Courses > 2018 Spring

Electives

CIMS 388 - FILMS OF PEDRO ALMODOVAR

SPAN 388
402 | SEM | Olga Guadalupe | MWF 12-1pm | FBH 224

The metaphor of the labyrinth has been used to explain the complexities of Spanish History that led to the Spanish civil war, and it has been recently employed again in the title of a recent monograph about Almodovar’s cinema to reflect on his iconic status both as a postmodern artist and as the best representative figure of the new and liberated Spain emerging from decades of dictatorship and cultural backwardness. One of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the world, Almodóvar is unquestionably the most international of today’s Spanish filmmakers. The aim of the course is to familiarize students with Pedro Almodovar’s films and to shed some light to the intricacies of its themes, cultural background, and visual style. Together with first and secondary literature, we will offer an overview of Almodovar’s career from his early iconoclastic Post Franco films of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s to his most recent work that has garnered him a reputation as an international auteur. Some of the topics covered will include questions of nacional identity, gender, sexuality, as well as Almodovar’s original use of genre, visual style, and the director’s relationship to the postmodern concepts of performance and parody.