A bio-series about iconic ranchera singer Chavela Vargas starring “La Reina del Sur” lead Kate del Castillo is in the works. Colombia’s Caracol Televisión and indie Miracol Media are co-producing “Chavela,” which will trace the tumultuous life and career of the legendary singer.
Del Castillo will transform into Vargas, the mythical woman in the red poncho, who boldly rejected the conventions of her time, paving the way for a unique and groundbreaking journey in the landscape of Mexican popular music.
Her internal battle with personal demons, heartbreak, and alcoholism propelled her to become a trailblazer, stepping onto the stage to sing Mexican songs in a jorongo, the traditional Mexican poncho, and pants. With a guitar pressed against her heart, a tequila in hand, and a pistol holstered on her belt, she mesmerized audiences, captivating both men and women alike.
“I came out of hell, but I did it singing,...
Del Castillo will transform into Vargas, the mythical woman in the red poncho, who boldly rejected the conventions of her time, paving the way for a unique and groundbreaking journey in the landscape of Mexican popular music.
Her internal battle with personal demons, heartbreak, and alcoholism propelled her to become a trailblazer, stepping onto the stage to sing Mexican songs in a jorongo, the traditional Mexican poncho, and pants. With a guitar pressed against her heart, a tequila in hand, and a pistol holstered on her belt, she mesmerized audiences, captivating both men and women alike.
“I came out of hell, but I did it singing,...
- 1/23/2024
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-winning Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar has made a name for himself with a series of brightly colored, delightfully kinky and unabashedly melodramatic titles, mixing comedy, drama, sex and violence to great success. He shows no signs of slowing down, with his latest outing in 2019 being the Oscar-nominated “Pain and Glory.” Let’s take a look back at all 22 of his films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1949 in Spain, Almodovar came to prominence during La Movida Madrilena, a cultural renaissance that blossomed at the end of Francoist Spain. Staring with his filmmaking debut “Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom” (1980), the openly gay director showed an affinity for oddballs and outsiders, populating his films with transvestites, transexuals and homosexuals, all of whom had previously been relegated to the closet. He also showed a talent for working with women, and throughout his 40 year career has placed actresses such as Penelope Cruz,...
Born in 1949 in Spain, Almodovar came to prominence during La Movida Madrilena, a cultural renaissance that blossomed at the end of Francoist Spain. Staring with his filmmaking debut “Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom” (1980), the openly gay director showed an affinity for oddballs and outsiders, populating his films with transvestites, transexuals and homosexuals, all of whom had previously been relegated to the closet. He also showed a talent for working with women, and throughout his 40 year career has placed actresses such as Penelope Cruz,...
- 9/22/2023
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Spike Lee and Pedro Almodóvar are the first honourees announced for this year’s TIFF Tribute Awards. ‘Do the Right Thing’ director Spike, 66, will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award, which recognises filmmakers who have “exemplified greatness in their careers”. ‘Live Flesh’ filmmaker Pedro, 73 – who won the best original screenplay for his 2022 movie ‘Talk to Her’ – will receive the Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media presented by Participant, which recognises “leadership in creating a union between social impact and cinema”. Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF, said about Spike, who won the adapted screenplay Oscar for his ‘BlacKkKlansman’ film: “A foremost storyteller of our era… Spike has inspired audiences and made a lasting impact on the art of filmmaking.” He added about Pedro – one of the most renowned international auteurs of his generation: “It’s a true thrill to acknowledge Pedro Almodóvar as the distinguished recipient of the Jeff Skoll Impact...
- 8/4/2023
- by BANG Showbiz Reporter
- Bang Showbiz
Penélope Cruz Depositphotos
Penélope Cruz Sánchez, born on April 28, 1974, is a renowned Spanish actress. She has made a name for herself in various film genres, particularly in Spanish-language films, and has received numerous awards and nominations for her exceptional performances. These accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, four Golden Globe Award nominations, and five Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
Cruz embarked on her acting career at a young age, signing with an agent at 15. She made her television debut at 16 and her first appearance in a feature film the following year in Jamón Jamón (1992). Her notable roles include Belle Époque (1992), Open Your Eyes (1997), Don Juan (1998), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000), and Woman on Top (2000). She is particularly recognized for her collaborations with acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in films such as Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999), Volver...
Penélope Cruz Sánchez, born on April 28, 1974, is a renowned Spanish actress. She has made a name for herself in various film genres, particularly in Spanish-language films, and has received numerous awards and nominations for her exceptional performances. These accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, four Golden Globe Award nominations, and five Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
Cruz embarked on her acting career at a young age, signing with an agent at 15. She made her television debut at 16 and her first appearance in a feature film the following year in Jamón Jamón (1992). Her notable roles include Belle Époque (1992), Open Your Eyes (1997), Don Juan (1998), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000), and Woman on Top (2000). She is particularly recognized for her collaborations with acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in films such as Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999), Volver...
- 7/29/2023
- by Movies Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
In a bid to give more opportunities to women directors and boost the romcom genre, Sony Pictures International has teamed up with Maria Ripoll’s Cahuenga Filmmakers and transatlantic production shingle El Estudio to launch The Love Collection, a series of romantic comedy features to be written and helmed by women.
Ripoll, best known for her romcom “Ahora o nunca,” the highest-grossing femme-directed film in Spain, will serve as executive producer on all the titles, and will direct the first in the collection, “Yo no soy esa,” (roughly translated to “I’m Not That One” or “I’m Not Her”) starring Verónica Echegui. El Estudio’s Enrique López Lavigne will serve as producer on all the titles.
In “Yo no soy esa,” Susana (Echegui) wakes up after a 20-year coma. Stuck in a grown woman’s body but emotionally and psychologically still a teenager, Susana must learn to navigate an unfamiliar world and rediscover herself.
Ripoll, best known for her romcom “Ahora o nunca,” the highest-grossing femme-directed film in Spain, will serve as executive producer on all the titles, and will direct the first in the collection, “Yo no soy esa,” (roughly translated to “I’m Not That One” or “I’m Not Her”) starring Verónica Echegui. El Estudio’s Enrique López Lavigne will serve as producer on all the titles.
In “Yo no soy esa,” Susana (Echegui) wakes up after a 20-year coma. Stuck in a grown woman’s body but emotionally and psychologically still a teenager, Susana must learn to navigate an unfamiliar world and rediscover herself.
- 3/3/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Quad Cinema has announced that “Boundless Bardem,” a retrospective on Javier Bardem’s acting career tied to the release of his upcoming film “The Good Boss,” will run at The Quad in New York City from August 19th – 25th.
The films in the retrospective are Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls“ (35mm); Bigas Luna’s “Golden Balls” (35mm) and “Jamón Jamón” (35mm); Pedro Almodóvar’s “Live Flesh” (35mm); Bond film “Skyfall” (4K); Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows”; Ethan and Joel Coen’s “No Country for Old Men,” Fernando León de Aranoa’s “Loving Pablo” and “Mondays in the Sun”; Álex de la Iglesia’s “Perdita Durango”, Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!”; and Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Sea Inside.”
