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All about Almodóvar

A Passion for Cinema

2009
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Brad Epps and Despina Kakoudaki, editors

All about Almodóvar

New critical perspectives on the filmmaker behind All About My Mother, Talk to Her, and Volver

One of world cinema’s most exciting filmmakers, Pedro Almodóvar has been delighting, provoking, arousing, shocking, and—above all—entertaining audiences around the globe since he first burst on the international film scene in the early 1980s. All about Almodóvar offers new perspectives on the filmmaker’s artistic vision and cinematic preoccupations, influences, and techniques. Through overviews of his oeuvre and in-depth analyses of specific films, the essays here explore a diverse range of subjects.

All About Almodóvar offers new perspectives on Almodóvar’s artistic vision, cinematic influences and techniques.

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Film Maker

One of world cinema’s most exciting filmmakers, Pedro Almodóvar has been delighting, provoking, arousing, shocking, and—above all—entertaining audiences around the globe since he first burst on the international film scene in the early 1980s.

All about Almodóvar offers new perspectives on the filmmaker’s artistic vision and cinematic preoccupations, influences, and techniques. Through overviews of his oeuvre and in-depth analyses of specific films, the essays here explore a diverse range of subjects: Almodóvar’s nuanced use of television and music in his films; his reworkings of traditional film genres such as comedy, horror, and film noir; his penchant for melodrama and its relationship to melancholy, violence, and coincidence; his intricate questioning of sexual and national identities; and his increasingly sophisticated inquiries into visuality and its limits.

Closing with Almodóvar’s own diary account of the making of Volver and featuring never-before-seen photographs from El Deseo production studio, All about Almodóvar both reflects and illuminates its subject’s dazzling eclecticism.

Contributors: Mark Allinson, U of Leicester; Pedro Almodóvar; Isolina Ballesteros, Baruch College; Leo Bersani, UC Berkeley; Marvin D’Lugo, Clark U; Ulysse Dutoit, UC Berkeley; Peter William Evans, Queen Mary U of London; Víctor Fuentes, UC Santa Barbara; Marsha Kinder, USC; Steven Marsh, U of Illinois, Chicago; Andy Medhurst, U of Sussex; Ignacio Olivia, Universidad Castilla–La Mancha, Cuenca; Paul Julian Smith, U of Cambridge; Kathleen M. Vernon, SUNY Stony Brook; Linda Williams, UC Berkeley; Francisco A. Zurián, U Carlos III, Madrid.

All about Almodóvar

Brad Epps is professor of romance languages and literatures and chair of studies in women, gender, and sexuality at Harvard University.

Despina Kakoudaki is assistant professor of literature and film at American University.

All about Almodóvar

All About Almodóvar offers new perspectives on Almodóvar’s artistic vision, cinematic influences and techniques.

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Film Maker

All About Almodóvar is a rich Collection of film analysis, befitting the rich collection of films that have come forth from the talents of Pedro Almódovar.

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Blogcritics.org

The writers conduct a nifty dance between art and life and even manage to have some semantic fun with the title of All About My Mother.

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ReVista

This striking collection of in-depth essays should be in the library of every serious film student and professor. . . . This eclectic collection of essays examines Almodovar’s work from a variety of perspectives, resulting in a synthesized, multi-faceted view of his personage and artistic style, which serves to heighten the interest of both film aficionado and lay reader and lure each other into a closer examination of the text.

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Film & History

The best description I’ve ever read of Almodovar as a whole.

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Senses of Cinema

A readily accessible and unprecedented selection of high-quality work on the filmmaker that will provide a valuable resource for academics, students and aficionados alike.

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New Cinemas

All about Almodóvar: A Passion for Cinema must be considered by all who want to get a glimpse into the mind of Almodóvar.

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Scope