"He is the god of the world that he creates, and just moves this earth that he creates in his image." "It's more than work, it's a way that he has to touch your heart and to make you go home feeling... so many emotions at the same time." "And anger and love and violence..." "I think that he's a very very powerful artist." "You always have a mixed feeling when you see a great talent, a wonderful talent, you always feel," ""My God, his work is so much more original" ""and charming than mine is"" "And on the other hand you're always very excited, because it's not often that you do see a fine film maker emerge." "The purpose of my life is to make films, which is a miracle, really considering the way I was brought up." "I came to Madrid with no money, no job... and no knowledge of the profession." "But I had a very clear vocation:" "to tell stories on the big screen." "Pedro Almodóvar is Spain's most sensational living film maker." "Beginning in 1980 with Pepi, Luci, Bom... he has made..." "thirteen films, his most recent, "All About My Mother", won the Oscar for best foreign film in 2000." "He had just finished filming, "Talk to Her", a darkly comic tale of female bullfighters, girlfriends in a coma, and an incredible shrinking man." "Almodóvar was born in 1949 in Calzada de Calatrava, a small village in La Mancha in the heart of rural Spain." "In the late 1950's the family moved to Madrigalejo in the even more remote region of Extremadura." "They moved to Madrigalejo after his father got a job at a petrol station." "They were very sociable people, very friendly." "His mother was as imaginative as he was." "His father was the opposite - serious and responsible." "Unlike Spielberg, I didn't come from a rich family or a developed country." "I didn't have my own Super 8 camera and projector at the age of eight." "I first dabbled in painting, but abandoned it when I was eleven." "I used to write, too, from the age of eight." "I won a school literary prize when I was nine." "He said: "I'm going to Madrid."" "He'd been offered a job at the telephone company." "That gave my parents peace of mind." "I did it for them, but it didn't do me any harm either." "Jobs were hard to come by then." "In 1968 when the 18 year old Almodóvar moved to Madrid," "Spain was still firmly under the rule of General Franco." "The social revolutions of the sixties made little impact on Spanish life." "Almodóvar would have been in jail, probably, under Franco." "Clearly - all of us." "Spain under Franco was a very dark place." "It felt like we'd been fenced in, like we were cut off from the outside world." "A married woman didn't have many rights." "Only the husband could own property." "Men were free to screw around and do whatever they liked." "But if a girl wasn't a virgin when she married, she'd be labelled a whore." "All of the anxiousness of the people of Spain, to kind of get out and start expressing themselves in a different way was realized through people like Almodóvar." "Throughout the seventies Almodóvar led a double life." "He worked in an office, but in the evenings and on weekends he wrote and directed short films, which were his passport to Madrid's burgeoning counter-culture." "He'd shoot on Super 8 with no sound, then show his films at parties or in pickup joints as they were then called." "Pedro would narrate the whole story, dialog and everything, and it was hilarious." "He would even sing the music, it was hysterical, we had such a lot of fun, and the most... the funniest Pedro Almodóvar was there." "And now our competition, "General Erections."" "I knew he was going to be famous." "That's why I wanted him to make a proper film, so that when he became famous, I could be seen." "What do you want to do, and with whom?" "Your every desire is our command." "One day he showed me the script of "Pepi, Luci, Bom", a twenty minute short." "I read it and thought that it was funny but a bit vulgar, quite frankly." "Lift your leg." "You love it." "I asked him to take out the pissing scene." "I thought that was a bit much." "But he said, "No, no."" "The thing is, whenever we worked together and I complained, he always came up with such funny replies..." "I just melted." "At first your films were very dirty." " Mum, it was the 80's." "When my neighbours saw them, they said, "too many bed scenes"" "Talking of sucking..." "What about this saucy little rabbit?" "Well, it does look good enough to eat." "I think "Pepi" represents the circles I moved in at the time." "But, above all, it illustrates my want to make a film at any cost." "To make a second film you need a first one." "Know what you should do?" "Study it." "I heard it on the radio that it's the thing of the future." "What's the matter with you?" "My first character in a movie - ever, and in this case, this character got an incredible... power with his nose." "He can just smell people miles away, and know where that person's coming from and situations like that." "I think it's just another wink to the impossibility of love." "You smell