The screening series will be co-produced with the Consulate General of Spain in New York.
“One of the most exciting moments of my work as a Cultural Consul are the times when we...
The films in the retrospective are Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls“ (35mm); Bigas Luna’s “Golden Balls” (35mm) and “Jamón Jamón” (35mm); Pedro Almodóvar’s “Live Flesh” (35mm); Bond film “Skyfall” (4K); Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows”; Ethan and Joel Coen’s “No Country for Old Men,” Fernando León de Aranoa’s “Loving Pablo” and “Mondays in the Sun”; Álex de la Iglesia’s “Perdita Durango”, Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!”; and Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Sea Inside.”
The screening series will be co-produced with the Consulate General of Spain in New York.
“One of the most exciting moments of my work as a Cultural Consul are the times when we...
- 8/12/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Festival scheduled to run from March 4-13.
Penélope Cruz, Oscar-nominated for Parallel Mothers, will receive receive the 39th Miami Film Festival’s Precious Gem Icon Award on March 12.
Cruz will take part in a virtual award tribute and conversation as part of the Awards Ceremony programme that includes the closing night screening of Panamanian shortlisted international feature Plaza Catedral. The festival is scheduled to run from March 4-13.
The Spanish star and longtime Pedro Almodovar collaborator earned a best lead actress Goya Award nomination for Parallel Mothers, in which she plays a photographer involved in a maternity ward mix-up who...
Penélope Cruz, Oscar-nominated for Parallel Mothers, will receive receive the 39th Miami Film Festival’s Precious Gem Icon Award on March 12.
Cruz will take part in a virtual award tribute and conversation as part of the Awards Ceremony programme that includes the closing night screening of Panamanian shortlisted international feature Plaza Catedral. The festival is scheduled to run from March 4-13.
The Spanish star and longtime Pedro Almodovar collaborator earned a best lead actress Goya Award nomination for Parallel Mothers, in which she plays a photographer involved in a maternity ward mix-up who...
- 2/25/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Penelope Cruz just earned her fourth Oscar nomination for her nuanced performance in “Parallel Mothers,” the latest film from her frequent collaborator, Pedro Almodovar. The actress plays Janis, a photographer who comes to realize her baby was switched at birth.
Cruz recently spoke with Gold Derby senior editor Denton Davidson about her working relationship with Almodovar, how her maternal instincts lend themselves to so many of his films and her memories of winning an Oscar for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in 2009. Watch the exclusive interview above and read the complete transcript below.
SEEOscars 2022: Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are 6th married actors nominated in the same year, but that’s not the only eerie ‘Parallel’
Gold Derby: Penelope, I want to start by asking about your relationship with Pedro because you’ve collaborated with him on so many great projects. This is, I believe, your eighth film together. Can you...
Cruz recently spoke with Gold Derby senior editor Denton Davidson about her working relationship with Almodovar, how her maternal instincts lend themselves to so many of his films and her memories of winning an Oscar for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in 2009. Watch the exclusive interview above and read the complete transcript below.
SEEOscars 2022: Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are 6th married actors nominated in the same year, but that’s not the only eerie ‘Parallel’
Gold Derby: Penelope, I want to start by asking about your relationship with Pedro because you’ve collaborated with him on so many great projects. This is, I believe, your eighth film together. Can you...
- 2/20/2022
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
by Cláudio Alves
Since they started working together, Penélope Cruz has always been a mother figure in Pedro Almodóvar's cinema. He calls her the epitome of Spanish motherhood, resilient and sensual. It's an archetype she has represented, in some way, in all their collaborations – from 1997's Live Flesh to this year's Parallel Mothers. Indeed, their latest partnership feels like a culmination, the maximum manifestation of the auteur's ideas on motherhood. It's also the most complicated role he's ever given his current muse, an extreme of melodrama paralleled by political reflections. The actress is asked to go to extremes of emotion while also holding back. She must be outwardly demonstrative, crystalline clear, naked in sentiment and expression. However, the part also demands internalization, reticence, secrets that burn. All in all, it's a monumental challenge…...
Since they started working together, Penélope Cruz has always been a mother figure in Pedro Almodóvar's cinema. He calls her the epitome of Spanish motherhood, resilient and sensual. It's an archetype she has represented, in some way, in all their collaborations – from 1997's Live Flesh to this year's Parallel Mothers. Indeed, their latest partnership feels like a culmination, the maximum manifestation of the auteur's ideas on motherhood. It's also the most complicated role he's ever given his current muse, an extreme of melodrama paralleled by political reflections. The actress is asked to go to extremes of emotion while also holding back. She must be outwardly demonstrative, crystalline clear, naked in sentiment and expression. However, the part also demands internalization, reticence, secrets that burn. All in all, it's a monumental challenge…...
- 12/24/2021
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Penélope Cruz first met Pedro Almodóvar when she was cast in his 1997 film, “Live Flesh.” Almodóvar had originally wanted her to star in “Kika,” but Cruz was too young for the role. The director promised her he would write a character for another movie, and he did. It would mark the beginning of their many collaborations, the most recent of which is “Parallel Mothers.”
“He told me about it 18-20 years ago when we were doing press for ‘All About My Mother,'” but he never talked about it again,” Cruz says. When the pandemic hit, the actress got a call from Almodóvar, who said he was writing the story for her. Almodóvar didn’t recall their earlier conversation, but Cruz did. “I don’t forget anything he shares with me,” she laughs.
Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast recently spoke with Cruz about “Parallel Mothers,” working with Almodóvar and much more.
“He told me about it 18-20 years ago when we were doing press for ‘All About My Mother,'” but he never talked about it again,” Cruz says. When the pandemic hit, the actress got a call from Almodóvar, who said he was writing the story for her. Almodóvar didn’t recall their earlier conversation, but Cruz did. “I don’t forget anything he shares with me,” she laughs.
Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast recently spoke with Cruz about “Parallel Mothers,” working with Almodóvar and much more.
- 12/23/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
“I always want more,” admits Oscar winner Penelope Cruz when asked about her frequent collaborations with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. Cruz stars in the Oscar-winning writer and director’s latest film, “Parallel Mothers,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation after its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September. Watch the exclusive video interview above.
“To me he’s a genius,” Cruz continues. “We can safely call him a genius. I met him when I was 18. That’s the first time he called me. I felt an incredible connection with him from day one. I was too young for that movie, but he told me he would call me later. Two years later he offered me ‘Live Flesh’ and we started this relationship. This collaboration that really works. We know each other, we trust each other. I just keep learning and being surprised by him. This [relationship with Pedro] is...
“To me he’s a genius,” Cruz continues. “We can safely call him a genius. I met him when I was 18. That’s the first time he called me. I felt an incredible connection with him from day one. I was too young for that movie, but he told me he would call me later. Two years later he offered me ‘Live Flesh’ and we started this relationship. This collaboration that really works. We know each other, we trust each other. I just keep learning and being surprised by him. This [relationship with Pedro] is...
