Phaidon Masters of Cinema: Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodóvar (Spain, b. 1951) singlehandedly represents the revival of Spanish cinema as part of the cultural flowering of the Movida Madrileña in the 1980s. The provocative director's films are filled with transsexuals, neurotics (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, 1988) and even drug-addicted nuns (The Law of Desire, 1987). In his maturity Almodóvar has continued to be inspired by his underprivileged childhood in a remote corner of La Mancha, making melodramas that burst with heightened passions.