Women’s Troubles: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar

July 27–August 31, 2017

Heartfelt melodrama meets candy-colored camp in the Spanish director's tales of women's struggles and solidarity.

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  • All About My Mother

  • Julieta

  • Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

  • Volver

  • Talk to Her

  • Pepi, Luci, Bom, and Other Girls Like Mom

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Volver

    • Thursday, August 31 7 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 2006

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    Penélope Cruz stars as a strong-willed woman aiming to help her teenage daughter and sister, with little help from the men around them, in Almodóvar’s merger of comedy, mystery, and social-realist drama. “Moves beyond camp, into a realm of wise, luxuriant humanism” (New York Times).

  • Bad Education

    • Saturday, August 26 8:30 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 2004

    Gael García Bernal stars in Almodóvar’s intricate hybrid of film noir, melodrama, autobiography, and Catholic Church exposé involving two old friends revisiting their troubled Catholic school days. “A bold and far-reaching summation of his career to date” (A.V. Club).

  • Talk to Her

    • Friday, August 25 8:40 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 2002

    Almodóvar won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this film involving the odd friendship between two men, each with a lover in a coma. “Almodóvar’s most mature and mysterious movie” (Newsweek).

  • All About My Mother

    • Saturday, August 19 8:30 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 1999

    Winner of the 1999 Cannes Best Director prize, this affectionate drama of a mother’s compassion serves as Almodóvar’s tribute to his two greatest inspirations: women and film.

  • What Have I Done to Deserve This?

    • Wednesday, August 16 7 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 1984

    An “ordinary” housewife navigates a working-class suburban life of deadbeat husbands, mad mothers-in-law, sex-worker neighbors, and child pandering in Almodóvar’s taboo-smashing send-up of the social realist drama. “An absolutely wonderful black comedy” (New York Times). 

  • Pepi, Luci, Bom, and Other Girls Like Mom

    • Saturday, August 12 8:30 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 1980

    Madrid’s nascent punk and gay underground provides the fertile setting of Almodóvar’s debut feature, a manic slice of screw-you life more post–John Waters than post-Franco.

  • Julieta

    • Saturday, August 5 8:15 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 2016

    Based on stories by Alice Munro, Almodóvar’s latest follows a middle-aged woman as she tries to make sense of her relationships with her husband, her daughter, and the world around her. “Haunting and hypnotic” (Rolling Stone).

  • Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

    • Thursday, July 27 7 PM
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Spain, 1988

    Longtime Almodóvar icon Carmen Maura is but one of many women on the verge in Almodóvar’s international breakthrough, a riotous blend of screwball comedy and fifties melodramas that’s “as crowd-pleasing as it is color-coordinated” (J. Hoberman).