Almodovar (spanish national cinema)

Introduction

Scholar Susan Hayward, in her book French National Cinema, wrote the premises in which the bases for a national cinema could be determined. My proposal for this essay is to transpose those premises to another country and determine to what degree is Spanish film-maker Pedro Almodovar representative of a Spanish national cinema. Almodovar’s career as a filmmaker expands for threedecades and a total of seventeen feature films. Trying to analyze the Spanishness of Almodovar’s, focusing in his whole filmography, could take more space than required for this essay. My intention is to focus on three films by the filmmaker, Pepi, Luci, Bom (Spain, 1980), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain, 1988) and Volver (Spain, 2004), which represent the origins, the worldrecognition of his art and the maturity of Almodovar . With the arrival or Almodovar into the international film scene, a new identity for the Spanish cinema emerged. The previous international Spanish filmmakers as Carlos Saura and Victor Erice had exported a very different idea of Spain abroad, based in their position to censorship and the need of the creation of a cinematic code to fight it.Their films were highly symbolic, cryptic and allegoric. Democracy and Almodovar brought a more modern and actualized idea of Spain in the international film circuits. Nowadays Almodovar is the synonym of Spain and his cinema has renewed the appreciation of the Spanish identity all over the world.

Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del monton.

Pepi, Luci, Bom is an unusual film within the wholeof the Spanish filmography and to certain extent, within Almodovar’s own filmography. This, his first film, was highly influenced by the underground movement, especially by filmmakers as John Waters and Andy Warhol. This influence will mellow as his career progresses and the wildness of his style will turn into classicism. Almodovar signed the script of this comedy and this will be a constantin his work as he has written the scripts of all the films he has directed. Only in one occasion Almodovar has shared the script credit with another writer, that is the case of Matador (Spain, 1986) co-written with Jesús Ferrero. And only in another occasion he has adapted previously written material, as is the case of Live Flesh (Spain, 1997). The script of this film was an adaptation of a RuthRendell novel, and even though he is responsible for the script he thanks Spanish writer Ray Loriga for collaborating with him. Analizing Pepi, Luci, Bom, this film does not fit into a typical Spanish type of narrative. The topics and the structure are not representative of a particular Spanish narrative tradition and fit more into the contemporary avant-gardes as underground cinema and popart. Almodovar’s creativity as a screen writer is patent and it will be important to distinguish the sources where the filmmaker gets inspiration. Spanish classical literary genres as sainete play an important part in the screenplay of Pepi, Luci, Bom. The conversations about the price of potatoes between Luci (Eva Siva) and her neighbour (Concha Gregory), and the desperation of the last one for adate with Luci’s brother in law is a clear example of this influence. Spanish popular operetta, Zarzuela, also plays a small part in the film. In the scene when Pepi’s friends take revenge on the policeman, who at the end turns to be his identical twin brother, they are all dressed in the style of old Madrid, while we hear a song from the zarzuela La verbena de la Paloma. The scene looks likewe are witnessing a street representation of the musical play.

The second typology mentioned by Hayward is genres. Pepi, Luci, Bom is a wild comedy, filmed in Madrid at the time of the genesis of comedia madrileña (Madrilian comedy); this genre started in the capital in the years immediately after the death of general Franco. Those were light comedies in which their main characters were left...