story of a life.
James Miller considers seven of Almodóvar’s most personal films, arguing that together they offer a revealing self-portrait of the director and his search for meaning. Beginning with Volver, Miller traces Almodóvar’s signature obsessions backward and forward through the director’s filmography. Deeply shaped by the counterculture of the 1960s—which arrived belatedly in Franco’s Spain—Almodóvar has long been fascinated by the exhilarating power and devastating limitations of artistic and sexual transgression. In rich readings, Miller shows how Almodóvar tests the blurry line between fiction and reality, the bounds of individual freedom, and the durability of a sense of self. In so doing, the director turns cinema into a form of philosophical investigation and self-exploration. A keenly observed, masterfully written portrait of one of world cinema’s greatest creative forces, The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar finds in film new ways to tell the story of a life.
- GenresFilm
216 pages, Hardcover
Published April 29, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 21, 2025
Didn't quite deliver on what I'd oped for: the investigation of the philosophical dimensions of Almodovar's vision promised in the introduction. But useful as an accompaniment to (re)viewing seven of the great films by one of the world's most important directors.
January 22, 2025
James Miller's The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar is a wonderful treat for fans of the director's work. It examines seven of his films and how these films reflect Almodóvar's past and his connection to the art he creates. I appreciated how Miller delves into Almodóvar's biography, his cultural interests, and Spanish history to connect these aspects to his films. This social and cultural examination of Almodóvar's life adds a resonance to the films that we may not have noticed before especially if we were unaware of many of these details.
If I have a small quibble, it's that Miller occasionally goes off on overly philosophical tangents. However, he does an excellent job of illuminating Almodóvar's films in a way that encourages us to reexamine them. Miller's insights make us want to rewatch these films through the lens of the information he provides in the book. That makes the book a valuable addition to any film lover's library. I now want to rewatch "Flower of My Secret" for the fourth time.
If I have a small quibble, it's that Miller occasionally goes off on overly philosophical tangents. However, he does an excellent job of illuminating Almodóvar's films in a way that encourages us to reexamine them. Miller's insights make us want to rewatch these films through the lens of the information he provides in the book. That makes the book a valuable addition to any film lover's library. I now want to rewatch "Flower of My Secret" for the fourth time.
April 27, 2025
My review in the Arts Fuse. https://artsfuse.org/309069/book-revi...
Book Review: “Passion” Project — Pedro Almodóvar as Consummate Auteur
April 16, 2025|Leave a Comment
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By Peter Keough
Though lapsing at times into hagiography and muddled synopsizing, James Miller’s study of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is a bracing reminder of the greatness and ever-evolving genius of this world-class artist.
The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films by James Miller. Columbia University Press. 216 pages. $25.99
Those whose only exposure to the brimming oeuvre of 75-year-old Pedro Almodóvar was his most recent film The Room Next Door (2024) — a polished, anodyne effort like a second-rate Todd Haynes melodrama — would most likely receive a better introduction by reading James Miller’s insightful though at times meandering The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films.
There you might read about the Spanish auteur’s debut feature Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap (1980), a scatological cross between The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and the early films of John Waters. It opens with a rape played for laughs, includes an impromptu golden shower, a coerced public blow-job, and a character who enjoys being beaten by her husband.
After the film’s 1992 release in the US, Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times, “a rough unfunny comedy notable for its bathroom jokes, humorous rape scene, and abysmal home movie cinematography.” Rita Kempley noted in the Washington Post that “Pedro Almodóvar showed not a whisker of promise in his amateurish directorial debut, a smutty sexual sideshow most safely viewed in a full body condom.”
But by then, of course, Almodóvar had ascended to the cinematic pantheon with rollicking international hits like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1991) and What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984). And though panned at its release by most critics, Pepi nonetheless was a popular sensation, establishing Almodóvar as a daring, taboo-shattering filmmaker at a time when the post-Franco culture was enjoying its own belated, anything-goes countercultural renaissance.
Miller identifies the raucous environment of the era as one of three keys to Almodóvar’s artistic development. The other two are Almodóvar’s provincial childhood and relationship with his mother, as explored in Volver (2006), and the traumatic abuse he experienced while a student in a Catholic boarding school run by Salesian fathers that he confronts in Bad Education (2004). But, according to Miller, unlike the other two films, which were made long after the actual events, Pepi is distinguished by the fact that it sprang up as Almodóvar was experiencing the wildly transgressive and artistically fecund scene the movie depicts. It was a sybaritic time that, as can be seen in that raw first film, pushed id-like impulses and the desire for personal freedom to the point where their limitations and contradictions were exposed, conflicts which became the obsessions of his subsequent films.
