Product Description
Dialogue is action for me. I've often said it and it seems like a joke but it's not: in Europe we make films about people because it's cheaper to put two people in a living room talking than to make a film full of special effects.--Pedro Almodovar

The 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, always visually glorious, his films range from the screwball comedy Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to the classically austere Live Flesh. And, while questions of gender, nationality and sexuality are always Almodovar's concern, new subjects have been addressed in his more recent work: the corrosive effects of a deregulated media, the transition from dictatorship and, in All About my Mother, an uncompromising exploration of mourning. This new edition includes four additional chapters and new illustrations. The only study of its kind in English, it argues that beneath Almodovar's genius for comedy and visual pleasure lies a film-maker who deserves to be taken very seriously. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great For Those Who Are Discovering Almodovar
"Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodovar" will satisfy those that are new to the color films of Almodovar, or those that are die-hard fans (Of which I have been since I first saw "Matador" back in the late 80's. It provides deep insight into his films and the underlying message in each film he's made. If you want to take a dip in his works, then this is where you should start. It's worth every penny spent.

All About Almodovar
Simply the greatest Spanish film director since Luis Bunuel, Pedro Almodovar reigns as one of the best filmmakers in the world. Somewhat a cross between John Waters and Gus Van Sant, Pedro's films have won acclaim throughout the world, especially at major film festivals such as Cannes and Venice.

"Desire Unlimited" by Paul Julian Smith covers all of Almodovar's films from his first major film "Pepi, Luci, Bom, y Otras Chicas del Monton" to his Academy-Award winning film, "Todo Sobre Mi Madre." Summarizing each film in its' own chapter, Smith gives the reader a summary of the plot and commentary on the film's characters, storyline, and locations to further educate readers more about Almodovar's methods. Smith does a great job in discussing each film, especially due to his citations of commentary and critiques from various periodicals throughout the world.

Beautifully designed, this book is not only a treat to Almodovar fans worldwide, but also it is a must have for any serious film student/buff who wants to know the forces of creativity from a non-American director. While American directors are often subjected to edits and story rewrites due to big studio contracts and concerns, Almodovar and his film company, El Deseo, do not have to answer to anyone, giving him total control over his films.

Truly a genius, Almodovar gets the respect he deserves in this book. I highly recommend this book to all who love Almodovar's unique, campy style. It makes great reading any day of the year.

The only book on Almodovar you'll need
There are lots of books on Almodovar and most of them are either very superficial or too darned academic.This one hits the spot very nicely.It's a chatty, engaged and thoroughly researched book, packed with information and challenging analysis.Sometimes it's a bit obscure but mostly it's the book Almodovar's films deserve.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
In "Pedro Almodovar", Marvin D'Lugo offers a concise, informed, and insightful commentary on the man who has become a preeminent force in modern cinema and by far the best known Spanish filmmaker among English-speaking audiences. D'Lugo follows Almodovar's career chronologically as he moves from amateur to international celebrity, and understands the films' increasing complexity in terms of the director's central themes and the Spanish film tradition from which he comes. D'Lugo considers wide ranging critical sources and develops recognized Almodovar themes in exciting new ways, including his use of melodrama and Hollywood genre film, his self invention as a filmmaker, and his on-screen sexual politics. D'Lugo also discusses what he calls "geocultural positioning": Almodovar's paradoxical ability to use his marginal positions (in terms of his class, geographical origin, and identity) to develop an expressive language that is emotionally recognizable by audiences worldwide. Including two interviews with the director and original interpretations of his most recent films, "Pedro Almodovar" will reward new film students and specialists alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction to Almodovar
This short book is one of the best things available in English on Almodovar.It's part of a good series.I also recommend Pedro Almodovar: Interviews; Peter William Evans, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; and "Almodovar's Girls (All About my Mother)" in Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, Forms of Being: Cinema, Aesthetics, Subjectivity.There is better literature in French (Notably Frederic Strauss, Conversations avec Pedro Almodovar, published by Cahiers du Cinema) and undoubtedly in Spanish. ... Read more