- 12/20/2021
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Since the 1980s Alberto Iglesias has created beautiful, thrilling music for the screen working broadly throughout his native Spain and Hollywood and with a versatile array of directors and genres—underpinned by his iconic collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar. Iglesias' film suites are fashioned with lucious jazz and emotive orchestral poetry. He beautifully balances the tension of theatrical melodrama with voyages into memory and the vibrancy of inner-city life, with its sophisticated glamour and debauched underbellies. This mix provides a healthy dose of Iglesias collaborations with Almodóvar, from their early years with films such as The Flower of My Secret (1995) and Live Flesh (1997) to this year’s Parallel Mothers and The Human Voice (where Igelsias’s key focus was to riff on his Almodóvar themes of the past). Julio Medem’s Sex and Lucia (2001) defines the 2000s moment of contemporary Spanish cinema’s bursts on the global sphere, soundtracked by that early millenium “Igelsias” sound.
- 11/23/2021
- MUBI
Something strange happened to Penélope Cruz as she rehearsed on the set of “Parallel Mothers.” Whenever the crew would come to collect the doll she was using as a stand-in for a flesh-and-blood baby, Cruz tensed up. She became combative. It didn’t matter that it was only a toy — she refused to surrender her child.
“It freaked me out,” remembers Cruz. “When the prop department would take the doll, I went psycho. It was my baby. I felt something deep in myself that was like if you take the fucking doll from me, I’m going to hit you.”
That primal instinct and protective flame would serve Cruz well when it came to putting “Parallel Mothers,” the story of two women whose children are switched at birth, on the screen. The film, which marks her eighth collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar, is one of the most psychologically rich and surprising of their partnerships,...
“It freaked me out,” remembers Cruz. “When the prop department would take the doll, I went psycho. It was my baby. I felt something deep in myself that was like if you take the fucking doll from me, I’m going to hit you.”
That primal instinct and protective flame would serve Cruz well when it came to putting “Parallel Mothers,” the story of two women whose children are switched at birth, on the screen. The film, which marks her eighth collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar, is one of the most psychologically rich and surprising of their partnerships,...
- 11/17/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Pedro Almodóvar is back in fine form with his latest melodrama, “Parallel Mothers,” which stars his muse Penélope Cruz and breakout Milena Smit as a magazine photographer and a teenager whose newborns are switched at birth. In the movie, which is the closing night selection of the New York Film Festival, Cruz found herself reuniting with her longtime director, while Smit landed in the film as a discovery off Instagram. But according to Cruz at the New York Film Festival press conference on Friday morning, “Parallel Mothers” is actually a long-gestating film, as its genesis dates back more than 20 years ago, from around the days of 1999’s Oscar-winning “All About My Mother.”
“The first time he shared with me something about this story, we were here in New York, and doing press for ‘All About My Mother,'” said Cruz, who in the film forms a fascinating bond, via an erotic twist,...
“The first time he shared with me something about this story, we were here in New York, and doing press for ‘All About My Mother,'” said Cruz, who in the film forms a fascinating bond, via an erotic twist,...
- 10/8/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Penelope Cruz first fell in love with director Pedro Almodovar at the age of 16, when she snuck in — then too young to see an R-rated film — to watch 1989’s “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”
Since then, they’ve worked together on seven projects, and she’s served as his muse in everything from 1997’s “Live Flesh” to 1999’s “All About My Mother” and 2006’s “Volver.”
Their latest project, “Parallel Mothers,” premieres as the opening night movie at the 78th annual Venice Film Festival on Wednesday. Before the film’s gala, Cruz and Almodovar appeared at a press conference together at the Palazzo Del Casino, where they talked about their 24-year working relationship.
Cruz said that she doesn’t lobby Almodovar for new parts, but waits to see if he envisions a role for her after he’s done with a script.
“I respect him too much to bombard him with requests,...
Since then, they’ve worked together on seven projects, and she’s served as his muse in everything from 1997’s “Live Flesh” to 1999’s “All About My Mother” and 2006’s “Volver.”
Their latest project, “Parallel Mothers,” premieres as the opening night movie at the 78th annual Venice Film Festival on Wednesday. Before the film’s gala, Cruz and Almodovar appeared at a press conference together at the Palazzo Del Casino, where they talked about their 24-year working relationship.
Cruz said that she doesn’t lobby Almodovar for new parts, but waits to see if he envisions a role for her after he’s done with a script.
“I respect him too much to bombard him with requests,...
- 9/1/2021
- by Ramin Setoodeh
- Variety Film + TV
Spanish actress and activist Pilar Bardem—mother of actors Monica, Carlos, and Javier Bardem—died on Saturday at the Ruber Hospital in Madrid because of complications from lung disease not related to Covid-19. She was 82.
The Goya Award-winning actress (the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar) appeared in a variety of film, theater, and TV projects throughout her career in her native Spain. Her most highly lauded project is 1995’s Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto (Nobody Will Speak of Us When We’re Dead), which earned 8 Goya awards, including Bardem’s Best Supporting Actress nod.
“We want to share the news that Pilar Bardem, our mother, our example, has died,” Carlos shared via Twitter in Spanish. “She departed in peace and without suffering, surrounded by the love of her family. We know the love and admiration many felt for her, both in Spain and beyond, for her work as...
The Goya Award-winning actress (the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar) appeared in a variety of film, theater, and TV projects throughout her career in her native Spain. Her most highly lauded project is 1995’s Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto (Nobody Will Speak of Us When We’re Dead), which earned 8 Goya awards, including Bardem’s Best Supporting Actress nod.
“We want to share the news that Pilar Bardem, our mother, our example, has died,” Carlos shared via Twitter in Spanish. “She departed in peace and without suffering, surrounded by the love of her family. We know the love and admiration many felt for her, both in Spain and beyond, for her work as...
- 7/18/2021
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks Int’l has scooped up worldwide rights to Paraguayan filmmaker Simon Franco’s “Charlotte,” a dramedy starring the grande dame of Spanish cinema, Angela Molina.
“Charlotte” is produced by Franco’s Paraguay-based Lemon Cine, along with Argentina’s Pelicano Cine and Fam Contenidos.
In addition, Lemon Cine has acquired the remake rights to Chilean comedy “Sin Filtro” from FilmSharks subsidiary The Remake Company, to make a Paraguayan version.
Shot mostly in Paraguay, the titular Charlotte, played by Molina, is an actress past her prime who sets off from her home in Argentina to Paraguay to chase down a director who’s prepping a film that she believes is just the tonic to revive her flagging career.
The official trailer and poster of the Paraguayan-Argentine co-production bow exclusively in Variety.
In the trailer, Charlotte/Molina finds out that the director who launched her career is planning to shoot his swan song in Paraguay.
“Charlotte” is produced by Franco’s Paraguay-based Lemon Cine, along with Argentina’s Pelicano Cine and Fam Contenidos.
In addition, Lemon Cine has acquired the remake rights to Chilean comedy “Sin Filtro” from FilmSharks subsidiary The Remake Company, to make a Paraguayan version.