Fortunately, given Miller’s penchant to recount in detail Almodóvar’s convoluted plots, you don’t have to actually see Pepi to get the point. But such summarizing becomes less helpful as the films grow more complex, reflexive, and accomplished. In these increasingly layered and labyrinthine movies, keeping track of the narrative becomes a growing challenge (as Roger Ebert writes in the beginning of his Bad Education review, “I was attempting to describe the plot.… It was quicksand, and I was sinking fast”), but less of a requirement.
Instead of the storyline, the play of ideas and the elegance of the form become paramount. As Miller observes, “with the advent in the 1980s of the modern home video technologies …Almodóvar knew that viewers … could easily see his films more than once.… His film plots became baroque, and his story lines suggestive of the countless intractable and sometimes tragic dilemmas that surround the question of what constitutes a good life, as richly suggestive in their own idiosyncratic way as the ancient narrative fictions that first gave a name to the vocation we still call ‘philosophy.’”
Miller goes on to trace the development of this self-examining, philosophical trend in Almodóvar’s work, from Law of Desire (1987) and The Flower of My Secret (1995) to Broken Embraces (2009) and finally, his masterpiece, Pain and Glory (2019). A professor of politics and liberal studies at the New School for Social Research and the author of Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche (2011) and The Passion of Michel Foucault (1995), the critic unloads lots of heavy references and comparisons, from Plato to Andy Warhol, Nietzsche to David Bowie, as he makes his case that Almodóvar is “the first compleat art cinema auteur” and “one of the most important artists with a self-conscious interest in moral philosophy to have emerged from the global counterculture of the 1960s.” Though lapsing at times into hagiography and muddled synopsizing, Miller’s study is a bracing reminder of the greatness and ever-evolving genius of this world-class artist.
Book Review: “Passion” Project — Pedro Almodóvar as Consummate Auteur
April 16, 2025|Leave a Comment
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By Peter Keough
Though lapsing at times into hagiography and muddled synopsizing, James Miller’s study of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is a bracing reminder of the greatness and ever-evolving genius of this world-class artist.
The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films by James Miller. Columbia University Press. 216 pages. $25.99
Those whose only exposure to the brimming oeuvre of 75-year-old Pedro Almodóvar was his most recent film The Room Next Door (2024) — a polished, anodyne effort like a second-rate Todd Haynes melodrama — would most likely receive a better introduction by reading James Miller’s insightful though at times meandering The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films.
There you might read about the Spanish auteur’s debut feature Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap (1980), a scatological cross between The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and the early films of John Waters. It opens with a rape played for laughs, includes an impromptu golden shower, a coerced public blow-job, and a character who enjoys being beaten by her husband.
After the film’s 1992 release in the US, Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times, “a rough unfunny comedy notable for its bathroom jokes, humorous rape scene, and abysmal home movie cinematography.” Rita Kempley noted in the Washington Post that “Pedro Almodóvar showed not a whisker of promise in his amateurish directorial debut, a smutty sexual sideshow most safely viewed in a full body condom.”
But by then, of course, Almodóvar had ascended to the cinematic pantheon with rollicking international hits like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1991) and What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984). And though panned at its release by most critics, Pepi nonetheless was a popular sensation, establishing Almodóvar as a daring, taboo-shattering filmmaker at a time when the post-Franco culture was enjoying its own belated, anything-goes countercultural renaissance.
Miller identifies the raucous environment of the era as one of three keys to Almodóvar’s artistic development. The other two are Almodóvar’s provincial childhood and relationship with his mother, as explored in Volver (2006), and the traumatic abuse he experienced while a student in a Catholic boarding school run by Salesian fathers that he confronts in Bad Education (2004). But, according to Miller, unlike the other two films, which were made long after the actual events, Pepi is distinguished by the fact that it sprang up as Almodóvar was experiencing the wildly transgressive and artistically fecund scene the movie depicts. It was a sybaritic time that, as can be seen in that raw first film, pushed id-like impulses and the desire for personal freedom to the point where their limitations and contradictions were exposed, conflicts which became the obsessions of his subsequent films.