Book Description

Product Description
The film-maker Pedro Almodovar emerged from an austere background in rural Spain to carve for himself a niche in contemporary cinema with energetic, passionate films such as "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", "Law of Desire" and "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!". In recent years, however, he has tried to deepen the emotional content of his work and move in new directions. In these conversations, Almodovar takes each of his films in turn, and charts his personal development from one film to the next. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent, Comprehensive Look into the Mind of a Genius.
I have had this book for quite some time and I have read it twice. I have been fascinated by Almodovar's work when I first watched All About My Mother. I made sure I purchased or watched any of his movies I could and it's amazing to see the his work evolve from playful and kitsch to classy and brilliant. This book provides insight into his crazy little mind and you get the sense of his ideas and feelings towards specific subjects.
I haven't purchased any other book, so I can only recommend this one and I think it's good enough. Even if you are not a fan of his films you should get it to understand why/how/where everything comes together for him. Once you start reading you will not want to put it down--he's charismatic, funny, and smart. A very good read.

Excellent book
If you are into Almodovar and film this is the book for you. I deep insight in the mind of a genius. In his own words and beautifully written. Great book.

All About Almodovar
Known throughout the world for his unique directorial style and his often absurd characters, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar talks about his films, plots, actors, and other interesting facts that many of his fans knew little about. The book, which is part of series that spotlights many of the world's talented film directors, features Almodovar speaking about many of his films up from "Pepi, Luci, and Bom" to "The Flower of My Secret."

Providing interesting views, facts, and insight on many of his films and actors, there is no one who knows more about Almodovar than the man himself. His discussions are usually very open, especially when discussing several incidents that were high publicized in the European press, mainly his falling out with his most famous actress, Carmen Maura, after the completion of his masterpiece "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." Their professional divorce left Almodovar without a dependable leading lady (feature lead actresses Victoria Abril and Marisa Paredes never could capture Maura's persona) and it marked Maura's somewhat decline in Spanish film (she later went on to do several unsuccessful Spanish films and some television work before moving to France to break into French cinema.).

The book which is out of print is one of the best one-to-one interviews I've ever read. Almodovar's contributions to world cinema are so numerous that they can be all listed here, and his work has opened the door for many other Spanish and Latin American film directors such as Carlos Arau and Bruno Bareto in showing the world that foreign language films can be as professional and productive as any big budget film churned out by Hollywood.

"Almodovar on Almodovar," is a must have for any Almodovar fan and film studies student. An excellent book on one of the world's most gifted directors.

Everything You Wanted to Know about Almodovar
Almodovar became the enfant terrible during the '80s for his outrageous actions on and off the film set. Frederic Strauss's collection of interviews helps to dispel many of the myths surrounding the Almodovar mystique. Almodovar burst on to the scene with "Pepi, Luci, Bom," a film renowned for a woman in it being urinated upon, and Almodovar's films have been doused in controversy ever since. Almodovar points out that he creates characters who live on the fringes of society and rebel against laws and regulations. Yet he does not pick up on the fact that as a homosexual director in the male world of Spanish cinema he works outside of the norms to create his films. Almodovar's comments on film making illuminate the artificial world he creates. Almodovar has refused to acknowledge the remnants of Franco's Spain and builds his narratives without societal contexts. "Law of Desire" takes place in a dizzying world of discos, beaches, and theatres while "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" breaks down the fourth wall by setting some of the action on the set of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." No other director has consistently played with film narrative and conventions as Almodovar does and I wonder if we really need to know the backstage gossip. The truth dispels the myths and I am not sure I want to relinquish the myths. Nonetheless, Almodovar's observations and revelations are fascinating, especially in regards to his actors. He comments that he treats Antonio Banderas like a child in order to get a workable performance out of him. He lectures Victoria Abril on how to say simple phrases like "I love you" and "Have a good day." He became so professionally entangled with Carmen Maura on the making of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" that their occupational divorce made headlines all over Europe. I wonder who this collection of interviews is intended for. As a connoisseur of his films, I relished his delineation of the creative process that goes into the making of his films even when they told many of his secrets. Yet I am in the minority, as many Americans do not even know Almodovar or his films. If they do, it's as a footnote in Antonio Banderas's film bibliography. Potential film directors will salivate over interviews that place a microscope upon the workings of a director. Actors will be fascinated by Almodovar's comments on acting such as when he criticizes Robert DeNiro for showing technique instead of building a character. He prefers the French method of acting where the actor IS the character. He believes that the performances of Antonio Banderas and Carmen Maura in "Law of Desire" are his greatest achievements as a director. Yet, he has been hailed as resurrecting the floundering Spanish film industry with such worldwide hits as "Matador," "Labyrinth of Passion," and "High