Shot mostly in Paraguay, the titular Charlotte, played by Molina, is an actress past her prime who sets off from her home in Argentina to Paraguay to chase down a director who’s prepping a film that she believes is just the tonic to revive her flagging career.
The official trailer and poster of the Paraguayan-Argentine co-production bow exclusively in Variety.
In the trailer, Charlotte/Molina finds out that the director who launched her career is planning to shoot his swan song in Paraguay.
- 3/2/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Titles include Pathé’s entire Pedro Almodóvar library.
Streaming service Mubi has secured a deal with Pathé that will see more than 20 titles added to its platform in the UK and Ireland.
The agreement covers Pathé’s entire Pedro Almodóvar library including Pain And Glory, which was nominated for two Oscars and saw Antonia Banderas win the best actor prize at Cannes last year.
Other notable directors with films in the deal include Steve McQueen, François Ozon, Jane Campion and Ava DuVernay. Mubi will make Pain And Glory available exclusively on its platform from Friday (June 19).
The move bolsters Mubi...
Streaming service Mubi has secured a deal with Pathé that will see more than 20 titles added to its platform in the UK and Ireland.
The agreement covers Pathé’s entire Pedro Almodóvar library including Pain And Glory, which was nominated for two Oscars and saw Antonia Banderas win the best actor prize at Cannes last year.
Other notable directors with films in the deal include Steve McQueen, François Ozon, Jane Campion and Ava DuVernay. Mubi will make Pain And Glory available exclusively on its platform from Friday (June 19).
The move bolsters Mubi...
- 6/16/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Pedro Almodovar celebrates his 70th birthday on September 25, 2019. The Oscar-winning Spanish auteur has made a name for himself with a series of brightly colored, delightfully kinky and unabashedly melodramatic titles, mixing comedy, drama, sex and violence to great success. He shows no signs of slowing down, with his latest outing in 2019 being the critically acclaimed “Pain and Glory.” But where does it fall with the rest of his filmography? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at all 21 of his films, ranked worst to best.
SEEPenelope Cruz movies: 15 greatest films ranked worst to best
Born in 1949 in Spain, Almodovar came to prominence during La Movida Madrilena, a cultural renaissance that blossomed at the end of Francoist Spain. Staring with his filmmaking debut “Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom” (1980), the openly gay director showed an affinity for oddballs and outsiders, populating his films with transvestites,...
SEEPenelope Cruz movies: 15 greatest films ranked worst to best
Born in 1949 in Spain, Almodovar came to prominence during La Movida Madrilena, a cultural renaissance that blossomed at the end of Francoist Spain. Staring with his filmmaking debut “Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom” (1980), the openly gay director showed an affinity for oddballs and outsiders, populating his films with transvestites,...
- 9/25/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
“In terms of dramatic creativity there are three Spanish icons,” says academic and critic Maria Delgado. “Miguel de Cervantes, Federico García Lorca and Pedro Almodóvar.” But while Cervantes has been dead for over 400 years, and Lorca over 80, at the age of 79, the filmmaker from La Mancha continues to represent his homeland at the highest level, as this year he returned to the Cannes Competition with his 22nd feature film Pain and Glory, the semi-autobiographical tale of a director in decline (played by Antonio Banderas), ruminating on his life choices.
For Almodóvar, the last 40 years have been nothing but extraordinary. Back in the late ’60s he was working as an admin assistant for a Spanish telecom company, but when he clocked off at three in the afternoon he entered a secret and flamboyant world that would have shocked his drab, grey workmates.
Earlier in the decade, the country’s ruler-dictator General...
For Almodóvar, the last 40 years have been nothing but extraordinary. Back in the late ’60s he was working as an admin assistant for a Spanish telecom company, but when he clocked off at three in the afternoon he entered a secret and flamboyant world that would have shocked his drab, grey workmates.
Earlier in the decade, the country’s ruler-dictator General...
- 5/17/2019
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
8 May 1998: The Spanish director talks about plunging into the depths of Franco’s reign in his new film, Live Flesh
Pedro Almodóvar is not in the fluffiest of moods. The normally effervescent Spanish wunderkind, the director who gave expression to the feeling of liberation that swept through Spain following the death of Franco, is, it seems, rather bored.
Almodóvar is in London to talk about his new and most accomplished film to date, Live Flesh. A loose adaptation of a Ruth Rendell story, Almodóvar’s 12th film has been received with rapture by critics throughout Europe. In a further accolade, it is set for a wide release in America following MGM’s decision to push its new Goldwyn art-house line with the film.
Pedro Almodóvar is not in the fluffiest of moods. The normally effervescent Spanish wunderkind, the director who gave expression to the feeling of liberation that swept through Spain following the death of Franco, is, it seems, rather bored.
Almodóvar is in London to talk about his new and most accomplished film to date, Live Flesh. A loose adaptation of a Ruth Rendell story, Almodóvar’s 12th film has been received with rapture by critics throughout Europe. In a further accolade, it is set for a wide release in America following MGM’s decision to push its new Goldwyn art-house line with the film.
- 5/8/2019
- by Dan Glaister
- The Guardian - Film News
Penelope Cruz had met Donatella Versace occasionally over the years, and she felt “affection and admiration” for her, so she felt it was important to get the famous fashion designer’s blessing before playing her in the FX limited series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” Cruz explains, “We had a long conversation, and she said to me, ‘If somebody’s going to do it, I prefer that it’s you’ … So that’s what I did. It was my personal homage to her.” Watch our exclusive video interview with Cruz above.
Playing Donatella was a technical challenge. Cruz is Spanish, so not only did she have to learn to portray her “unique way of communicating” and her “rock-and-roll” style and personality, she also had to do it in English with an Italian accent.
But Cruz also wanted to better understand the artistic and familial relationship between Gianni and Donatella, so...
Playing Donatella was a technical challenge. Cruz is Spanish, so not only did she have to learn to portray her “unique way of communicating” and her “rock-and-roll” style and personality, she also had to do it in English with an Italian accent.
But Cruz also wanted to better understand the artistic and familial relationship between Gianni and Donatella, so...
- 8/2/2018
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
by Nathaniel R
Pedro Almodóvar has begun shooting his next film which is called Pain & Glory, so we can expect it in 2019. This will be Penelope Cruz's sixth collaboration with one of the world's greatest directors. Antonio Banderas will also co-star, marking his 7th Pedro film. Other Almodóvar regulars appearing will be Kiti Mánver (6th time) and Julieta Serrano (5th time). Though Pedro pictures are usually all about the actresses occassionally he throws gorgeous men into the mix. And this looks like one of those times. In addition to Banderas in what we assume will be the lead role (?), we've got: Raúl Arévalo from I'm So Excited, Leonardo Sbaraglia (Wild Tales) and Asier Etxeandia (Ma Ma).
The movie will also be the feature debut for a young popular singer named Rosalía. She posted the following picture on her instagram...