Fortunately, given Miller’s penchant to recount in detail Almodóvar’s convoluted plots, you don’t have to actually see Pepi to get the point. But such summarizing becomes less helpful as the films grow more complex, reflexive, and accomplished. In these increasingly layered and labyrinthine movies, keeping track of the narrative becomes a growing challenge (as Roger Ebert writes in the beginning of his Bad Education review, “I was attempting to describe the plot.… It was quicksand, and I was sinking fast”), but less of a requirement.
Instead of the storyline, the play of ideas and the elegance of the form become paramount. As Miller observes, “with the advent in the 1980s of the modern home video technologies …Almodóvar knew that viewers … could easily see his films more than once.… His film plots became baroque, and his story lines suggestive of the countless intractable and sometimes tragic dilemmas that surround the question of what constitutes a good life, as richly suggestive in their own idiosyncratic way as the ancient narrative fictions that first gave a name to the vocation we still call ‘philosophy.’”
Miller goes on to trace the development of this self-examining, philosophical trend in Almodóvar’s work, from Law of Desire (1987) and The Flower of My Secret (1995) to Broken Embraces (2009) and finally, his masterpiece, Pain and Glory (2019). A professor of politics and liberal studies at the New School for Social Research and the author of Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche (2011) and The Passion of Michel Foucault (1995), the critic unloads lots of heavy references and comparisons, from Plato to Andy Warhol, Nietzsche to David Bowie, as he makes his case that Almodóvar is “the first compleat art cinema auteur” and “one of the most important artists with a self-conscious interest in moral philosophy to have emerged from the global counterculture of the 1960s.” Though lapsing at times into hagiography and muddled synopsizing, Miller’s study is a bracing reminder of the greatness and ever-evolving genius of this world-class artist.
May 11, 2025
I recently got my hands on 'The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films' by James Miller, a book that, as the title suggests, explores the real life story of the Spanish director and the mark he has left on European and global cinema by drawing parallels with the themes he has chosen to explore in 7 of his most well-known films, or as Miller puts it, 7 of his most personal works. From 'Volver' to 'Pain And Glory' and 'Bad Education', the book is divided into sections dedicated to each film separately, both exploring Almodóvar's inspirations and arguing the autobiographical nature of these works, as discerned by the author.
Miller does a great job in structuring the book, and sharing enough information to create a big picture by exploring both Spanish and cinematic history in a way that allows the reader to have a clear understanding of Almodóvar's formative experiences, and thus his perspective as a creator. It is worth keeping in mind that although the book is undeniably a thorough and engaging exploration of the auteur's work through a deeply thoughtful and analytical lens, and does often back its points using Pedro Almodóvar's own public statements, it is in the end of the day solely based on the author's personal interpretation of Almodóvar's approach to film making.
Of course cinema, like any other art form, is experienced differently by different people, so naturally every time someone attempts to analyse a film, or in this case an entire filmography, they are unavoidably impacted by the ways it spoke to them personally. It becomes evident from the start that the author has both a vast knowledge of Almodóvar's work and a very deep appreciation of him as a film-maker. This is of course necessary, if one intends to write such a deep analysis of how a creator's life experiences are interwoven into their art, but at the same time the book at points puts Almodóvar on an impenetrable pedestal that leaves no room for critique.
And even though the book definitely addresses the several times the auteur has been challenged for certain artistic choices, specifically about the ways he used themes of trauma and sexual abuse in his works, I would have appreciated a more critical and rounded approach to the matter, especially given the sensitive subjects in question.
There is a balanced middle ground between unquestioning praise and absolute condemnation, that allows for art to be discussed both as a form of expression that is free to touch upon taboos and use uncomfortable subjects to provoke the status quo and invoke certain thoughts and feelings, and also as something deeply human, and thus imperfect, that isn't perceived and experienced the same way by everyone, and therefore cannot be exempt from scrutiny. Unfortunately, the book did not always succeed in finding that balance for me.
'The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar' is first and foremost aimed at someone who is already a fan, but can also be read by anyone curious to learn more about the film-maker and gain a deeper knowledge of his works. The author provides enough information for each film so it's not necessary for someone to have watched all 7 of them before reading, but this also means that spoilers about every important plot point cannot be avoided.
A sincere thank you to Columbia University Press for providing me with a review copy of the book.
Miller does a great job in structuring the book, and sharing enough information to create a big picture by exploring both Spanish and cinematic history in a way that allows the reader to have a clear understanding of Almodóvar's formative experiences, and thus his perspective as a creator. It is worth keeping in mind that although the book is undeniably a thorough and engaging exploration of the auteur's work through a deeply thoughtful and analytical lens, and does often back its points using Pedro Almodóvar's own public statements, it is in the end of the day solely based on the author's personal interpretation of Almodóvar's approach to film making.
