Fronted by a divine Penélope Cruz alongside an ensemble cast of Almodóvar regulars like Carmen Maura and Lola Dueñas, Volver is a vibrant generational melodrama about Spanish womanhood and resilience. Almodóvar explores how the ghosts of our past come to haunt us and what we can do to atone.
And we reach peak Almodóvar! Alive with a wild pace and an irresistible rhythm, this witty classic redefined screwball comedy for a new era of arthouse pleasure. The insanity of love and sex had never been so fun nor colourful—and as for Pedro, he was forever thrust into the international spotlight.
One of Almodóvar’s personal favourites, this early great shares a kinship with his 2019 film Pain & Glory, not only in Antonio Banderas’ unforgettable turn but also its explorations of lust and fiction. A baroque melodrama celebrating new family models, Law of Desire feels more pertinent than ever.
More Pedro! Live Flesh finds the Spanish maestro of kink once again defying categorization with this emotionally mature, eye-poppingly colourful web of desires and dramatic twists. An unlikely adaptation of British crime writer Ruth Rendell’s book, with Javier Bardem and a pre-fame Penelope Cruz.
With its bright, rigorous visuals and lip-synced musical numbers, High Heels finds Almodóvar at his most fabulously freewheeling. A labyrinthine comedy about a mother, a daughter, and a corpse, it’s the most explicit nod to the women’s pictures of Douglas Sirk in the Spanish auteur’s career to date.