good." "And that photo?" " Oh, that's me." "I went to a party dressed like the women in my country." "Pedro saw me, and he was stunned." "He asked me if I wanted to be in one of his films." "And I said, "I want to be in all of your films."" "Now look at the drill as it goes through you." "Put the drill to his neck." "I remember we went to the San Sebastian Film Festival." "All the relics from the Franco era were there." "The critics and the public were very harsh with Pedro at first." "I remember people screaming "Yeah!", people applauding, people booing, it was a mess." "I didn't now if the movie was successful, but I knew, definitely, that Pedro Almodóvar was going to make an impact!" "By 1982 Almodóvar's counter culture had moved into the main stream, rebranded by the Spanish as "La Movida", the movement." "As well as having made two films," "Almodóvar was also dabbling in comics, singing in his own pop group, and generally having a good time." "We were pioneers of a sort of anything goes culture in Spain." "If it hadn't been for us we'd still be wearing sombreros and playing castanets." ""I'll call my baby Lucifer." ""I'll reach him top criticize and to prostitute himself." ""I'll teach him to kill." ""Oh, yes, I'm going to be a mum!"" "When democracy came it was a very playful time." "We felt we could do anything." "People laughed, sang, took drugs, in a spirit of freedom." "It was all quite childish." "Are all Spanish people chaotic, queer, drug addicts?" "Yes, you are." "You really are." " Now you've lost me." "Your friends must be like that." " Not at all." "My friends know very well what path to follow." "The path of pleasure and the good life." "We'd do anything to become famous." "We didn't care about anything." "We wanted to succeed at any cost, even if it meant... the worst." "And I, being a man of my time, only sing about the present." "Using the pages of Hello!" "as my source of inspiration," "I'm going to improvise a song." "Sometimes, once in a while, when we just met, and just shot a sort of an Andy Warhol thing, just to put the camera there." "For the Princesses early morning is best." "Elena, Christina, sailing on the sea." "That's how the Princesses, Elena and Christina, live." "The improvised scenes were the funniest." "Let's say a housewife, whose husband arrives and gives her a hard time, Fabio would play the housewife, and Pedro the husband." "From that, we'd arrive at some really outrageous situations, which in turn led to films like," ""What Have I Done to Deserve This?"" "With its twisted blend of kitsch and kitchen sink," ""What Have I Done to Deserve This?"" "was a breakthrough for Almodóvar both in Spain and internationally." "You've a beautiful son." "What's your name?" "You like children?" " Yes, I've always liked them." "You don't have children?" "It's sad for a couple to be childless." "Yes, but I've never been married." "I wanted so much to adopt, but there's so much red tape." "Kids are expensive." "The first film I saw of Pedro's in New York, it was" ""What Have I Done to Deserve This?"" "I instantly felt that we were kindred spirits in a different way." "I think that although our films are very different in some ways, we are both damaged Catholics with, I hope, a good sense of humour." "Why don't you put some make-up on?" "Why don't you put some make-up on your prick?" "Son of a bitch." "I'm so worried about Lebanon." " Lebanon!" "You are my Lebanon." "I was totally fascinated by Carmen's work." "I was dying to work with her again, and squeeze her to the full." "I needed an overdose of Carmen Maura." "The scene that frightened me most was the shower scene." "It was embarrassing, those scenes always are." "But Pedro was great." "He said," ""Don't think about anything, not your family, awards, nothing." ""And it'll be OK"" "That's the way Pedro directed me, and it worked." "I first saw the film with an audience at the Montreal Film Festival." "People were rolling about with laughter, and I was furious." "I said to Pedro, "the bastards!"" "I'd need proof that God loves me, then I'd love Him back." "But I need proof first." "I am a rebel." ""The world has made me so" ""No one has treated me with love"" "A good director is a frustrated painter." "A good director is a frustrated writer." "...lover, singer" "A frustrated sex symbol, architect... what else?" "A frustrated Prime Minister and a frustrated dictator." "Pedro is the most demanding director I know." "During the production he thinks of everything, location hunting, choosing the costumes, the sets... and then he rehearses." "He is very thorough and very demanding." "His aim is to get the best take." "This is sometimes hard to understand from the point of view of production." "Pedro Almodóvar's younger brother, Agustin, has had a cameo role in all thirteen of Pedro's films." "in 1985 the brothers formed the company El Deseo to produce Pedro's films with a secure base away from commercial constraints or interfering producers." "El Deseo translates simply as "Desire."" "I