Of course cinema, like any other art form, is experienced differently by different people, so naturally every time someone attempts to analyse a film, or in this case an entire filmography, they are unavoidably impacted by the ways it spoke to them personally. It becomes evident from the start that the author has both a vast knowledge of Almodóvar's work and a very deep appreciation of him as a film-maker. This is of course necessary, if one intends to write such a deep analysis of how a creator's life experiences are interwoven into their art, but at the same time the book at points puts Almodóvar on an impenetrable pedestal that leaves no room for critique.
And even though the book definitely addresses the several times the auteur has been challenged for certain artistic choices, specifically about the ways he used themes of trauma and sexual abuse in his works, I would have appreciated a more critical and rounded approach to the matter, especially given the sensitive subjects in question.
There is a balanced middle ground between unquestioning praise and absolute condemnation, that allows for art to be discussed both as a form of expression that is free to touch upon taboos and use uncomfortable subjects to provoke the status quo and invoke certain thoughts and feelings, and also as something deeply human, and thus imperfect, that isn't perceived and experienced the same way by everyone, and therefore cannot be exempt from scrutiny. Unfortunately, the book did not always succeed in finding that balance for me.
'The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar' is first and foremost aimed at someone who is already a fan, but can also be read by anyone curious to learn more about the film-maker and gain a deeper knowledge of his works. The author provides enough information for each film so it's not necessary for someone to have watched all 7 of them before reading, but this also means that spoilers about every important plot point cannot be avoided.
A sincere thank you to Columbia University Press for providing me with a review copy of the book.
May 15, 2025
The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar, by James Miller, is an enjoyable book on several levels. In depth without drowning in jargon, there is a lot for readers to digest here.
I liked his volume on Foucault (The Passion of Michel Foucault) so I came to this with some idea what to expect. And my expectations were definitely met. The idea of looking at an auteur's work, especially his later work, to examine both what he is/was grappling with and, by extension, what his viewers may also be grappling with, is an excellent frame for this book. Almodóvar is definitely one of those who can be considered an auteur, with nearly complete control of what he makes.
I'll mention who might enjoy this book rather than give a book report type summary. I'll start with film buffs/scholars. The obvious point is that this is a major director and worth examining in greater detail. Additionally, because of his personal life, we see how both public and personal memory contributes to the worlds a director creates to tell his stories. In this case, an often surreal and over-the-top frame but with very human issues within that frame.
If you enjoy the biographical aspects of such books, you'll find a lot to engage with here, though it is not a straightforward biography. If your interest is specifically biographies of film figures, then you will get more out of it since it is through looking, analyzing, and contextualizing these films that we learn about his life, as well as plenty of quotes from Almodóvar.
If you read these kinds of books to both better appreciate the films covered as well as learn how you yourself views and understands any movie, you'll gain a lot of insight. Admittedly only some of that insight will be directly from the book. It will be when you watch or rewatch these films from your new perspective, reflect on what they might say to you about your own world view, and then take these ways of viewing to future films you may watch that you will begin to realize what you gained.
I would highly recommend this to any of the readers I mention above. In the places where Miller uses theory he does a good job of explaining the ideas rather than just dropping the name of a theory into the text as an explanation on its own. Even if we don't realize it, we all "use" theory when we watch a film, even when we think we're watching "just for entertainment." So putting words to what we already do helps us to appreciate the films even more.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I liked his volume on Foucault (The Passion of Michel Foucault) so I came to this with some idea what to expect. And my expectations were definitely met. The idea of looking at an auteur's work, especially his later work, to examine both what he is/was grappling with and, by extension, what his viewers may also be grappling with, is an excellent frame for this book. Almodóvar is definitely one of those who can be considered an auteur, with nearly complete control of what he makes.
I'll mention who might enjoy this book rather than give a book report type summary. I'll start with film buffs/scholars. The obvious point is that this is a major director and worth examining in greater detail. Additionally, because of his personal life, we see how both public and personal memory contributes to the worlds a director creates to tell his stories. In this case, an often surreal and over-the-top frame but with very human issues within that frame.
If you enjoy the biographical aspects of such books, you'll find a lot to engage with here, though it is not a straightforward biography. If your interest is specifically biographies of film figures, then you will get more out of it since it is through looking, analyzing, and contextualizing these films that we learn about his life, as well as plenty of quotes from Almodóvar.
