Not everyone can afford to go to picturesque corners of the world at any time, but the magic of cinema makes such a trip possible. We decided to explore the precious points of the map based on the films of great and beloved directors. The second place was Spain, and the guide was one of the main supporters of the Spanish cultural revolution, Pedro Almodóvar.
The setting is La Mancha, Almodóvar’s homeland, where there are windmills reminiscent of Don Quixote and family is an unbreakable bond. Raymunda (Penélope Cruz) and her sister Soledad (Lola Dueñas) are the main protagonists of the film. One opens a restaurant and hides her husband’s corpse, and the second works in a hair salon and employs the ghost of her mother Irene (Carmen Maura), who returned after her death to complete unfinished business. In the film, an already established director reconciles and finds peace with his own family ties: they can not only strangle and bind, but also give him strength and support at the right time.
Spain is a country of tacit worship of women. Strong and cheerful, tenacious, passionate and brilliant (in every sense), they often became a point of attraction in the works of the exemplary feminist Almodóvar. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown tells the story of voice actress Pepa Marcos (Carmen Maura), who desperately tries to find her lover, Iván (Fernando Guillén), who has abandoned her, but runs into a series of problems, including spicy gazpacho and Shiite terrorists. One of the most successful films in the director’s filmography secured his status as a world star.
Love of freedom, intuitive sensuality of flamenco, all shades of red, devouring passion and scorching sun – the locals absorb the passion for love and life together with the milk of the Spanish mother. The plot focuses on the pop star Sexilia (Cecilia Roth), who suffers from nymphomania and seeks pleasure in orgies. Risa (Imanol Arias) is a gay prince from the Middle East who hides in Spain from terrorists and is able to conquer any man. Their unexpected meeting should become a turning point in the destiny of both. Sexilia will try to overcome nymphomania and Risa will try to change her orientation towards heterosexuality. In the film, Almodóvar showed the progressive sexual image of Spain in the early 1980s. This is also one of his best comic works.
Another religion in Spain is bullfighting. They dedicate their lives to it and give it a separate, almost sacred place in the country’s culture. Former matador Diego Montes (Nacho Martinez) cannot return to the arena after an injury, but for him sexual pleasure is inextricably linked to murder. For lawyer Maria Cardenal (Assumpta Serna), maximum pleasure is also impossible without the death of her partner. The meeting of two heroes leads to an inevitable tragedy. Almodóvar called this provocative film one of the two weakest works in his filmography (along with “Kika”). However, it was in it that he managed to show the image of a complex Spanish culture, rooted in bloody bullfights.
Gloria (Carmen Maura) is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage and everyday hardships. She lives in a high-rise building in a dull, ordinary residential area of Madrid with her husband, a taxi driver who admires a middle-aged German singer, and two sons, one of whom sells drugs and the second sleeps with men. On top of everything, the husband transports his mother (Chus Lampreave), a woman with great oddities, from the village. Due to the stress of having to support her family, Gloria began flirting with illegal substances. The black comedy became Almodóvar’s first international success and the most social of his films, in which the master explores the frustration of the heroine through neorealism, as well as issues of gender and class.
