The Works Of Pedro Almodovar Film Studies Essay

The Works Of Pedro Almodo volt-ampere Film Studies EssayPedro Almod volt-ampere, the Spanish make-maker, has alship jakesal been considered in Hollywood to be a womans director (Maddi watchword 2000). This definition actu all toldy con noned latent gayness and female-identified melodrama. However, this characteristic of Almodvars works seems a little bit superfluous, as his exacts be exceed known for the mixture of human race and assembly, extraordinary messages and unique plots. simile and reality go together in the ikons by Pedro Almodvar. Sometimes it is adjacent to impossible to differentiate in the midst of them, to decide what comes from real life story and what was the hearten of directors imagination. One thing is true for sure all films by Pedro Almodvar atomic number 18 united by the same central issue the fountainhead of identity (Marsh 2006). He engages this issue in many different ways from the earliest work Pepi, Luci, Bom y las otras chicas del montn (19 80) to his most recent film Volver (Return) (2006). This is a key feature of Pedro Almodvar and it is consistently depicted finished the motif of writing. He writes reality into existence and thereby changes it through fiction. Thus, the film-maker interrogates all gets of subject formation and subjectivity. The films of Pedro Almodvar abound in characters who adopt triple pseudonyms, the repeated images of typewriters, the information transmitted through found notes, the eerie battlefront of ghostwriters (Marsh 2006).The film All round My M early(a) (Todo Sobre Mi Madre (1999)) is one of the best examples of interrelation of reality and fiction. The subject of the film is the definition of sexual identity. This acme is a very important one, as Pedro Almodvar never introduces altogether homosexual or heterosexual characters. On the contrary, the characters of the film perform their identities and so it is next to impossible to define what identity will be elect by them at any moment. This point is present not tho in All close to My catch, but in many other works of Pedro Almodvar (such as in his earlier work La Ley Deseo (1986), for example).Pedro Almodvar subverts identity through the human body. The director rejects the idea that a per give-and- come acrosss identity, his or her essence is contained in one single organ, such as heart, for instance. On the contrary, the combination of physical appearance alongside with inner core defines a certain gender of any per in partigence. Thus, Pedro Almodvar introduces a quite an ironic scene when Agrado, the transsexual character of the film, delivers a sooner jocund and in the same time frank confession, giving all the enlarge of the operations with her body that lead to her present feminine gender. Pedro Almodvar rather boldly undermines the Christian learning that presents human body as an inexpugnable and essential representation of being. The film-maker goes further and subverts identity. He prop oses the body as a site of imitation.According to Pedro Almodvar (2010) the main topics of his film All About My Mother include womans ability to pretend, wounded motherhood and the spontaneous solidarity among women (Almodvar 2010). Although the film is a fiction, Manuelas reality is very grim and harsh. All her life she has to run away. First, she runs away from Barcelona to Madrid, carrying a son inside her. She runs away from her sons (Esteban) father. eighteen years later Manuela has to run again in the opposite direction. Her son died and she returns to Barcelona to find his father and to tell him about(predicate) the short life of the son he never knew about. She wants to leave Madrid, the city where Estebans life started and ended so quickly. Manuelas feelings argon in confusion. Barcelona is the city of Estebans father. Madrid is Estebans city. Manuelas emotions are difficult to get wind as she cannot sort them out herself. For her some(prenominal) these cities are inco mpatible and irreconcilable. When Esteban asked her about his father she always tried to change the subject of the conversation. She had a reason, as his father decided to take a feminine form and everybody called him Lola. 17 years she kept silent and at last Manuela promised to tell her son about his father on his birthday that happened to be Estebans last day. Esteban did not know his father. What appears to be reality for Manuela results in fiction for Esteban. Manuela runs away at once more. It is Barcelona Madrid direction again besides she is again with Esteban, a sister whose father is in addition Lola. It is rather symbolic. Manuela feels something like revival. She has a son to take care of, his name is Esteban and she is the exclusively person left in this realism to dedicate herself to this new life. Manuela realizes that her life is rightfully extraordinary. She does not even dig up herself sometimes what is true and what is not in her life she herself cannot differentiate the boundaries between reality and fiction, because everything is so real and so unusual in her life. She also realizes that she could be an actress if she wanted, as she sees in herself the ability to change and pretend.All About My Mother implies the ideas of female identification and introduce the concept of heterosocial bonds as a way of understanding the structures of knowledge (Maddison 2000). In event, Manuela, the main character of the film, pushes herself to form alternative bonds between herself and other women in order to ad rightful(prenominal) to the difficulties caused by men in her life. It seems very clear that All About My Mother is a film with which Pedro Almodvar offers and extraordinary degree of female identification. This film has an emotionally intense, somber quality (Maddison 2000). The death of Esteban, Manuelas only son, catalyses the narration of the film. Besides, it more or less separates the political and emotional idea of motherhood fr om the performance of this role in the family. Almodvar presents female bonding that eliminates mens control and influence in the family. So, he points out that femininity is not the sole realm of women nor is gender conquering the sole experience of women (Maddison 2000).The boundaries between real life and fiction are often blurred in the films by Pedro Almodvar. That is one of the reasons why his films are so popular, unique and extraordinary. No one can dispute this fact nevertheless he likes or dislikes Pedro Almodvars works. That can be considered one of the distinguishing features of Almodvars films. He mentions in one of his interviews (Almodvar 2006) that reality and fiction are sometimes absolutely fused in his films. All films by Pedro Almodvar can be characterized as a mixture of images and sounds, genres, changing genders and characters, actors and motifs. The director characterized that with the bourn collage (Rosen 2006). These collages create endless chains of echo es and reflections between fiction and reality.In his interview about his film Volver Pedro Almodvar says The best way to tell a fiction (at least in my case) is to dress it with reality. Reality and fiction come together without confusion (2010).The film-maker claims that he can then practice the direct conversation with the film he is making. Sometimes it appears to be difficult even for the director to distinguish between reality and fiction. Pedro Almodvar just accepts the fact that films are his life. The films he makes just come from his life and sometimes it happens vice versa his films give rise to life.All About My Mother has both the features of reality and fiction. Every picture is the result of the film-makers fantasy and imagination. However, this film is also a mourning of Almodvar for his own mother. Thus, the intertextual references make fiction and reality interpenetrate and it is already impossible to tell reality from fiction as it is impossible to differentiate between the grief of the mother who lost her only son and the grief of a son who lost his mother.The thirteenth film by Pedro Almodvar All About My Mother is considered by the critics to be the most accomplished directors film. It is dramatically rich and its emotional gravitas really does serve to recognize the power and quality of the film.