remember when Pedro took me to see "the Ten Commandments."" "We were still in short trousers." "For me that was El Deseo's stepping stone." "The two of us seeing one of the biggest epics of the time in a local cinema... in summer, and in the cheapest seats." "In Los Angeles I was a nobody, till they found out I was Pedro's editor." "Then it was, "You've edited all his films?"" "Suddenly I was a genius." "I've edited all of Pedro's films." "I've known him for about twenty years." "There's only two of us left from the original team." "I think I've made a big contribution." "If you look at his films from "Pepi" to the current one, you'll see he's." "changed completely." "His way of filming is almost academic." "You have to learn to make films yourself without fear." "At first you don't even know where to put the camera." "Until you become familiar and interested in the film language, not only the stories you tell, but in the way you tell them." "So cinema can be learned, but it can never be taught." "Much of Almodóvar's education took place in religious institutions." "One scene, based on a reunion with a former spiritual instructor reoccurs almost identically in Almodóvar's early, unpublished story," ""The Visit", in his 1986 film, "The Law of Desire", and in deed the script for his next film," ""The Bad Education."" "I wrote a short story called "The Visit."" "It's now become the script for "The Bad Education."" "For the first time, I've confronted my own memories." "Childhood memories." "And the kind of education I had with priests." ""I'm begging you listen to my song" ""Dry up my tear of bitter pain." ""I'm begging you listen to my song" ""Dry up my tear of bitter pain"" "As a child I used to be a choir soloist." "It's the only thing I miss from those days." "You remind me of an old pupil of mine." "He sang in the choir, too." "Father Constantino, it's me." "You?" "The Chocolate packets had stickers of..." "Ava Gardner." "She was you favourite." "You collected all the stickers." "You used to say "One day, I'll be like Ava Gardner"" "But Ugly!" "Bette Davis was one of his favourites," "And Ava Gardner, too." "He loved doing imitations." "He used to do that a lot." "Village life is very conservative." "People are narrow-minded." "They love to criticize." "And he was ahead of his time." "It was too much for a village like this at that time." "If you had long hair and wore flares, you were a poofter" "In the 60's, Spain had a very backward mentality." "Living in a small village was difficult, people would gossip." "If you were creative or artistic... it was like living in a deep well, or a dark tunnel." "He did as he liked." "He had a strong personality." "He was intelligent, and that's why he is where he is now." "His family was very supportive." "Especially his mother." "His mother his brothers and sisters." "He had no problems." "Pedro never was hidden from his sexuality and he just loved... to get into different characters that portray different kinds of sexuality's." "His films celebrate sex." "They're gay films that are heterosexual friendly, straight films that are homosexual friendly." "That's what I love about them:" "that people of all sexual persuasions... hang out together and get along which is my idea of a great night!" "Calm down, will you?" "You shouldn't kiss as if you're unclogging the sink." "Then teach me how?" " With pleasure." "Law of Desire," "I started questioning myself about my own sexuality..." "I think that helped me a lot to understand in my own profession that I don't have limits as an artist, I can go anywhere." "Law of Desire my character is a homosexual clearly openly, and graphically, and at the same time he's a killer, also openly and clearly, and nobody complained about it." "When they saw the movie people were putting a lot of stress in the fact that it was it was portraying a homosexual guy kissing another guy on the mouth or getting in bed with him." "But nobody was putting attention on the fact that he was a killer." "So for morality people they came to say that to kill is OK, but to kiss is not." "I remember coming out of the premiere... and a director friend said:" ""It's a good film." ""But a film about fags won't do well in Spain"" "The film did well, with the critics and at the box office, but people were shocked." "Pedro Almodóvar, we shouldn't forget this was highly criticized at the beginning of his career in Spain, highly criticized." "Pedro Almodóvar success starts with the success internationally," "The necessary routine before a trip is to pack your bags." "Clothes, personal belongings and hope... cram Pedro Almodóvar's suitcase... on his way to Los Angeles... and a possible Oscar..." "The final accolade for the biggest box office success of our cinema." ""Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" helped to launch me." "Like the cannon man in a circus..." "I was catapulted by this film over an international audience." "My role was supposed to be longer." "But I had a bad time because I spent most of