Pedro Almodovar's World

I would like to live in Almodovar's world, where kitsch houses are outfitted with brightly colored wall paper, retro prints and patterns; where the world evolves around women who are mad, beautiful and powerful vixens; personal histories are enmeshed with torrid love affairs, family secrets, heartache and tragic romance; where every emotion, feeling and sensation is magnified and explored through humorous wit, intense passion and sexual freedom/deviance. This is not an ordinary soap opera kind of world. This is an animated world that exposes humanity's wounds to the volatility of the human condition. It's a world that spins on its own axis and holds up a mirror to our imperfections, wanton desires and search for identity. It's a world on steroids--you're barely keeping up when the next twist to the plot presents itself through some extraordinary circumstance.

Any Almodovar fan would know what I'm talking about here. And if you're not sure, go see any one of his films. So much of them, of course, relate to his own past and cultural heritage in Spain. Although, when I am in Spain and I mention how much I love Almodovar, I usually get a smirk from the Spaniard I've told this to, followed by their insistence that life in Spain is nothing like an Almodovar film, and that they are all incredibly misleading. Correct. Of course. Otherwise, what you get is a country with people who are very sexually and morally confused and can't keep their pants on.

But to be clear, I don't judge Spain by Almodovar films, nor do I see this country entirely through his prism--this would be silly and very misguided. His films transcend borders, both geographically and emotionally. They may take place in a specific country with a specific history and cultural struggle, but the trials his characters go through in life carry universal significance. We see our lives played out in these theatrical melodramas--they move us to the core. Also, very important to remember is that Almodovar believes, first and foremost, that "movies are made to entertain"--hence their beyond-belief stories and larger-than-life narratives. But unlike Hollywood blockbuster films that are made solely for this purpose, none are able to make us feel the way Almodovar films do. It's like he's got some magic formula which gets me every time--my eyes stay glued to the screen even after the credits come up at the very end. I am completely bewitched.