Pedro Almodóvar and Spanish Cinema
Autumn 2014
Pedro Almodóvar’s work is the best known and most greatly loved of Spanish directors outside
of Spain. His relation to Spanish culture in general and Spanish cinema in particular is more
problematic. This course aims to introduce students to an incredibly rich oeuvre, periodise it
through various paradigms (from the political to the authorial) and broach the following
questions: Why is he so widely considered a great director? What does the work owe to
Francoist culture? What is the significance of the contributions of ‘La Movida’ to his early work?
What does Almodóvar owe to Hollywood cinema in general and melodramatic and noir genre
variants in particular. What is the inter-relationship of representations of gender, sexuality and
nation in his work? How does the oeuvre fit into a history of Spanish Cinema and also a history
of Gay Cinema? How useful are notions of ‘national cinema’, ‘global cinema’, and ‘transnational
cinema’ to an understanding of Almodóvar’s work. The module is 15 CATS and will build on
work done in the second year of the degree on National Cinemas, both extending and
deepening understanding of the subject. The focus will be largely on the work of one director
but seen through various contexts (genre, stars, style, authorship) so as to also explore and
interrogate the notion of national cinema.
By the end of the module, I expect students to have seen all of Almodóvar’s films (half of them
will have been screened on the course) and to have read all the key literature. The literature
indicated below is indicative, I expect students to do independent research on the director and
present it to the class in relation to a potential essay topic. The idea here is to explore the work
of one director but also through the work of that director explore the changes in context
(national cinemas in Europe) and also the concepts (does the concept of national cinema have
any relevance when looking at the work of Almodóvar?).
Schedule:
1st screening: Tuesdays 3-5, A028 (so we get to see the films with the new projection facilities)
Lecture: Tuesdays 5-6
2ndst Screening: Wednesday 9-11:00
Seminars: 11-1
Assessment: Students may choose to write a 5000 word essay (due 16th of December, to be
returned 16th of January) or sit a 2 hour exam. Remember that there is penalty mark for each day
the work is late. That’s 5 marks off per day. This percentage not to be interpreted as 5% of grade
achieved but as 5 marks off per day. This has now been clarified. Thus do see the Senior Tutor if
any extension is required on medical or personal grounds before the essay is due.
Office Hours: My office hours for the Autumn Term will be Monday 12:00-1 and Tuesdays 2-3.
Please sign up if you’d like to see me.
e-mail: I try to be prompt in responding to e-mail sent between 9-5, Mon-Thurs. Will not look at
work e-mail outside those times.
Laptop or tablet at screening. In the past students have complained about this so the
department has agreed that students who wish to use their laptops may sit in the back row from
the beginning of the year until the SSLC is consulted on students’ views on this matter (though I
think numbers are so small for this module that it shouldn’t be an issue for us).
Note on Mobile Phones: At the movies, few things are as rude as people turning on their
mobiles at a dark screening. Everyone’s attention shifts from the screen to the new source of
light and this affects what a whole team of filmmakers have worked so hard to achieve. One
person unable to keep away from staring at a small screen ruins everyone’s experience of what’s
happening on the big one. Please be considerate
Seminar Attendance: The department’s policy is that missing four seminars with no mitigating
circumstances will result in a penalty essay of 3000 words on material from missed seminars.
Student needs to pass the essay in order to pass the module.
Presentations:
From Week 4 to Week 9, I would like each student to do a ½ hour presentation on a topic related
to the essay topic you have chosen (if you have chosen one. If not, choose an area of particular
interest that might come in handy in the exam). The idea is for the presentation to act as
groundwork for future work but already organised enough so that the student may benefit from
the group’s feedback. Part of the presentation should be an outline of the talk, a clip to be
referred to, and a bibliography. The idea is to sharpen your presentation skills whilst also giving
helpful feedback on work done with the aim of improving it at the end. More information on this
will follow alongside essay topics for this year.
Week 1
Lecture: After Franco, a Movida towards postmodernism.
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
The intent this week is to contextualise Almodóvar’s early work in relation to the politics and
society of the period leading up to and including the time of its making and initial distribution.
I’ll also try and describe what the Movida was as a youth movement and as aesthetic grouping
and how Almodóvar’s work fits into it. When watching the film try to come up with an argument
as to why it’s been considered postmodern.
Reading: Barry Jordan and Mark Allinson, ‘Authorship – The Auteurist Tradition in Spain’,
Spanish Cinema: A Student’s Guide, New York: Hodder Arnold, 2005, pp. 70-92
-Peter Evans, ‘Back to the Future: Cinema and Democracy’ in Helen Graham and Jo Labanyi
eds. Spanish Cultural Studies: An Introduction Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 326330.