the film asleep..." "Which was boring." "But he said "What can you do?"" ""People don't do anything when they're asleep"" "I must have made a nuisance of myself... because in the end he came up with the orgasm scene to keep me quiet." "The orgasm scene wasn't in the original script." "But he thought: "What can this woman do in her sleep"" "Don't wake her up she's having a ball." "I was inspired by the old American comedies, not necessarily the best." "Those comedies from the 60's, with Jayne Mansfield, Natalie Wood." "This Gazpacho's been spiked." "Tomato, cucumber..." "Peppers, onion... a clove of garlic." "The film was a classic American comedy." "Why the American's found it innovative..." "Because they forgot they're own history." "So Pedro gave classic American cinema back to the Americans." "Hollywood wanted to turn Women on the Verge into a real American classic, buying the rights for an all star remake, the first time this had happened to a Spanish film." "I'm flattered that the Americans are inspired by one of my films." "But I'm staying out of it." "The director is Herbert Ross, and the lead is Jane Fonda." "Jane Fonda?" "I mean I like her, but she's not known for her sense of humour, of all things I don't know, she's a laugh, not wasn't she gonna make" "Women on The verge of A Breakdown?" "Why would you remake a great movie?" "You should remake the bad ones!" "The Hollywood remake never happened and Carmen Maura and Almodóvar never worked together again." "I can say it now because we're adults." "But Pedro often said I was running the film." "Got any eye drops?" "No, I'm sorry." "I could buy some." "No thanks." "Why didn't I think of eye drops?" "I'm such a fool." "That film was the end of an era." "Until then I had such a good relationship." "But looking back, it's not a film I remember fondly." "Pedro is a complicated person, and being a genius, it is difficult to work with him sometimes... but at the same time I would go with him to hell." "You're so heavy, Juana." " I'm authentic." "Pedro knows exactly what he wants and how to explain it." "So if you're open and relaxed, you can follow him." "When you are there you feel that an actor is really important for him." "That's the most important instrument for him on a set." "Even if he takes care of everything and controls everything and has the whole movie very very clear in his mind because he's so personal the way he tells a story but you still feel that the actor is the most important instrument" "for him on the set." "Pedro loves actresses." "Those actresses who are prepared to give him... part of their creativity and part of their souls." "He's like a mirror." "He keeps you on the ball and that's reassuring." "Come on, put the gag on and hit me." "He has a wonderful eye, he knows when things word." "Ready?" "I don't make movies that set out to shock." "But the label sticks." "Take a character like Ricky." "If he doesn't force the girl to listen, she won't." "He doesn't stand a chance of coming into contact with her." "So the fact that he's vulnerable and innocent..." "And gets the blame for everything..." "Is what attracted me..." "Ricky wants love badly, and he doesn't know how to get it because he doesn't have the resources or the intelligence to do so the only way that he finds out to get the woman that he wants" "is just to kidnap her, you know." "This is a... nobody would approve that in real life." "Violence is a part of our nature." "So my characters may sometimes appear violent." "But the last thing an author should do is judge his characters." "But that doesn't mean I don't have a moral position toward them." "I don't know where to put my hands." " Wait." "You think we'll be able to?" " Yes, yes." "If you want we can leave it." " What are you talking about?" "Luckily those bastards didn't hurt my cock." "That sex scene is there because they love each other." "It's a manifestation of their feelings." "And it is in that scene that she remembers." "Through Antonio Banderas' penis, well, the characters penis." "That she had already made love to him but totally forgotten." "So I need that scene to tell the story." "I remember when Pedro got the X for "Tie ME Up Tie Me Down"." "He was bewildered by it, he looked hurt like he took it personally, and I said" ""You don't understand, this is America: we hate sex"." "Sexuality is a part of our nature." "It's a necessity." "So to prohibit the physical act of love..." "Is a monstrosity." "Here I come:" "How was it?" " I didn't feel a thing." "I'm gradually moving away from those scenes." "I've been there before, and it's difficult to shoot erotic scenes." "It's uncomfortable, and you should never do it on a whim." "Only if there's no other alternative." "When I was dreaming of being an actress," "I went to see "Tie Me UP Tie ME Down"." "By myself when I was 14, and I will always remember that, that afternoon when I saw that I said, I know this man," "I know that I'm going to know him in another way." "Centro, I've wet myself." "It's not that, love." "Your