Pedro Almodóvar has begun shooting his next film which is called Pain & Glory, so we can expect it in 2019. This will be Penelope Cruz's sixth collaboration with one of the world's greatest directors. Antonio Banderas will also co-star, marking his 7th Pedro film. Other Almodóvar regulars appearing will be Kiti Mánver (6th time) and Julieta Serrano (5th time). Though Pedro pictures are usually all about the actresses occassionally he throws gorgeous men into the mix. And this looks like one of those times. In addition to Banderas in what we assume will be the lead role (?), we've got: Raúl Arévalo from I'm So Excited, Leonardo Sbaraglia (Wild Tales) and Asier Etxeandia (Ma Ma).
The movie will also be the feature debut for a young popular singer named Rosalía. She posted the following picture on her instagram...
- 7/23/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on global star Penélope Cruz, who’s delivering lauded performances on multiple platforms, in English and her native Spanish.
Bottom Line: Cruz is a Goya and Oscar-winner (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) who chases challenging material around the globe. This year she and husband Javier Bardem not only opened Cannes with Asghar Farhadi’s Spanish mystery drama “Everybody Knows” (Focus Features) — which went on to rack up over $6.5 million in France — but Cruz transformed herself into blonde Italian fashion icon Donatella Versace for her first-ever foray into television. Ryan Murphy’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX) scored 18 Emmy nominations last week including Supporting Actress in a Limited series for Cruz. Next, she’ll play her sixth role with mentor Pedro Almodovar, playing his mother...
Bottom Line: Cruz is a Goya and Oscar-winner (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) who chases challenging material around the globe. This year she and husband Javier Bardem not only opened Cannes with Asghar Farhadi’s Spanish mystery drama “Everybody Knows” (Focus Features) — which went on to rack up over $6.5 million in France — but Cruz transformed herself into blonde Italian fashion icon Donatella Versace for her first-ever foray into television. Ryan Murphy’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX) scored 18 Emmy nominations last week including Supporting Actress in a Limited series for Cruz. Next, she’ll play her sixth role with mentor Pedro Almodovar, playing his mother...
- 7/16/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on global star Penélope Cruz, who’s delivering lauded performances on multiple platforms, in English and her native Spanish.
Bottom Line: Cruz is a Goya and Oscar-winner (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) who chases challenging material around the globe. This year she and husband Javier Bardem not only opened Cannes with Asghar Farhadi’s Spanish mystery drama “Everybody Knows” (Focus Features) — which went on to rack up over $6.5 million in France — but Cruz transformed herself into blonde Italian fashion icon Donatella Versace for her first-ever foray into television. Ryan Murphy’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX) scored 18 Emmy nominations last week including Supporting Actress in a Limited series for Cruz. Next, she’ll play her sixth role with mentor Pedro Almodovar, playing his mother...
Bottom Line: Cruz is a Goya and Oscar-winner (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) who chases challenging material around the globe. This year she and husband Javier Bardem not only opened Cannes with Asghar Farhadi’s Spanish mystery drama “Everybody Knows” (Focus Features) — which went on to rack up over $6.5 million in France — but Cruz transformed herself into blonde Italian fashion icon Donatella Versace for her first-ever foray into television. Ryan Murphy’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX) scored 18 Emmy nominations last week including Supporting Actress in a Limited series for Cruz. Next, she’ll play her sixth role with mentor Pedro Almodovar, playing his mother...
- 7/16/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Project will start shooting in July, produced by Almodóvar’s company El Deseo.
Pedro Almodóvar is working on his new film, Dolor Y Gloria (which translates as ’Pain And Glory’). Shooting will start in July and two of his favourite actors will be in the cast: Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz.
Dolor Y Gloria is about “a film director in the twilight of his career” and his reflections on life and work, said Almodovar via a statement from hs Madrid-based production company El Deseo, which he runs with brother Agustin. “First loves, second loves, his mother, mortality, an actor who...
Pedro Almodóvar is working on his new film, Dolor Y Gloria (which translates as ’Pain And Glory’). Shooting will start in July and two of his favourite actors will be in the cast: Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz.
Dolor Y Gloria is about “a film director in the twilight of his career” and his reflections on life and work, said Almodovar via a statement from hs Madrid-based production company El Deseo, which he runs with brother Agustin. “First loves, second loves, his mother, mortality, an actor who...
- 4/18/2018
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
Live Flesh: Minter’s Perverts the Shadows in the Cave with Delirious Debut
Director Emiliano Rocha Minter (who was the still photographer on Gerardo Naranjo’s 2011 film Miss Bala) becomes the latest in a growing wave of Mexican filmmakers prizing Grand Guignol wrapped social commentary with his debut We Are the Flesh, a cannibalistic incest film set almost entirely in cave with all the soft ambience of a rock hewn sex club.
Continue reading...
Director Emiliano Rocha Minter (who was the still photographer on Gerardo Naranjo’s 2011 film Miss Bala) becomes the latest in a growing wave of Mexican filmmakers prizing Grand Guignol wrapped social commentary with his debut We Are the Flesh, a cannibalistic incest film set almost entirely in cave with all the soft ambience of a rock hewn sex club.
Continue reading...
- 1/16/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Always Shine (Sophia Takal)
With the excess of low-budget, retreat-in-the-woods dramas often finding characters hashing out their insecurities through a meta-narrative, a certain initial resistance can occur when presented with such a derivative scenario at virtually every film festival. While Sophia Takal‘s psychological drama Always Shine ultimately stumbles, the chemistry of its leads and a sense of foreboding dread in its formal execution ensures its heightened view of...
Always Shine (Sophia Takal)
With the excess of low-budget, retreat-in-the-woods dramas often finding characters hashing out their insecurities through a meta-narrative, a certain initial resistance can occur when presented with such a derivative scenario at virtually every film festival. While Sophia Takal‘s psychological drama Always Shine ultimately stumbles, the chemistry of its leads and a sense of foreboding dread in its formal execution ensures its heightened view of...
- 12/2/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Sony Pictures Classics has set a Dec. 21 theater release for Pedro Almodóvar’s 20th film “Julieta,” and acquired the remainder of his film library. The new acquisitions include “Pepi, Luci, Bom;” “Labyrinth of Passion;” “Dark Habits;” “What Have I Done to Deserve This?;” “High Heels” and “Kika.” The full library also includes “Matador,” “Law of Desire,” “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” “The Flower of My Secret,” “Live Flesh,” “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Bad Education,” “Volver,” “Broken Embraces,” “I’m So Excited!” and “The Skin I Live In.” “Julieta” premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
- 8/8/2016
- by J. Clara Chan
- The Wrap
After scooping up Best Screenplay and Best Actor honors for The Salesman at the Cannes Film Festival, Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi has swiftly landed two more international prizes for his next film: Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The Oscar-winning couple reuniting onsceen is only the half of it; as previously announced last year, they join producers Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar for Farhadi’s first Spanish-language project. If you place the emphasis on the first word in “cinematic universe,” this is the sort of continent-crossing collaboration of which one dreams. As the superheroes behind A Separation, Volver, No Country for Old Men, All About My Mother, and Wild Tales coalesce and move towards production, we can’t wait to see what kind of direction they take the project.
