I have always wanted to spend a day on the set of a film directed by Pedro Almodovar.
Each frame for a blink of an eye.
I study the details on the faces, the fists.
When I get tired, I switch to acting. I look at the details on the faces, the fists.
Close-ups, women’s eyes, breasts, nose. Men’s tears, sweat, tight pants over the buttocks.
Sentimentality is imperative.
During Corona, I followed his diaries on IndieWire and that was the first time I started researching who Pedro Almodovar was. I don’t know if you know, but he is also an amateur photographer in addition to all the other essential occupations and orientations. He especially likes to photograph still life.
For the film Madres Paralelas, he bought a couple of photographs by the famous photographer Oriol Maspons from the 1950s. These photos are used in the main character’s apartment (Penelope Cruz), and now they are in his private collection.
In the movie Pain and Glory and The Human Voice, he took the photos that were hanging on the walls.
You should pay attention not only to the colors of the walls but also to the pictures and photographs on them.
For example, Pedro has been collaborating with painter Jorge Galindo for a long time. One day he came to his studio and asked him to paint a picture for the frame in the movie Pain and Glory. The picture shows a little boy (Almodovar when he was a child), surrounded by flowers.
He is a self-taught Spanish painter, sculptor, and photographer with whom Almodovar has been friends for decades and collaborates in many films (Kika, Tie me up, Julieta, Pain, and Glory). The works of this artist are exhibited in the museums of Reina Sofia in Madrid, IVAM (Valencia), Marugame Hirai (Japan), and Atlantic Center for Modern Art (Gran Canaria).
And finally Maruja Mallo. In the 1930s he traveled to Paris and hung out with artists who strongly influenced him: René Magritte, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, and Giorgio de Chirico.
Pedro uses his paintings in the autobiographical film Pain and Glory.
Continue to explore on your own, watch movies, and notice how the director looks and what he can think of to remember his shots forever.