If you read these kinds of books to both better appreciate the films covered as well as learn how you yourself views and understands any movie, you'll gain a lot of insight. Admittedly only some of that insight will be directly from the book. It will be when you watch or rewatch these films from your new perspective, reflect on what they might say to you about your own world view, and then take these ways of viewing to future films you may watch that you will begin to realize what you gained.
I would highly recommend this to any of the readers I mention above. In the places where Miller uses theory he does a good job of explaining the ideas rather than just dropping the name of a theory into the text as an explanation on its own. Even if we don't realize it, we all "use" theory when we watch a film, even when we think we're watching "just for entertainment." So putting words to what we already do helps us to appreciate the films even more.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
May 6, 2025
3.5 rounded up for this intense ride through Almodóvar-ville, or Almodóvaría.
Listen, I live in Spain and have worked pretty hard to explore the culture as a guiri looking in. Naturally, Almodóvar is a big deal. Naturally, I have tried to watch as many as possible to watch his cannon. I have never really liked any of his work. I fell asleep in Dolor y gloria (one of the seven film covered here), am one of the seamingly few not to like Todo sobre mi madre.
This book felt like a good opportunity to get to grips with why Almodóvar is so lauded. And I guess I learned plenty. I have to say, I found the writing pretty advanced and overly philosophical - maybe it's a Colombia University Press (who kindly, along with NetGalley gave me a copy in exchange for an honest review) thing. That and the Cukor book went hard on film theory.
I was initially going to award this book 3 stars, but somewhere along the line, I guess La flor de mi secreto realised it's a 4 star kind of book. Even though, yet again, I don't like the movies. I thought it was intriging how James Miller tried to rationalise his obsession with rape and consent issues.
My take - not really a spoiler - is that Almodóvar was destined to become a director and used film as his therapy for self-evaluation. Forever a Manchego but a Madrileño in body and soul, everything that happened during his formative film years informed his later films - Los abrazos rotos y Dolor y gloria. Relationships for him are all or nothing, while his mercurial temperament revolves around wanting to be understood as someone who stands alone as a filmmaker.
As a result, when another Almodóvar pops on t'telly. I'll give it a go - with that knowledge to help me along. Thanks, Miller.
Listen, I live in Spain and have worked pretty hard to explore the culture as a guiri looking in. Naturally, Almodóvar is a big deal. Naturally, I have tried to watch as many as possible to watch his cannon. I have never really liked any of his work. I fell asleep in Dolor y gloria (one of the seven film covered here), am one of the seamingly few not to like Todo sobre mi madre.
This book felt like a good opportunity to get to grips with why Almodóvar is so lauded. And I guess I learned plenty. I have to say, I found the writing pretty advanced and overly philosophical - maybe it's a Colombia University Press (who kindly, along with NetGalley gave me a copy in exchange for an honest review) thing. That and the Cukor book went hard on film theory.
I was initially going to award this book 3 stars, but somewhere along the line, I guess La flor de mi secreto realised it's a 4 star kind of book. Even though, yet again, I don't like the movies. I thought it was intriging how James Miller tried to rationalise his obsession with rape and consent issues.
My take - not really a spoiler - is that Almodóvar was destined to become a director and used film as his therapy for self-evaluation. Forever a Manchego but a Madrileño in body and soul, everything that happened during his formative film years informed his later films - Los abrazos rotos y Dolor y gloria. Relationships for him are all or nothing, while his mercurial temperament revolves around wanting to be understood as someone who stands alone as a filmmaker.
As a result, when another Almodóvar pops on t'telly. I'll give it a go - with that knowledge to help me along. Thanks, Miller.
April 23, 2025
The Passion of Pedro Almodovar: A Self-Portrait In Seven Films. Book Review
Full disclosure: for me, the Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar can do no wrong. The sheer volume of top notch films in his catalogue are, in my opinion unmatched and only Rainer Werner Fassbinder immediately springs to mind when it comes to quantity and quality. James Miller's book takes a look at seven films from this rich body of work:
Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls On The Heap
Law of Desire
The Flower of My Secret
Bad Education
Volver
Broken Embraces
Pain And Glory
Here, the themes and textures of these films are explored,acknowledging the autobiographical nature of some of the director's key works, and helping to generate fresh ways of looking at them through better eyes. The director's experiences in Catholic schools are referenced with regard to stories he tells on a personal journey that will hopefully continue for a good while to come. Miller's interpretations of mood and motivation are, for me, always engaging but I will offer friendly advice to those who are at the formative stage of their Almodovar exploration. The analysis of these seven films do, by necessity, include spoilers, so I suggest watching each film before reading about it. My guess is that you'll immediately book a repeat viewing, fired by Miller's ideas.