waters have broken." "When Pedro offered me the character of "Live Flesh"" "it wasn't a very long character in the movie, but I think it's been one of the best experiences" "I've had as an actress." "and one of the most rich characters." "It was an amazing experience to be in a bus for 8 days with him." "He was going through everything with me, and it was very intense and we feel that pain together and it was a very strong experience" "What will you call him?" " Victor." "Loosely adapted from Ruth Rendell's novel, Live Flesh, made in 1997, was a distinct departure for Almodóvar, with it's relatively sparse plot and cast of characters inhabiting a more main stream world." "I've always been seen as a "Women's director"." "But Live Flesh is a film about men, about Machos, in every sense." "It's a genital film." "What a goal!" "What a fucking goal!" "Live Flesh is the sexiest movie to me, he ever made, that's my favourite of all." "The two male characters in that Javier is like a cunnilingus top." "I think that's pretty amazing." "OK Victor, I've warned you." "And the other guy, what's his name?" "Liberto?" "I think he's the handsomest star that's ever been in any movie." "All the critics rave about Pedro's female characters." "I think the male characters are really good too!" "I'd like to go home with all of them." "I hate you." "If I could go on hating you for ever..." "This hate would free me from you." "Oh God, I don't believe in You, but please help me." "In another century he would have been a novelist, not a film director." "I could stay here the 24 hours you're on leave." "For me, the first sequence is the key." "It's what gives me the drive." "Here the first thing I wrote..." "Is the sequence when the husband comes back from war in Bosnia." "Just to have a shower." "He's promised a whole day to his wife but has very little time left." "For that woman, her husband left her when he went to war." "It's my duty as a soldier." "Don't you have a duty as a husband?" "It always happens to me." "The first sequence I write grabs my interest." "I start asking questions about the characters." "And then I know I have a story to tell." "So that first sequence becomes the core of the film." "Then I develop the story backwards and forwards." "The great strategist." "You're meant to be an expert in conflicts." "Yes, but no war compares to this one." "Pedro's melodramas have all the ingredients lacking in conventional melodramas." "There are many elements that stop them from being vulgar, or mundane." "Not since Douglas Sirk has someone been as melodramatic and it's probably the hardest thing to like for audiences in America." "I adore it, I love it." "Is there any hope at all... for our marriage?" "No, No hope at all." "He utilizes melodrama in a fresh way." "It's a classic form in film, melodrama even more than drama, certainly in American films you rarely see drama, you almost always see melodrama." "Maybe I'll die soon and not be a nuisance." "Damn it, where are they?" "She hides things like a magpie." "There they are, your peppers!" "Right in front of your nose." "Rossy de Palma's character, with her mother..." "They love each other but fight like mad." "Pedro said he drew this from his own childhood." ""How bright the sunlight is" ""The flowers offer their perfume." "There is stirring of the trees." ""The Joyous birds are singing, flying from branch to branch." ""And charming us with their song"" ""The hills are covered in oaks." ""The valleys are rich in fruit." ""The river banks lined with trees."" ""Don't you know it?" "It's my village"" "From a very early age..." "Pedro and his mother had a very close relationship." "He learnt a lot from his mother." "And the female environment he lived in." "His mother was the muse that inspired... many of his female characters." "She used to read her neighbours their letters but not literally." "She knew their lives, their hopes and needs." "So she would adapt the letter... according to the woman who was listening." "Afterwards, I'd say to her "Why did you tell her that?"" ""They never asked about the granny or the father"" ""I know she liked what I read." ""I read what she wanted to hear"" "Looking back on it..." "I think that's the greatest lesson she taught me." "The relationship between reality and fiction." "It's exactly like that." "Almodóvar's mother died shortly after the release of his 1999 film "All About My Mother"." "Some months later the film won an Oscar." "It had won many major awards." "I read in the papers that I've never mentioned my mother." "Wherever she is..." "the prize is for her." "You could easily cast Pedro in a movie, you cut on the clothes and the hair and everything- he has a great look, a signature look." "Becoming a caricature of yourself is what Alfred Hitchcock did, it's what a lot of directors have done, to have that signature look." "Look at Otto Preminger- Warhol had the wig, they all had one thing really and I guess it's Pedro's hair." "I need more volume at the top." "My face looks too