Wednesdays
The Taste of Spanish Rouge: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar
Programmed by Jola Idowu
Pedro Almodóvar’s witty scripts combined with his nuanced portrayal of womanhood in all its forms makes him an auteur before his time. A versatile filmmaker who has applied his highly stylized and distinct eye to multiple genres such as horror and comedy, Almodóvar has created films for every type of movie lover. The series showcases nine of Almodóvar's films, spanning his over 30-year career.
9/28/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:00 PM
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(Pedro Almodóvar, 1988) · Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was Almodóvar’s first international hit and set the stage for a career of female-centric dramas that play with a sensitive balance of humor and heartbreak. A blend of film noir and romantic comedy, the film chronicles the journey of Pepa Marcos, who wants answers after being left by her lover (Antonio Banderas). The film also boasts a strong performance from Carmen Maura, an Almodóvar favorite.
runtime: 90 min format: 35mm
10/05/2016 @ 7:00 PM
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
(Pedro Almodóvar, 1989) · In this romantic hostage comedy, Almodóvar regular Antonio Banderas takes on the role of a former psychiatric patient who kidnaps an ex-porn star he once had a fling with, set on making her fall in love with him. The only problem is that she can't quite seem to remember him. Exploding with erotic color and cringe humor, this film stands as one of Almodóvar’s most ambitious and controversial projects, an exhaustive exploration of the intersection of love and violence.
runtime: 101 min format: 35mm
10/12/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
The Flower of My Secret
(Pedro Almodóvar, 1995) · In this film, Almodóvar utilizes the deteriorating relationship between a romance writer and her increasingly distant soldier husband to examine her wants and desires. Leo is a romance writer unsatisfied with her own love life, leading her to reconsider her work and strike up a relationship with a new man. Almodóvar's purest take on the melodrama still approaches comedy at times without compromising the overall effect.
runtime: 103 min format: 35mm
10/19/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
All About My Mother
(Pedro Almodóvar, 1999) · A heartbreaking yet hilarious film about the trials and tribulations of motherhood, All About My Mother is arguably Almodóvar's most celebrated film. The film follows a mother as she tries to find her ex-husband, now a trans woman dying from AIDS, to tell her about the recent passing of their son. Along the way she meets eccentric characters, each of whom teaches her something about the joys and sorrows of not only motherhood, but also womanhood.
runtime: 112 min format: 35mm
10/26/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
Talk to Her
(Pedro Almodóvar, 2002) · A sensitive film about the loneliness and intimacy that can occur between the two sexes, Talk to Her follows two men taking care of two women in comas: nurse Beningo caring for dancer Alicia, and writer Marco caring for his bullfighter partner Lydia. The men form a friendship as each experiences love past loss. The film won Almodóvar his second Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
runtime: 112 min format: 35mm
11/02/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
Bad Education
(Pedro Almodóvar, 2004) · A murder mystery that holds all the elements of quintessential Almodóvar: Catholicism, transsexuality, hard drug use. Filmmaker Enrique reads a script from a friend and former lover and relives his past at a Catholic boarding school. Gael Garcia Bernal plays his lover, a transgender woman who revisits the trauma of her closeted sexual orientation and victimization through flashbacks. However, all is not what it seems.
runtime: 106 min format: 35mm
11/09/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
Volver
(Pedro Almodóvar, 2006) · Starring world famous actress and Almodóvar favorite Penelope Cruz, Volver revolves around an eccentric family of women and the ghost of their former matriarch. The film displays Almodóvar's gift for mixing genres, drawing on magical realism, farce, and melodrama. He again masters handling both the serious and the comical and finding one within the other. The film received the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress award for the six main actresses.
runtime: 121 min format: 35mm
11/16/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
Broken Embraces
(Pedro Almodóvar, 2009) · A romantic drama with an ensemble cast of Almodóvar regulars, this film recalls the love triangle of a blind screenwriter and former film director, a millionaire business magnate, and a tragic actress (Penelope Cruz) both men pine after. Almodóvar’s take on film noir is rendered with a pallete of saturated primary colors. An homage to the world of cinema, Broken Embraces includes a film within a film and draws inspiration from global masters of suspense.
runtime: 130 min format: 35mm
11/30/2016 @ 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
The Skin I Live In
(Pedro Almodóvar, 2011) · The first Almodóvar-Banderas collab in over 21 years finds the director experimenting with horror. Banderas stars as a plastic surgeon who develops a new kind of artificial skin graft for burn victims. However, the doctor’s good intentions mask a dark secret: the test subject locked in his house against her will. Adapting Thierry Jonquet's novel Mygale, Almodóvar crafts “a horror story without screams or frights,” pushing the limits of the genre.
runtime: 117 min format: 35mm