The Passion of Pedro Almodovar is published in the UK by Columbia University Press, and highly recommended for seasoned admirers and newcomers alike.
Full disclosure: for me, the Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar can do no wrong. The sheer volume of top notch films in his catalogue are, in my opinion unmatched and only Rainer Werner Fassbinder immediately springs to mind when it comes to quantity and quality. James Miller's book takes a look at seven films from this rich body of work:
Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls On The Heap
Law of Desire
The Flower of My Secret
Bad Education
Volver
Broken Embraces
Pain And Glory
Here, the themes and textures of these films are explored,acknowledging the autobiographical nature of some of the director's key works, and helping to generate fresh ways of looking at them through better eyes. The director's experiences in Catholic schools are referenced with regard to stories he tells on a personal journey that will hopefully continue for a good while to come. Miller's interpretations of mood and motivation are, for me, always engaging but I will offer friendly advice to those who are at the formative stage of their Almodovar exploration. The analysis of these seven films do, by necessity, include spoilers, so I suggest watching each film before reading about it. My guess is that you'll immediately book a repeat viewing, fired by Miller's ideas.
The Passion of Pedro Almodovar is published in the UK by Columbia University Press, and highly recommended for seasoned admirers and newcomers alike.
January 20, 2025
I recommend this book to all fans of the auteur, film students, scholars and artists.
One very hard to dispute truth is that Almodovar is an auteur, and this shapes the narrative in Miller’s book.
He starts with five key points (unsure to call them axioms or theories) and establishes them as the narrative points of the book. Each chapter gives us hints about Almodovar’s life (as someone who is moderately familiar with his life story in relation to his filmmaking, some aspects were new to me) and an analysis of the chapter focus: one of his films. How these two arenas are blended was very well done.
As someone who has seen all of the covered works in this book, except for the one in chapter 3, I benefited from the analyses and insights plenty.
For some context, I am very fond of Almodovar’s certain films and his signature visual style, and critical of some other works of his, some of which are his more well-beloved ones. Whether you are a die-hard fan or someone like me, who appreciates the best and worse bits in Almodovar’s storytelling, you can enjoy and learn from this book.
Thank you to #netgalley and #columbiauniversitypress for the ARC.
One very hard to dispute truth is that Almodovar is an auteur, and this shapes the narrative in Miller’s book.
He starts with five key points (unsure to call them axioms or theories) and establishes them as the narrative points of the book. Each chapter gives us hints about Almodovar’s life (as someone who is moderately familiar with his life story in relation to his filmmaking, some aspects were new to me) and an analysis of the chapter focus: one of his films. How these two arenas are blended was very well done.
As someone who has seen all of the covered works in this book, except for the one in chapter 3, I benefited from the analyses and insights plenty.
For some context, I am very fond of Almodovar’s certain films and his signature visual style, and critical of some other works of his, some of which are his more well-beloved ones. Whether you are a die-hard fan or someone like me, who appreciates the best and worse bits in Almodovar’s storytelling, you can enjoy and learn from this book.
Thank you to #netgalley and #columbiauniversitypress for the ARC.
May 17, 2025
I really enjoyed this book, I think it gave some fascinating insights into Almodóvar’s process and the stories behind his films. I hope that at some point in my career I will get an opportunity to teach Volver at A-Level (I’m a secondary Spanish teacher) because I think this book gave some extra deeper insights that I think are really interesting and could really boost an essay. I really enjoyed the insights into Spanish culture at the time and how he reflects that in various ways in his films.
The only reason it’s not 5 stars is because I didn’t realise that some of the language was going to be so technical and philosophical and so I didn’t always fully understand what the author was trying to say, but that doesn’t take too much away from the overall message of the book. I’d definitely recommend!!
The only reason it’s not 5 stars is because I didn’t realise that some of the language was going to be so technical and philosophical and so I didn’t always fully understand what the author was trying to say, but that doesn’t take too much away from the overall message of the book. I’d definitely recommend!!
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September 29, 2025DNF which is not a reflection of Almodovar’s work, but of the book
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