- Born
- Birth namePedro Almodóvar Caballero
- Height5′ 9¾″ (1.77 m)
- The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study filmmaking because he didn't have the money to afford it. Besides, the filmmaking schools were closed in early 70s by Franco's government. Instead, he found a job in the Spanish phone company and saved his salary to buy a Super 8 camera. From 1972 to 1978, he devoted himself to make short films with the help of of his friends. The "premieres" of those early films were famous in the rapidly growing world of the Spanish counter-culture. In few years, Almodóvar became a star of "La Movida", the pop cultural movement of late 70s Madrid. His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release. In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company: El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world, making his films very popular in many countries.- IMDb mini biography by: Maximiliano Maza <mmaza@campus.mty.itesm.mx>
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsAntonio Almodovar
- RelativesAgustín Almodóvar(Sibling)Antonia Almodóvar(Sibling)
- Often uses symbolism and metaphorical techniques to portray circular storylines.
- His films often portrays strong female characters and transsexuals
- Uses only his last name for his "Film By" credit ("Un film de Almodóvar")
- The Lady from Shanghai (1947) is one of his favourite films.
- Turned down an offer to direct Sister Act (1992).
- By his own admission, he usually starts writing his movies with a really important scene that ends up placed in the middle of the movie.
- Was approached to direct at some point both Brokeback Mountain (2005) and The Paperboy (2012).
- Has been romantically involved with photographer Fernando Iglesias, whom he frequently casts in small roles in his films, since 2002.
- All my movies have an autobiographical dimension, but that is indirectly, through the personages. In fact, I am behind everything that happens and that is said, but I am never talking about myself in first person singular. Something in me--probably a dislike of cheap exhibitionism--stops me from approaching a project too autobiographically.
- Already when I was very young, I was a fabulador. I loved to give my own version of stories that everybody already knew. When I got out of a movie with my sisters, I retold them the whole story. In general they liked my version better than the one they had seen.
- Cinema has become my life. I don't mean a parallel world, I mean my life itself. I sometimes have the impression that the daily reality is simply there to provide material for my next film.
- [on his experience in the Catholic boarding school he lived in as a young man and on which Bad Education (2004) is based] The education we received was about guilt, sin, punishment.
- [on why it took ten years to finish the script for Bad Education (2004)] [It] deals with my own biography . . . it took time to remove myself from it. Now it's not me. I changed the tone of the story, but the main situation is the same.
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