much like a tambourine for a film director." "Before he became famous, he used to love giving interviews." "Doing an interview with Pedro was a laugh." "He had fun doing it." "People can't believe I've made four films in 4 years." "I do it through hypnosis." "Hypnosis!" "You're too clever by half." "That's not what I asked you." "Oh, I'm too clever by half!" "Over the years, he's lost that sense of fun." "He's burned out." "Even people who haven't seen his films know who he is." "And this can be a nuisance." "I've been out with him sometimes... and people treat him almost as a relative... an uncle or a cousin who happens to be famous." "That's the worst about being famous." "Your entire world changes and it's a cross you have to bear." "Especially if you're trying to use reality as your inspiration." "The film I'm most proud of and I feel that in my skin... in my flesh." "In my person... is "All About My Mother"." "Its' been seen without prejudice all over the world." "And that's the victory of the film." "Because I don't judge the characters" "They don't belong to any social category." "They're very much outsiders." "But they're human beings and it's their humanity that concerns me." "Too me, it maybe wasn't as campy or as outrageous, but it was still about marginal people from society winning and succeeding and celebrating their difference from everybody else." "I know that sounds very intellectually corny, but however that is what he does, and that's what makes his films so enjoyable." "The film has helped plenty of prejudiced people, to free themselves of those prejudices" "It wasn't the intentional." "The film itself did it." "And that's a wonderful feeling." "He spoke through me, through my character." "It was a very intense experience." "The subject was tough, especially what this woman was going through." "From the moment this woman loses her son, the whole film becomes about the son's absence." "The unbearable pain... of a woman who's just lost her only child." "A pain like no other." "My son!" "The films deals with the recovery process of a woman who's lost her son and how chance helps her to recover and become interested in other people's lives." "I'm the model of discretion." "Even when sucking a cock I can be discreet." "No one notices except the woman involved." "It's been ages since I sucked a cock." "I think my character in "All About My Mother"" "is one of the most difficult one I ever had and also the most beautiful- such a rich character for an actress because she's a very strange woman and that's what he does so well, that combination of being very strange and so real" "at the same time." "I love the word cock, prick," "After "All About My Mother" he must be slightly apprehensive" "He must feel that his next film must be just as good, if not better." "Talk to her, the follow up to "All about my mother"" "will be released in Spring 2002." "After Almodóvar won the Oscar, his next project was set in America, and English language feature called "The Paper Boy"." "But the project stalled." "It wasn't the first time working in English had been mooted and then rejected by Almodóvar." "I've talked to him about it and he always says he does and he doesn't on the next one, and I'm always relieved in a way because why does it have to be in English?" "Except for international distribution," "I guess they always feel that it will make more money if it's in English." "I don't believe you will because in America you either get it or you don't get it." "He's already achieved much more than he would have achieved having to devote his energies to fighting all those battles in Hollywood that have nothing to do with creative film making." "I always get cold feet at the last moment." "The way I shoot is very much day by day, moment by moment." "Except for the structure of the story... everything else can be changed." "And I can't change a thing, only in Spanish." "My life's always been shrouded in smoke." "You've been so successful." "Success has no taste, or smell." "You get used to it and forget it's there." "I think his greatest achievement has been... putting Spanish cinema on the international map." "The greatest achievement of Pedro is just to keep his personality clean and un-corruptible." "He's the funniest person I know." "Even funnier than his films." "I still have private conversations with him about our personal lives and he's one of the only directors in the world that I know that if I broke up with somebody I might tell him about it." "You know, I'm not going to call Scorsese, I really like him but, you know what I'm saying?" "The greatest achievement of my life has been to become a film director" "It was as hard as becoming a bullfighter In Japan." "I wasn't born in the right place, or in the right family." "I didn't have the right means, so cinema has shaped my life, given it a reason." "Given it a focus." "If I hadn't had this vocation I'd have been totally lost and maybe dead." "OK guys, I'm off." ""All about desire"" "Subtitles:" "Elrom Studios"