-Additional Reading:
-Schmidtke, Edward R. ‘All About Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema (review), Film and
History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies, vol 40.1 (Spring 2010), pp.
94-96
-Paul Julian Smith, ‘Spanish Spring’, Sight and Sound, vol 11, Issue 7, July 2011, pp. 34-37.
-Kathleen M. Vernon, Melodrama against Itself: Pedro Almodóvar's "What Have I Done to
Deserve This?" Film Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Spring, 1993), pp. 28-40 Published by:
University of California Press
. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1212901 .
Additional Viewing: I hope you have already seen all of Almodóvar’s films up to this one but if
not make sure you see: Pepi, Luci, Bom and All the Other Girls, Labyrinth of Passion and Dark
Hideout. You should also see an example of the type of cinema that Almodóvar was reacting to;
I recommend Victor Erice’s El espíritu de la colmena (Spirit of the Beehive) or Carlos Saura’s
Cría Cuervos (Cria).
Week 2
Lecture: Gay Cinema as International Breakthrough
The Law of Desire (1986)
Why did a film focusing on a homosexual triangle become the representative Spanish film of this
era at home and abroad? How did the film’s first scene set up a horizon of audience expectations
for the film?
Reading: Paul Julien Smith, ‘Pornography, Masculinity, Homosexuality: Almodóvar’s Matador
and Ley del Deseo in Marsha Kinder, Ed. Refiguring Spain: Cinema/ Media/ Representation,
Durham: Duke University Press, 1997, pp. 178-215.
Additional Reading: José Arroyo, ‘La ley del deseo: a gay seduction’ in Richard Dyer and
Ginette Vincendeau eds. Popular European Cinema, London: Routledge 1992, pp.31-46.
Week 3
Lecture: Cinematic Apparatus and Cinematic Culture in Post-Franco Cinema
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
The peak of the acceptance of Almodóvar’s work in Spain and the most successful Spanish film
at home and abroad, How may it be seen as a paean to Madrid and to 1950s cinema. What
cinematic culture does it speak through and with?
Required Reading:
-Peter Evans, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (London: BFI, 1996)
-Marvin D’Lugo, ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ and ‘Transnational
Repositioning after Women on the Verge’ in Pedro Almodóvar, University of Illinois Press,
2006.
Additional Reading:
-Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli, Stratified Madrid: Layers of Realism and Artifice in
Almodóvar’s Cinema, From Moscow to Mardid: Postmodern Cities, European Cinema New
York: I.B. Tauris, 2003, pp. 29-51
Suggested reading: This is a blog post I wrote following seminar discussions on the topic in last
year’s seminar group and which you might be interested in reading:
http://notesonfilm1.com/2013/10/19/a-fount-of-pleasure-and-a-matrix-of-meaning-notesarising-from-a-viewing-of-women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown/
Week 4
Lecture: Masculinity and Spanish Cinema
Live Flesh (1997)
The intent here is to examine what Almodóvar’s work tells us about masculinity (with particular
reference to Matador as well as Live Flesh) but also to see how this intersects with the star
personae of Javier Bardem up to this point.
Reading:
-Santiago Fouz-Hernandez and Alfredo Martínez-Expósito, , ‘Almodóvar’s Approach to
Disability’Live Flesh: The Male Body in Contemporary Spanish Cinema, London: I. B. Tauris
2007, pp. 203-210
-Fredric Strauss, Almodóvar on Almodóvar (Revised Edition) London: Faber and Faber, pp. 167231
Suggested reading: This is a blog post I wrote following seminar discussions on the topic in last
year’s seminar group and which you might be interested in reading:
http://notesonfilm1.com/2013/11/01/a-thought-on-live-flesh-pedro-almodovar-spain-1997/
Week 5:
Lecture: Melodrama
All About My Mother (1999)
We will already have been touching on how Almodóvar’s work speaks through cinematic
cultures (particular references to films, genres, even shots) but here also through the works of
particular writers. We will discuss how he uses this and to what end (how does this affect our
thinking and our feeling about these films?).
Reading: Mark Allinson, All About My Mother, in Alberto Mira, The Cinema of Spain and
Portugal, London: Wallflower, 2005, pp. 229-239
-Ernesto R. Acevedo Muñoz, ‘The Body in Spain: Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother’, in
Quarterly Review of Film and Video 2:25-38, 2004.
