Interview: Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar has done it again. His most latest oeuvre Volver has conquered the soul of moviegoers and critics alike, as it happened before with cinema darlings Talk to Her and All About My Mother, among others. As usual, he opened in Spain in the early spring and he started collecting awards all over the world. Landing in American theaters in November it’s also part of the ritual: oscar season is up and running and once again, Almodóvar and his movie are strong contenders for nominations. This 57 year-old Spanish director is among the few foreigners that has not only won (All About My Mother) and been nominated (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) for the Oscar in the foreign language feature category but has also been a contender (and a winner) for best screenwriter and director for Talk to Her.

With a quirky, funny and always surprising approach to his storylines and subjects, Almodovar was THE indie director from Spain in the 80’s. Through the 90’s and especially in this new century he has developed and polished his cinematic language and has reached such an esquisite level of creativity (with few exceptions like Bad Education), that he is no longer catalogued simply as an indie director but as one of the most personal and interesting directors of his time. But he wouldn’t agree with that definition. His mantra is not to believe what people say about him, “it is more healthy that way” he claims.

Volver dives again in the all-female universe, the one in which Almodovar seems to feel most comfortable with. This time he focuses on the women of La Mancha, a spanish region of small villages full of hardships where surviving is a matter of solidarity but where the darker side of a Spain’s past – with somber crimes and abuses- is also part of its current reality. The film also displays to the filmgoers the hidden potential of actress Penélope Cruz, who has never been casted or properly directed in an American-made feature. The movie opens today with the fresh nomination by the Spanish Film Academy to represent Spain in the race for the Oscar for best foreign flick, but the director also confirmed a few weeks ago during an interview in New York that Sony Pictures Classics have decided to play more cards and will campaign for a Cruz nomination as best actress and for Almodovar for best director and best screenwriter, as they had done for his Talk to her. Nevertheless, he doesn’t have big expectations since he considers that “those are awards of the American industry to the American industry”. Sure, but there must be pressure somewhere… Fortunately for him, his sense of humor helps to relieve it. I met with Pedro while he was in New York to promote his newest feature.

Barbara Celis D'amico: Does it stress you out to go back to Hollywood to do promotion towards the oscar?
Pedro Almodóvar: No, I don’t feel nervous about going to Los Angeles. I just feel fat. But It’s not a problem. I still have time to get on a diet.

BCD: What is the most difficult part?
Almodóvar: We hope we will get the nomination for best foreign movie (the announcement will be made in January) but to get the award it will be tough because that category, like the best documentary film category, is in disadvantage with the rest of the ballot. The Academy requires for the individuals that want to vote it to prove that they have seen the five nominees. That requirement doesn’t apply for the other categories. So our distributor has to work to help people to see our movie and other movies, which has perverse consequences for us.

BCD: Will Sony Pictures Classics pursue other candidatures?
Almodóvar: Yes. They are ambitius, which is good. A distribution company ambition must be limitless. But in the end it also depends on the money that a company can spend. The Oscar race is really expensive.

BCD: Is it tiring?
Almodóvar: Yes, because you have to do a lot of promotion and public relations. I have to confess that so much promotion makes me a little sad and depressed. I need to be in contact with something new so whenever I can, I try to work in my next script. Another thing I do in these cases is keeping a diary in which I make fun of myself and of everything that happens around me. It is a way to stay mentally healthy, otherwise you could believe all the incredible things that you get to hear about you.

BCD: Like what?
Almodóvar: Like ‘you are the best director in the world’. And trust me, I shouldn’t believe those kind of words.

BCD: What is the meaning of Volver?
Almodóvar: It has many. Literally ‘volver’ means to come back. For me Volver meant a come-back to my roots, to the land, La Mancha, where I was borned and grew up. My childhood was locked behind a door that for many years I wasn’t willing to open because I didn’t like it. If I hadn’t left La Mancha on time when I was young, probably I would have committed suicide. But now I was ready to look back and see other things. Raimunda, the character played by Penelope, and all those women in the movie are based in women like my mother. They were strong, tough fighters and thank to them my generation is alive. Spain had a really difficult time after the civil war and women were key to go on. Besides, Volver means to go back to Carmen Maura. We did many movies together but we hadn’t done any for 18 years. It is also a come back to Penelope Cruz and the title of a famous tango by Carlos Gardel that talks about how time goes by.

BCD: Did Volver help you to look forward too?
Almodóvar: When I hit my fifties I had a crisis. I never had the usual 40’s crisis so I guess I got both at the same time. Suddenly I stopped and I realized that I had lived too fast and I had done too many things and I had lived more than half of my life already and that scared me. You understand the time is not endless anymore and that at the end of the line death is approaching. Volver has helped me with that because in La Mancha death is not a tragedy, it is part of the daily life and shooting in those places has reminded me that. Volver was a way to look back at my past without bitterness and now I feel I am more ready to look forward to the future. I am more aware than ever about death but I am trying to learn to accept its reality.

BCD: Once again your music score was made by Alberto Iglesias…
Almodóvar: Music is one of the best elements of narration. It depends on the director, Buñuel in his latest movies, didn’t use music at all. I hate to use it to make a scene more sentimental. Music must take a part really active on the story, it’s full of meaning. Fortunately I found this great composer, Alberto Iglesias, and we have worked together since The Flower of my Secret. I couldn’t live without him anymore. I feel as lucky as Fellini was with Nino Rota.

BCD: Didn’t you fear that the topics of the movie where too Spanish to be understood internationally?
Almodóvar: Yes, but everybody seems to grab it pretty well. The best critics are coming from the US and UK, some of the most distant cultures from La Mancha. But I guess since Volver talks about the relations among friends, among mothers and daughters and about emotional conflicts within families, it appeals to everybody. The only part that cannot be fully understood is the slang. Some expressions from La Mancha are impossible to translate.

BCD: Some people claims that the image of Spain that you show in Volver it seems far away from the modern image of today’s Spain…
Almodóvar: -Why? I show a neighborhood in Madrid that is exactly like in the movie. There are women that help each other economically and emotionally, south American prostitutes that are part of the daily spanish life and dark episodes –sexual abuses, passion crimes- that are common in Spain, in the Usa, everywhere. Or don’t you have here rapes, sexual abuses like in every other country? My interest was to show that in the same places where the worst things happen, beautiful things happen too and it is usually the same people who take part in both.

BCD: You keep saying you won’t shoot in Hollywood…
Almodóvar: I don’t think I will ever say yes to a Hollywood production. But I wouldn’t mind to work with American actors and actresses or to shoot a movie in English. I would like to avoid the movie studio system. I feel fortunate enough to know that if I ever want to shoot an English language movie I could get the money for it in Europe.

Volver gets released exclusively today with a wider release to occur in the weeks to come.