Heels." Almodovar has always maintained a love/hate relationship with the Spanish film industry. Almodovar was denied funding for "Matador" due to his critique of the machismo inherent in the world of bullfighting. He linked the violence of bullfighting with the practice of necrophillia infuriating much of the Spanish public although the film was a smashing success. He was again denied funding when the board rejected the homosexual themes that make up "Law of Desire." AIDS activists accused of failing to deal with the disease because he failed to mention it altogether. Almodovar points out that his movies do not exist in a real place and in his world, AIDS does not exist. As with his collection of stories, "Patti Diphusa and Other Stories," Almodovar's interviews have a care-free attitude that is infectious. He discusses all of his eleven films including last year's "The Flower of My Secret" which many critics compared favorably to the women's films of the early '40s. This collection of essays is a gentle kiss harking back to such a magical women.

The Greatest Book To Get to Know Almodóvar!
Frédéric Strauss brings us this amazing piece of work from the hand ofPedro Almodóvar, in which he describes the life: the beggining and theactual work, of the spanish director. He describes what he wants to inspirein his movies and if you have seen them you might get to understand them alittle better. If you like this director's movies, you might want to getthis book. ... Read more

Product Description
Pedro Almodovar (Spain, b. 1951) single-handedly represents the revival of Spanish cinema as part of the cultural flowering of the Movida Madrilena in the 1980s. New York was first to hail the unbridled imagination of this provocative director, whose films are filled with transsexuals, neurotics ("Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", 1988) and even drug-addicted nuns ("The Law of Desire", 1987). In his maturity, Almodovar has continued to draw inspiration from his underprivileged childhood in a remote corner of La Mancha, making melodramas bursting with heightened passions expressed by unforgettable actors such as enelope Cruz ("All About My Mother", 1999; and "Broken Embraces", 2009) and Gael Garcia Bernal ("Bad Education", 2004). ... Read more

Product Description

In full command of both Hollywood stylistics and camp aesthetics, Spain's Pedro Almodóvar (b. 1951) has become a master of the audacious and the unorthodox, of the permissive and the polemical.

Pedro Almodóvar: Interviews documents the 22-year-long cinematic career of the most internationally celebrated Spanish art-film director since Luís Buñuel. Many of these interviews, from French, Italian, and Spanish periodicals, appear for the first time in English.

Almodóvar's early cinematic ventures in Super 8 and 16mm in the 1970s marked and memorialized the rise of the Movida, Madrid's underground vanguard artistic movement. Almodóvar's critical success in his native Spain came with What Have I Done to Deserve This? Almodóvar made his mark in the United States with his kitschy, melodramatic comedy and Academy Award nominee Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and his outlandish and irreverently funny Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

For all its taboo-breaking plots, eccentric characterizations, and explosive palettes, Almodóvar's cinema of excess has matured into one of tender compassion. All About My Mother, winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and of Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, and his fourteenth feature to date, Talk to Her, winner of the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, 2003, cement Almodóvar's commitment to characters on the margins and to social critique.

Covering more than two decades, the interviews collected here trace Almodóvar's journey from the small village of Calzada de Calatrava to Madrid, from his humble and Catholic provincial upbringing to his superstar status as Spain's leading postmodern auteur. Originally published in Spain, France, Italy, and the United States, these conversations disclose as much about Almodóvar's personal biography as they do about his thematic universe, his directorial personality, and his maturing style.