While Cruz, Bardem, and the brothers Almodóvar have all collaborated with one another in some form before – recently, Broken Embraces, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; not so recently,...
While Cruz, Bardem, and the brothers Almodóvar have all collaborated with one another in some form before – recently, Broken Embraces, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; not so recently,...
- 5/26/2016
- by Daniel Crooke
- FilmExperience
After premiering at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival in the Galas Program, via Cohen Media, the double 40th César Award nominated The New Girlfriend received a limited theatrical release a year later for a meager box-office take just under one hundred and fifty thousand. Based on a novel by Ruth Rendell, Francois Ozon’s playful subversion of gender dynamics hinges on camp, recalling a legion of vintage queer classics from decades ago (as well as Ozon’s own darker, challenging early filmography when the auteur was referred to as a terrible enfant). As politically correct agendas continue to be applied to queer characters, engulfing deliberations of appropriate representation, items such as Ozon’s film have become a rarity in the English language market. But there’s a perverse mixture of dark comedy and psychological unrest portrayed here, and Ozon gleefully captures a neglected energy of queer cinema once again relegated to the periphery of good taste.
- 2/2/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The Spanish maestro will receive the Writers Guild Of America, West’s Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement.
Almodóvar will collect his honour at Wgaw’s 2015 Writers Guild Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 14.
Career highlights include Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Live Flesh, All About My Mother, Talk To Her and Volver.
Almodóvar will collect his honour at Wgaw’s 2015 Writers Guild Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 14.
Career highlights include Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Live Flesh, All About My Mother, Talk To Her and Volver.
- 1/21/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Skin I Live In: Ozon’s Exquisite New Exploration of Gender Subversion
For his most playful and delightfully creepy film in years, Francois Ozon adapts crime writer Ruth Rendell’s short story for his latest, The New Girlfriend. Rendell has long supplied a bevy of European filmmakers with some of their most memorable titles, including Claude Miller’s Alias Betty (2001), Pedro Almodovar’s Live Flesh (1997), and perhaps, most notably, Claude Chabrol’s La Ceremonie (1994) and The Bridesmaid (2004). An excellent purveyor of strange and complicated relationships that often involve sublimated identities and tendencies that often lead to deadly scenarios, Rendell serves as an excellent template for Ozon with material that recalls the sexually transgressive explorations of his early career.
Claire (Anais Demoustier) and Laura (Isild Le Besco) have been inseparable friends since childhood. They’ve followed nearly the same life trajectory as well, both marrying handsome young men and what not.
For his most playful and delightfully creepy film in years, Francois Ozon adapts crime writer Ruth Rendell’s short story for his latest, The New Girlfriend. Rendell has long supplied a bevy of European filmmakers with some of their most memorable titles, including Claude Miller’s Alias Betty (2001), Pedro Almodovar’s Live Flesh (1997), and perhaps, most notably, Claude Chabrol’s La Ceremonie (1994) and The Bridesmaid (2004). An excellent purveyor of strange and complicated relationships that often involve sublimated identities and tendencies that often lead to deadly scenarios, Rendell serves as an excellent template for Ozon with material that recalls the sexually transgressive explorations of his early career.
Claire (Anais Demoustier) and Laura (Isild Le Besco) have been inseparable friends since childhood. They’ve followed nearly the same life trajectory as well, both marrying handsome young men and what not.
- 9/22/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In a development that feels more inevitable than surprising, Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are in talks to get back into the Bourne business. The two had sent mixed messages over the years, ever since Jason Bourne disappeared in the murky East River at the end of The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, with the major roadblock being Damon’s insistence that a reluctant Greenglass direct, while Universal handed the franchise over to writer-turned-director Tony Gilroy. But with Gilroy’s Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner, failing to live up to the original three Bourne films at the box office, and Damon’s recent non-Bourne projects,...
- 9/17/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
The seductive mystery fiction of British writer Ruth Rendell has proven highly adaptable source material for a number of non-Anglo European filmmakers, among them Claude Chabrol in La Ceremonie and The Bridesmaid, Claude Miller in Alias Betty and Pedro Almodovar in Live Flesh. Francois Ozon joins the list with The New Girlfriend, spun from a 1985 short story by Rendell into a delectable riff on transformation, desire and sexuality that blends the heightened reality of melodrama with mischievous humor and an understated strain of Hitchcockian suspense. Ozon has carved a career out of scratching beneath the cool surface of the
read more...
read more...
- 9/10/2014
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Alex Angulo (1953-2014) - Spanish Actor. He is best known here for playing the doctor in Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (see below). His other movies include the 2006 Gary Oldman starrer The Backwoods, Pedro Almodovar's Live Flesh and Alex de la Iglesia's The Day of the Beast, Accion Mutante and Dying of Laughter. He died in a car accident on July 20. (El Pais) Paul Apted (1967-2014) - Sound Editor. He worked on the...
Read More...
Read More...
- 8/5/2014
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
I hope someone in Madrid is dimming the lights on the Schweppes sign; that would be a fitting tribute to one of its best actors. Álex Angulo, star of films such as The Day of the Beast, Live Flesh, and Pan's Labyrinth, has died in a traffic accident in his native Spain. Likely best known to film audiences through his work with Álex de la Iglesia, this is a tremendous loss for Spanish cinema.Born in the Basque country, Angulo got his start in local theatre before moving to film in 1981 with Escape to Segovia (directed by Imanol Uribe). But it was his film with de la Iglesia that brought him to greater prominence. First, as one half of conjoined twins in Mutant Action, who...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 7/20/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Out Oscar-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodovar has been one of the great unique voices in cinema for over thirty years, and has inspired countless other writer/directors, both real and … imagined.
From his early cult films (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap), (Labyrinth Of Passion ), to his first taste of worldwide acclaim (Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown), to his later arthouse award-winners (All About My Mother, Talk To Her), Pedro has always marched to his own drummer. Even rare misfires, such as last year’s I’m So Excited, are still more interesting than most of the dreck that comes out of Hollywood.
And if there’s one thing Pedro knows, it’s how to fill his films with hot guys. He’s never shied away from male nudity and sex scenes, be it gay or straight, and because two of Pedro’s strongest visual assets are pop and gloss,...
From his early cult films (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap), (Labyrinth Of Passion ), to his first taste of worldwide acclaim (Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown), to his later arthouse award-winners (All About My Mother, Talk To Her), Pedro has always marched to his own drummer. Even rare misfires, such as last year’s I’m So Excited, are still more interesting than most of the dreck that comes out of Hollywood.
And if there’s one thing Pedro knows, it’s how to fill his films with hot guys. He’s never shied away from male nudity and sex scenes, be it gay or straight, and because two of Pedro’s strongest visual assets are pop and gloss,...
- 9/25/2013
- by snicks
- The Backlot
Spanish director to receive European Achievement in World Cinema Award.
