Spanish film director Almodóvar is a master storyteller and celebrity auteur, who has captured post-Franco Spain in such provocative films as Labyrinth of Passions
and Bad Education
. He is famous for his eccentric characters, gender-bender plot twists and homage to American film genres—and D'Lugo, a Clark University professor of Spanish and screen studies, succinctly chronicles his life from modest rural beginnings to his explosion on the Madrid culture scene in the 1980s and subsequent international acclaim. Be it early Super 8 shorts or creating Oscar winners All About My Mother
and Talk to Her
, Almodóvar's forte is exploring the intricacies of sex, death and violence. En route, he has kick-started the careers of Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, while perfecting his own brand of melodrama. His appeal is traced to what D'Lugo calls his "geocultural positioning"—an ability to transform his marginal status as a gay director from the provinces into a worldwide visual language. "I try to solve the problem of how to get the big emotion from the audience," says Almodóvar. D'Lugo analyzes his films and influences, and even provides a clever self-interview: Almodóvar on Almodóvar. For fans and film students alike, D'Lugo's contribution to the Contemporary Film Directors series celebrates the director's camp aesthetic and artistic sensibilities with insight and elan. (June)