Additional Reading:
Michael Sofair, Film Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Winter 2001), pp. 40-47 Published by:
University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2001.55.2.40
.
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7:
Lecture: The typical and the Exceptional
Talk to Her (2002)
This film is widely considered a ‘masterpiece’. Why? And how does this connect to
Almodóvar’s authorship?
Reading: Marsha Kinder, ‘Almodóvar’s Brain Dead Trilogy’, Film Quarterly, vol 58, pp, 9-25,
2005.
Additional Reading:
Ohi, Kevin ‘ Voyeurism and Annunciation in Almodóvar’s Talk to Her,’ Criticism, vol. 51,
Number 4, Fall 2010, pp. 521-557.
Novoa, Adriana, ‘Whose Talk Is It? Almodóvar and the Fairy Tale’, Marvels and Tales, vol, 19,
no. 2, 2005, pp. 224-248.
Week 8:
Lecture: Film History as Mise-en-scėne
Bad Education (2004)
What genre does this film belong to? Who is the hero? How do these questions affect the way we
understand this film?
Required Reading:
Oliver Harris, ‘Film Noir Fascination: Outside History, but Historically So’, Cinema Journal 43,
No1, Fall 2003, pp. 3-24
Geoff Pingree, ‘Pedro Almodóvar and the New Politics of Spain’ Cineaste, Winter 2004: 30, 1,
p.4-8.
Gary Indiana, ‘Internal Affairs’ Film Comment; Nov/Dec 2004; 40,6, p. 22-24.
Suggested reading: This is a blog post I wrote following seminar discussions on the topic in last
year’s seminar group and which you might be interested in reading:
http://notesonfilm1.com/2013/11/28/autobiography-and-bad-education-pedro-almodovar-spain2004/
Suggested Reading:
- Kathleen M. Vernon, ‘Theatricality, Melodrama and Stardom in El ultimo cuplé’ in Steven
Marsh and Parvati Nair eds. Gender and Spanish Cinema Oxford: Berg, 2004, pp. 183-200.
Week 9:
Lecture: Film History as Mise-en-scėne
Volver (2004)
We will continue our discussion of the narration, structure and point-of-view in the film taking
certain scenes as a focus for detailed textual analysis.
Reading: I have now distributed several articles on Almodóvar’s work in general and Bad
Education in particular in digital form. I would like you to be conversant with at least the
introductory material on Almodóvar’s work in general and also all the articles on this film in
particular before this class. I want us to take this as a real opportunity to get into the work and
into the film in depth so do come prepared.
Week 10:
Lecture: Spanish Cinema as International Cinema
Still from Eyes Without a Face
The Skin I Live In (2011)
I’d like to leave this a bit open as I might like to do the whole class on The Skin I Live In. But
what I would like you to think about in general is the representation of rape in Almodóvar’s
work. It’s represented in almost everyone of his films in very different ways and reaches a kind
of culmination or at least extremity in Skin that I’d like you to consider.
Required Reading:
Paul Julien Smith, ‘Women, windmills and wedge heels’, Sight and Sound, June 2006, pp. 1618.
Suggested Reading:
- Marsha Kinder, Film Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Spring 2007), pp. 4-9 Published by: University
of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2007.60.3.4 .
-Susan Martin-Márquez, ‘Introduction’, Feminist Discourse and Spanish Cinema: Sight Unseen,
Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 1-42.
Indicative Bibliography:
Mark Allinson, A Spanish Labyrinth: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, I.B. Tauris, 2001.
Santiago Fouz-Hernandez and Alfredo Martinez-Exposito, Live Flesh: The Male Body in
Contemporary Spanish Cinema, I.B. Tauris, 2007
Peter Evans, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, BFI, 1996
Barry Jordan and Mark Allinson, Spanish Cinema: A Student's Guide, Hodder Arnold, 2005
Marsha Kinder, Refiguring Spain: Cinema/Media/Represenation, Durham University Press, 1997
Paul Julien Smith, Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar, London, Verso, 1994
Alberto Mira, The Cinema of Spain and Portugal, Wallflower, 2005
Thomas Sotinel, Almodóvar, Cahiers du cinema sarf, 2007
Frédéric Strauss, Almodóvar on Almodóvar, Revised Edition, Faber and Faber, 2006
Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris, Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro
Almodóvar, London: Greenwood Press, 1995.
Nuria Vidal, The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, Madrid, 1988.
Peter William Evans, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, British Film Institute 1996.
Paula Willoquet-Maricondi, Pedro Almodóvar: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 2004.