
Pedro Almodovar
Marvin D'Lugo(Author)
University of Illinois Press
Published on 24. May 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-0-252-07361-8 (ISBN)
Description
Perhaps the best-known Spanish filmmaker to international audiences, Pedro Almodovar gained the widespread attention of English-speaking critics and fans with the Oscar-nominated Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and the celebrated dark comedy Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!. Marvin D'Lugo offers a concise, informed, and insightful commentary on a preeminent force in modern cinema. D'Lugo follows Almodovar's career chronologically, tracing the director's works and their increasing complexity in terms of theme and the Spanish film tradition. Drawing on a wide range of critical sources, D'Lugo explores Almodovar's 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," that is, 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. Two fascinating interviews with the director round out the volume.
An exciting consideration of an arthouse giant, Pedro Almodovar mixes original interpretations into an analysis sure to reward film students and specialists alike.
An exciting consideration of an arthouse giant, Pedro Almodovar mixes original interpretations into an analysis sure to reward film students and specialists alike.
Reviews / Votes
"For fans and film students alike, D'Lugo's contribution to the Contemporary Film Directors series celebrates the director's camp aesthetic and artistic sensibilities with insight and elan."--Publishers Weekly"[D'Lugo] significantly extends the critical discourse on Almodovar's work by focusing on the cluster of ambiguities and polarities that sustain the most controversial aspects of Almodovar's authorship."--Screening The Past
"Providing a thoroughly researched synthesis of the many years of study of Almodovar's work by other scholars in both Spanish and English, D'Lugo nevertheless makes the narrative his own through contrasting Almodovar's early films to the films that inspired the director and the ones he seemed to revile and react to, and by emphasizing the auteur's own role in the creation of his personality as a celebrity-author ... With such a thorough and well-written book as D'Lugo's, a full appreciation of ... the genius of its creator has become a lot easier and more enjoyable."--European-films.net
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic/professional/technical: Research and professional
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
7 black & white photographs
Dimensions
Height: 209 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-252-07361-8 (9780252073618)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Marvin D'Lugo
Pedro Almodovar
Book
05/2006
University of Illinois Press
€66.96
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Marvin D'Lugo is a professor of Spanish and adjunct professor of screen studies at Clark University. He is the author of The Films of Carlos Saura: The Practice of Seeing, and Guide to Cinema in Spain and coeditor of A Companion to Pedro Almodovar.
Content
Acknowledgments ix
PEDRO ALMODOVAR AND HIS CINEMA 1
Low-Level Melodrama 1
Pepi, Luci, Bom, and Other Friends of Pedro 16
Migration and Melodrama 29
Thrillers 45
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown59
Transnational Repositioning after Women on the Verge 67
The Flower of My Secret 85
Live Flesh 93
All about My Mother 99
Talk to Her and Bad Education 105
INTERVIEW WITH PEDRO ALMODOVAR 131
SELF-INTERVIEW 145
Filmography 153
Bibliography 159
Index 165
PEDRO ALMODOVAR AND HIS CINEMA 1
Low-Level Melodrama 1
Pepi, Luci, Bom, and Other Friends of Pedro 16
Migration and Melodrama 29
Thrillers 45
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown59
Transnational Repositioning after Women on the Verge 67
The Flower of My Secret 85
Live Flesh 93
All about My Mother 99
Talk to Her and Bad Education 105
INTERVIEW WITH PEDRO ALMODOVAR 131
SELF-INTERVIEW 145
Filmography 153
Bibliography 159
Index 165