At 74 years old, Pedro Almodóvar continues to surprise. The Spanish director, author of about thirty films, is currently at the heart of several significant events. He is currently presenting his latest film, The Room Next Door, at the Venice Film Festival 2024. It is his first feature film in English, a turning point in his career. The film is a melancholic meditation on death and friendship, with Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in the lead roles. Inspired by Sigrid Nunez‘s novel, What Are You Going Through?, the film delves into the final moments of a war correspondent with cancer, accompanied by an old novelist friend.
This new project is part of a more introspective phase in Almodóvar’s career. His cinema, once flamboyant and exuberant, now takes on darker shades. These shades are marked by a reflection on finitude and death. This evolution is palpable in his recent works, such as Pain and Glory (2019) or Parallel Mothers (2021). The Room Next Door accentuates this trend by directly addressing a delicate subject: euthanasia. Almodóvar does not hide his support for this practice, stating that “euthanasia should be accessible everywhere in the world.”
Pedro Almodóvar has also made a return to bookstores with a collection of stories titled The Last Dream, published by Flammarion. This book, presented as a “fragmented autobiography,” mixes fiction and personal memories, shedding new light on the filmmaker’s inner life. Almodóvar reveals a darker side of his personality, confessing that “in the 21st century, I am someone more austere and more melancholic.” Among the stories, the one that gives the collection its title is particularly moving: it recounts the last hours of his mother, an indelible memory that has haunted him since 1999.
At the same time, the city of Madrid pays tribute to this unbreakable bond between the director and the Spanish capital with an exhibition titled Madrid, Almodóvar Girl. This visual retrospective, on display until October 20, brings together 200 photographs from his films and personal archives. Madrid, omnipresent in his work, is celebrated here as his true muse. She is much more so than any actress who has portrayed his heroines on screen. “The story of Pedro Almodóvar and Madrid is a story of mutual love,” explains Pedro Sánchez, the exhibition’s curator. This tribute highlights how Almodóvar has sublimated Madrid through his cinema, making it an idyllic capital bathed in vibrant colors.
In September, Pedro Almodóvar will also be honored with the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival. This award recognizes an exceptional career, marked by two Oscars. The first for All About My Mother (1999) and the second for Talk to Her (2003). This career has also had an indelible influence on world cinema.
Through these multiple facets, Pedro Almodóvar continues to explore new horizons while remaining true to his unique universe. He seems more than ever in search of meaning today. He questions life, death, and the bonds that unite us. His cinema, full of nuances and emotion, remains an invitation to embrace the complexity of human existence. Almodóvar, in full renaissance, reminds us that at 74, he still has much to tell us and show us.