Pedro Almodovar And Getting Into Art House Joints

By Spence Blazak

Subtitled films have been striking fear into the hearts of filmgoers since before Michael Corleone got into the family business. That yellow lettered beast of distraction on the bottom eighth of the screen haunts the viewer from start to finish and has kept people from some of the best films of all time. Don’t make the mistake of your ancestors who passed up the likes of Fellini, Truffaut, and Bergman because “they weren’t in the mood to read.” A man who can make a case for best working filmmaker is still in his prime: the Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar.

Almodovar is a man who directs his films with intrinsic accessibility-his art house movies for film snobs can also be enjoyed by the Average Jose. The term “art house” implies an exclusive, elitist club that looks down upon those who can’t spout off the complete works of Satyajit Ray (which this writer could not do for all the almonds in Catalonia). Almodovar embraces the term, and all the prejudices that come with it, when creating his works of art.

His films create a feel that is truly one of a kind: stunningly beautiful and filled with an expansive color palette akin to that of the old Microsoft Paint pigment chart, fluid camera work is slow yet deliberate while imbued with meaning, and a dialogue written with the verve of a Tarantino that cuts out the zippy one-liner shock value. Almodovar raises his arms in greeting to those that want to experience the classy beauty of film.

“The Skin I Live In” is Almodovar’s most recent work, and displays his knack for one of the greatest attributes a director can have: diversity in content. As Kubrick could go from the space opera “2001” to the scathing political satire “Dr. Strangelove,” Almodovar does the same throughout his career. An almost sci-fi thriller, “The Skin I Live In” follows Antonio Banderas as a Spanish dermatologist creating the perfect skin. He practices his craft on a woman that lives in a locked room of his home. A film that starts off creepily unravels into a tale of retribution that soon begins to spiral into one of the most traumatizing film endings in recent memory. Even more so than “Oldboy,” and that superlative is not given lightly.

An Almodovar classic on the other end of the dramatic spectrum is his tragic love tale “Talk to Her.” The Oscar winning masterpiece follows two intersecting stories: one of a man in love with a female matador, and one of an effeminate male nurse who might be falling in love with his patient, even though she has been in a coma for all the years he has taken care of her. A twist in the plot comes every several minutes, leading up to a beautifully heartbreaking ending and resulting in a film that might end up earning a spot on the list of your all time favorites.

Almodovar’s other gems include “Bad Education,” “All About My Mother,” and “Volver”. His maturity in portraying feminism in a way that feels neither preachy nor heavy handed is another one of the Spanish wizard’s flourishes. His films give an experience that is hard to come by in today’s film world: one that is personal yet addresses the human condition, with all the uplifting and tragic details that come along with the territory. Next time you find yourself flipping through your Netflix Instant Queue for the thousandth time, stop in your tracks, remember this article and remember Pedro Almodovar. At the very least, you can impress with your classiness at your next cocktail party!