The European Film Academy (Efa) is to present director Pedro Almodóvar with the honorary award European Achievement in World Cinema Award for his outstanding body of work.
Almodóvar said: “I am very thankful for this award. From its creation, the European Film Academy has been very generous with me and my closest collaborators. I share with them the joy of this award.”
The background of the Spanish director was in independent theatre, Super-8-film making and underground magazines in the 1970s. After 18 months shooting on 16mm, in 1980 he opened Peip, Luci, Bom, a low-budget film made up of newcomers, except for actress Carmen Maura.
In 1986, he founded production company El Deseo S.A. with his brother Agustin. Their first project was Law of Desire. Since then, they have produced all the films that Almodóvar has written and directed, and have also produced other young directors.
In 1988, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown...
The European Film Academy (Efa) is to present director Pedro Almodóvar with the honorary award European Achievement in World Cinema Award for his outstanding body of work.
Almodóvar said: “I am very thankful for this award. From its creation, the European Film Academy has been very generous with me and my closest collaborators. I share with them the joy of this award.”
The background of the Spanish director was in independent theatre, Super-8-film making and underground magazines in the 1970s. After 18 months shooting on 16mm, in 1980 he opened Peip, Luci, Bom, a low-budget film made up of newcomers, except for actress Carmen Maura.
In 1986, he founded production company El Deseo S.A. with his brother Agustin. Their first project was Law of Desire. Since then, they have produced all the films that Almodóvar has written and directed, and have also produced other young directors.
In 1988, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown...
- 9/16/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Ioncinema.com’s Ioncinephile of the Month feature focuses on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. This August, we get to once again profile an American Independent filmmaker who had the wind blowing in his sails moments before he launched his micro-budgeted I Am Not a Hipster at Sundance in 2012. Before unleashing his sophomore film, the character-rich, emotionally textured Short Term 12 in March, Destin Daniel Cretton had won over the Sundance jury with the short film going by the same name (2009 Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking). Winner of the 2013 SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Award (worth mentioning, of which I was a proud member of) and an Audience Award at a handful of fests since SXSW, its the folks at Cinedigm who’ll be launching the film in select theaters on August 23rd. Here is our profile on Destin Daniel Cretton and we’re lucky enough that...
- 8/15/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
While Daniel Craig wins all the attention, the Spanish actor's performance in Skyfall has seen him acclaimed as the best Bond villain yet. But his stunning range makes him as much aesthete as action man
Hoopla is only to be expected when there is a new James Bond movie in the offing and Skyfall has attracted more than its fair share for several reasons. It's the 50th anniversary of Bond on film, as well as make-or-break time for Daniel Craig after the poorly received Quantum of Solace. It has at its helm Sam Mendes, a director as respected in drama as he is untested in the action genre; and it arrives after the greatest promotional coup in British cinema –a prime spot for Bond in the London Olympics opening ceremony.
But the moments that elevate Skyfall from the efficient to the inspired can be attributed to one man: Javier Bardem,...
Hoopla is only to be expected when there is a new James Bond movie in the offing and Skyfall has attracted more than its fair share for several reasons. It's the 50th anniversary of Bond on film, as well as make-or-break time for Daniel Craig after the poorly received Quantum of Solace. It has at its helm Sam Mendes, a director as respected in drama as he is untested in the action genre; and it arrives after the greatest promotional coup in British cinema –a prime spot for Bond in the London Olympics opening ceremony.
But the moments that elevate Skyfall from the efficient to the inspired can be attributed to one man: Javier Bardem,...
- 10/30/2012
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
In an adaptation of Margaret Mazzantini's bestseller, Penélope Cruz stars as an infertile woman who returns to relive her past in Sarajevo. Here she talks about babies, breastfeeding and pacifism
When Penélope Cruz was shooting Twice Born – in which she plays an unhappily infertile academic – she was still breastfeeding her own young son. For some scenes, her character shares the screen with a rolling cast of newborns, swapped once they grew too big.
"Some of these babies were only a week old. And so they were smelling me and that made them want to eat. But I was playing a woman who couldn't feed because she hadn't given birth! That created a very strange but alive dynamic between me and those babies. You cannot learn something like that. And this film is full of moments that could not be planned."
Cruz leans forward, black trousers tapering to huge nude stilettos.
When Penélope Cruz was shooting Twice Born – in which she plays an unhappily infertile academic – she was still breastfeeding her own young son. For some scenes, her character shares the screen with a rolling cast of newborns, swapped once they grew too big.
"Some of these babies were only a week old. And so they were smelling me and that made them want to eat. But I was playing a woman who couldn't feed because she hadn't given birth! That created a very strange but alive dynamic between me and those babies. You cannot learn something like that. And this film is full of moments that could not be planned."
Cruz leans forward, black trousers tapering to huge nude stilettos.
- 9/19/2012
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
While the rest of the movie-going universe debates the merits of Prometheus, Ridley Scott is busy putting the final touches on the Cormac McCarthy-scribed thriller The Counselor. The film stars Brad Pitt as a lawyer who gets involved with drug trafficking, and already sported the promising supporting cast of Michael the-best-thing-about-Prometheus Fassbender and McCarthy veteran Javier Bardem. According to Deadline Bloomington, another McCarthy veteran (remember All the Pretty Horses?), Penélope Cruz, has officially been added to the cast after being rumored for a role for some time. No word on what character she’ll play, but despite any reservations audiences have had about Scott’s latest star-studded genre outing, this cast in the first script penned by really-freaking-good novelist Cormac McCarthy seems promising. Deadline notes that the film has been described as [sigh...] “No Country For Old Men on steroids,” which promises exactly the opposite of everything that made that Best Picture winner interesting. Principal...
- 6/13/2012
- by Landon Palmer
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
First thing’s first: Penélope Cruz has been locked for Ridley Scott‘s The Counselor, and is now amongst a cast led by Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, and Brad Pitt. (This confirms a rumor that had circulated in April.) In the Cormac McCarthy-penned thriller, she’ll play Laura, fiancée of the titular lawyer who finds himself caught up in the drug trade after making a few bad business decisions. Production has been eyed for a late summer or early fall commencement, after which a 2013 release is expected to follow.
Now, when it comes to speculation, Deadline reports that Cruz is looking to reteam with Pedro Almodóvar — her director on Volver, Broken Embraces, All About My Mother, and Live Flesh — and take an undisclosed part in his next picture, Standby Lovers. The film, described as a dark comedy, revolves around “a group of airplane passengers traveling to Mexico...
Now, when it comes to speculation, Deadline reports that Cruz is looking to reteam with Pedro Almodóvar — her director on Volver, Broken Embraces, All About My Mother, and Live Flesh — and take an undisclosed part in his next picture, Standby Lovers. The film, described as a dark comedy, revolves around “a group of airplane passengers traveling to Mexico...
