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"Camp" is a word often used to describe Pedro Almodóvar's output, and with plotlines involving lesbian nuns, drag queens and porn stars, not to mention the garish sets and costumes which blare out in every scene, one can see why.

However, the suggested superficiality implicit in the word is often absent in Almodóvar's work; his characters may be outlandish, even hyper-real in their behaviour, yet they never lose their humanity, and many of his films are very moving. His obsession with 1950s melodrama soaks his scripts with histrionic dialogue (in Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, when asked by her ex-lover “How many men have you had to forget?” the heroine retorts “As many as the women you remember”), and like Douglas Sirk, he is fascinated by the dysfunctional characters derided by conventional society, such as the crazed diva mother in High Heels or the transsexual in Law Of Desire.

Almodóvar is a great director of women, and his entourage features strong character actresses such as Carmen Maura, Maria Paredes and Victoria Abril (Hispanic superstars such as Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas also did their best work with Almodóvar before their less adventurous forays into Hollywood).

Although often thought of as a gay director, his films more often focus on the relationships of heterosexual women, and their destructive desires for unsuitable men; Eva Siva's masochist housewife in the provocative Pepi, Luci, Bom, who willingly returns to her vile husband only after he has beaten her up, is one of the most daring female characters of the 1980s. He is the most important Spanish director since Buñuel, and one of the greatest living auteurs.

 

Alex Davidson on 3rd October 2005
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