Paula Willoquet-Maricondi is assistant professor of media arts at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is the co-editor of Peter Greenaway's Postmodern/Poststructuralist Cinema. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Valentin Aguirre
This book has some great, though sometimes slightly repetitive, interviews with Almodovar, and is a special treat for big fans of his movies. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a compilation of stories and essays. Pedro Almodovar has established himself with films like "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "High Heels", this book features his comic creation Patty Diphusa, the high-class porn queen, who tells stories to make you hair curl. Her "memoirs" show an inexhaustible capacity for excess, plus a taste for reflection on the human condition. The book includes accompanying essays on film which form a kind of autobiography - particularly "How to Become an Internationally Renowned Film Maker" - which reflects on Almodovar's career from the early days of "Super 8". ... Read more

Product Description
The films of Pedro Almodovar have demonstrated great crossover appeal in their ability to attract both mainstream and marginal audiences and to command critical as well as commercial success. The contributors to this anthology of critical essays seek, through close readings of the director's 10 feature films, to analyze the multiple contexts of Almodovar's phenomenal international success. This volume offers a corrective to the glib approaches that have dominated previous discussions of Almodovar's films, which have treated them, on the one hand, as simply the latest contribution to the travel poster image of passionate, "romantic Spain," or, on the other, as historical joyrides through the global pop culture scene. As the first comprehensive study of Almodovar's cinema to be published in North America, the book is also noteworthy for the range of critical and theoretical methodologies that the contributors bring to the study of his works. Drawing upon disciplines that run from psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, film and media studies, and cultural theory to the empirical study of audience response, the authors nevertheless share a concern to illuminate the specifically Spanish context of the director's films. While this volume serves the important function of introducing American audiences to post-Franco Spanish culture, it also pursues the complementary goal of projecting contemporary Spain into the critical debate on the forms and functioning of postmodern culture and society. ... Read more

Product Description
Almodvar is Spain's most successful and controversial director, a unique blend of art-house auteur and popular film-maker. His films, with their mix of Hollywood and European styles and of popular melodrama and comedy, have been attracting growing international audiences since the success of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. His most recent films are the critically acclaimed Live Flesh, based on a Ruth Rendell story, and All About My Mother, the runaway winner of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. A Spanish Labyrinth is a much needed, clear and comprehensive introduction to the films of Almodvar, which investigates cultural and national contexts for his work, issues of gender, sexuality, stars, genre, visual style, music and much more. It is the ideal companion to Almodvar for students of film and Hispanic Studies, as well as those generally interested in film and Spanish culture. AUTHORBIO: MARK ALLINSON lectures in the Department of Hispanic Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

good insights
Stimulating, illuminating insights into the genius mind of Almodovar. The author paints a respectful, comprehensive picture of one the greatest living filmmakers. While we can never truly know everything about the mysteriously talented director, it sure is fun to sneak a peek and try to figure out some theories.

Pedro Almodovar...A New Title (At Last)
Finding a new book on Almodovar is always a treat, especially in English, and Mark Allinson's book is a very interesting analysis of all of Almodvar's great work.
A definate must for any Almodovar fan like me.

Brilliant.

Mark Williams ...

A Labyrinth of Information
As I have only seen two films by the critically acclaimed and now Oscar winning director, my interest in film production encouraged my reading of Mark Allinson's "A Spanish Labyrinth" which touches on almost every aspect of Almodovar's techniques, and compares these with traditional filmmaking of, say, the Hollywood system.
The "in depth" analysis of each of these techniques, and other notable areas of the book transpire the writers clear passion for cinema, Spain, and the Spanish language. Without this, the book would lack it's captivating edge, and be "just another book about filmmaking."
Little is known of Pedro Almodovar in this country. Recources are limited and "A Spanish Labyrith" is only one of two books on the subject written in English. Whilst Almodovar produces all of his films in Spain, it is only a matter of time before he makes films for a wider audience, directing actors from a script written in English.
To conclude, the book is of great interest to anyone who enjoys watching, analysing or even producing films, or indeed shows any interest in World Cinema, Europe and particularly Spain.
Allow the book to be the basis for your introduction to Almodovar, then you'll know what to look for in his latest film releases. ... Read more

Product Description
Critical guide and study of the work of renowned Spanish film director, Almodovar. ... Read more

Product Description