- 6/12/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
In news akin to "Johnny Depp in Tim Burton movie" in the surprising stakes, Penelope Cruz has just officially signed on for Pedro Almodovar's next film, the romantic comedy Los Amantes Pasajeros. And confirming what we'd all assumed for ages, she's also now confirmed as part of Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy's The Counsellor.The Almodovar film will shoot first, over the summer. The title translates as something like Brief or Fleeting Lovers, but some sources are reporting an English-language moniker of Standby Lovers, which makes sense in the context of a film thought to be about a brief encounter on an aeroplane. Except, if they were on standby wouldn't they be in the departure lounge?Whatever, it's Cruz's fifth film with the Spanish auteur, by our reckoning, following Live Flesh, All About My Mother, Volver and Broken Embraces, and it co-stars a host of other Pedro regulars,...
- 6/12/2012
- EmpireOnline
Exclusive: As expected, Penelope Cruz has joined the stellar cast of the Ridley Scott-directed The Counselor, and I’m told that she is planning to team up again this summer with director Pedro Almodovar in Los Amantes Pasajeros, the comedy he will shoot this summer in Madrid. The title’s translation is The Brief Lovers, and reports say it’s about an affair on an airplane. It is what the actress considers a special collaboration between herself and Almodovar, whose films together include Broken Embraces, Volver, All About My Mother and Live Flesh. Cruz joins Paz Vega, Lola Dueñas, Javier Cámara, Cecelia Roth, Carlos Areces, Raúl Arévalo and José Maria Yazpik. In The Counselor, Cruz will star with Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Cameron Diaz in a drama that has been called No Country For Old Men on steroids. Cruz is repped by CAA, Untitled and Spain-based Katrina Bayonas.
- 6/11/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Disclaimer #1: This reviews briefly talks about the ending but... duh. It's history.
Disclaimer #2: Everyone has biases and the only people who tend to get in trouble about them are the ones that admit them like me. Generally speaking I think biopics are the dullest of film genres and it takes a strong artistic voice to overcome their persistent nagging limitations. Generally speaking I do not love the work of Clint Eastwood. Though many critics feel duty bound to praise even his most obvious misfires, I've been accused of the exact opposite approach though I liked all four of his modern Best Picture grabs... (just not in the way Oscar did.)
Disclaimer #3: Clint Eastwood makes me sad because -- though this is not his fault -- he has ruined many famous film critics for me. My favorite living filmmaker is Pedro Almodóvar but I didn't try to pretend that Broken Embraces,...
Disclaimer #2: Everyone has biases and the only people who tend to get in trouble about them are the ones that admit them like me. Generally speaking I think biopics are the dullest of film genres and it takes a strong artistic voice to overcome their persistent nagging limitations. Generally speaking I do not love the work of Clint Eastwood. Though many critics feel duty bound to praise even his most obvious misfires, I've been accused of the exact opposite approach though I liked all four of his modern Best Picture grabs... (just not in the way Oscar did.)
Disclaimer #3: Clint Eastwood makes me sad because -- though this is not his fault -- he has ruined many famous film critics for me. My favorite living filmmaker is Pedro Almodóvar but I didn't try to pretend that Broken Embraces,...
- 11/12/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
What would happen is No Country For Old Men’s Anton Chigurh went head to head with James Bond? The Walther Ppk vs. a captive bolt pistol. Unfortunately that’s a character crossover that will never happen but Javier Bardem will square off with Daniel Craig in Bond 23, the next film in the 007: James Bond franchise. Bardem who is considered one of the best modern actors in film has already proven his star talent in Before Night Falls, The Sea Inside, Live Flesh, Biutiful, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but it was his riveting and murderous role in the Coen Brothers’ No Country that made film buffs see him in a completely different light as one scary-ass mofo. Albeit, part of that had to do with his wicked hairpiece but the leading man had never been so terrifying. Bardem who is on an awareness tour to bring attention to...
- 10/12/2011
- by Ernie Estrella
- BuzzFocus.com
"Live Flesh," indeed!
Pedro Almodovar has never been one to shy away from the hidden dark alleys of the human experience. The maverick Spanish filmmaker has consistently shocked and amazed throughout the years with his clever, edgy and often deviant examinations of sexuality, mortality and morality. He doesn't always hit the bulls-eye, but his work is rarely boring or predictable.
Almodovar's latest, "The Skin I Live In," looks like it could be his most controversial work yet. The auteur's first collaboration with Antonio Banderas since 1990's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" follows a brilliant surgeon who's developed a synthetic skin that's immune to burning. He's experimenting on a young woman (Elena Anaya) and...
Actually, to say any more would spoil the many twists and turns in this doozy of an erotic thriller. If you want to ruin it for yourself, look it up on Wikipedia. For those who want only a (bittersweet) taste,...
Pedro Almodovar has never been one to shy away from the hidden dark alleys of the human experience. The maverick Spanish filmmaker has consistently shocked and amazed throughout the years with his clever, edgy and often deviant examinations of sexuality, mortality and morality. He doesn't always hit the bulls-eye, but his work is rarely boring or predictable.
Almodovar's latest, "The Skin I Live In," looks like it could be his most controversial work yet. The auteur's first collaboration with Antonio Banderas since 1990's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" follows a brilliant surgeon who's developed a synthetic skin that's immune to burning. He's experimenting on a young woman (Elena Anaya) and...
Actually, to say any more would spoil the many twists and turns in this doozy of an erotic thriller. If you want to ruin it for yourself, look it up on Wikipedia. For those who want only a (bittersweet) taste,...
- 8/29/2011
- by Bryan Enk
- NextMovie
Updated through 5/21.
"It is almost a given that detractors of the newest from Pedro Almodóvar will blurt out the film's baroque twists in their contortions to craft the glibbest dismissal possible; at the same time, a reluctance to spill those strange story points shouldn't be taken as an unequivocal endorsement. Of all the great modern European filmmakers, Almodóvar has recently felt like the one in most peril of turning his groove — sumptuous surfaces, a tone between the operatic and the soap-operatic, each frame glossy with the delight of cinema like a lipstick smear from an ardent lover — into a rut. With The Skin I Live In, he's clearly jolted and wrested himself out of any potential rut; the concern is now, rather, what to make of the new territory he, and we, are in." The grade James Rocchi settles on at the Playlist: B-.
Antonio Banderas plays Dr Robert Ledgard,...
"It is almost a given that detractors of the newest from Pedro Almodóvar will blurt out the film's baroque twists in their contortions to craft the glibbest dismissal possible; at the same time, a reluctance to spill those strange story points shouldn't be taken as an unequivocal endorsement. Of all the great modern European filmmakers, Almodóvar has recently felt like the one in most peril of turning his groove — sumptuous surfaces, a tone between the operatic and the soap-operatic, each frame glossy with the delight of cinema like a lipstick smear from an ardent lover — into a rut. With The Skin I Live In, he's clearly jolted and wrested himself out of any potential rut; the concern is now, rather, what to make of the new territory he, and we, are in." The grade James Rocchi settles on at the Playlist: B-.
Antonio Banderas plays Dr Robert Ledgard,...
- 5/21/2011
- MUBI
imdb.1eye.us, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.