Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish director and screenwriter.
Iconic for his mastery of blending melodrama, comedy, and intelligent social commentary. He got his start in The '70s, shortly after the death of Francisco Franco led to a massive opening and blossoming of modern Spanish culture, with film, music, and other arts being given an opportunity to experiment after four decades of repression. There were subcultures flying everywhere—while most had existed even in Franco's time, they were no longer forced to be underground. Almodovar—himself gay, a community that did not have a nice time under Franco's conservative regime—turns to this, and its relationship with what came before, for material.
His style has gotten him attention abroad—one of the first postwar Spanish directors to do so. Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Spanish: ¡Átame!) - the film that had Hollywood racing to sign up Antonio Banderas, All About My Mother, and Volver all have great reputations outside of Spain—possibly more than inside it.
Filmography:
- Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)
- Labyrinth of Passion (1982)
- Dark Habits (1983)
- What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
- Matador (1986)
- Law of Desire (1987)
- Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
- Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)
- High Heels (1991)
- Kika (1993)
- La Flor de Mi Secreto (The Flower of My Secret) (1995)
- Carne trémula (Live Flesh) (1997)
- All About My Mother (1999)
- Talk to Her (2002)
- Bad Education (2004)
- Volver (Return) (2006)
- Broken Embraces (2009)
- La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In) (2011)
- I'm So Excited! (2013)
- Julieta (2016)
- Pain and Glory (2019)
- Parallel Mothers (2021)
- Strange Way of Life (2023)
