Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodovar

by Paul Julian Smith

Pedro Almodovar … winner of a BAFTA for Best Director, 2000

All About My Mother … Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, 2000

The huge international success of his latest feature, All About My Mother , has finally granted Pedro Almodovar the recognition he deserves, as the most artistically ambitious and commercially consistent film-maker in Europe.

Frequently comic, often deadly serious, always visually glorious, his films range from the screwball comedy Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and the SM melodrama Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! to the almost classically austere Live Flesh . And, while questions of gender, nationality and sexuality have always been Almodovar’s concern, new subjects have been addressed in his more recent the corrosive effects of a deregulated Spanish media, the transition from dictatorship to democracy and, in All About My Mother , uncompromising explorations of the process of mourning.

This new edition includes four new chapters, among which is a rare interview with Almodovar himself, a new preface and additional illustrations. Still the only study of its kind in English, it vigorously confirms its original argument, that beneath Almodovar’s genius for comedy and visual pleasure lies a film-maker whose work deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Queer, American, Art, Spain

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 1994

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Pedro Almodovar? Like film theory? Than this is the book for you! This is the comprehensive breakdown of all of Almodovar's films...

[Onur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almodovar sinemasına dair dilimizdeki sayılı kaynaktan biri. Yönetmeni film film ele alan bir kitap, kısa bir de söyleşi de var. Bu açıdan filmlerden ilerlediği için şöyle bir önerim olacak. İlgili filmi izledikten hemen sonra filme dair başlığı okursanız kitaptan alacağınız keyif daha çok olacaktır. Çünkü yazar sinopsisleri yazarken anlatımı arap saçına çeviriyor. (Arada aynı filmlere dair başkalarının yazdığı sinopsisler de var ona hiç değinmeyeceğim.) Bunun dışında Agora yayınları tuhaf bir çeviriye imza atmış, kombinasyon kelimesi bir çok yerde kombinezon olarak geçiyor. Bu kadar hataya razıyız yeter ki sinemaya, müziğe dair daha çok kitaplar dilimize çevrilsin.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

First film critique book I tried to read - a bit pretentious although some of the analyses were interesting, not for me.

[Clove · Rating 4 out of 5]

A year and 18 films later!

[Alexander Santiago · Rating 5 out of 5]

The films of Pedro Almodovar (from "Pepi, Luci, Bom . ." to "All About My Mother") deconstructed and demystified for those who have often wondered (or missed) hidden nuances and meanings in his work (and the Spanish and American audience reactions to his films). For fans of Almodovar's work - from the ardent admirer to the curious novice.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope they've updated this book with chapters on the newer films. This is an interesting and thorough exploration of the many themes that run through the work of this great auteur. A wonderful companion to the films.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

yes yes yes yes yes.