The best of Netflix: five films from one of the world’s greatest directors

He is one of the best directors of all time. Some even call him a genius. Pedro Almodovar revolutionized Spanish cinema with his art.

When dictator Franco died in 1975, Spain emerged from a 40-year nightmare. The country was infested by a dictator who, after the Spanish War, sowed terror by imposing his deadly ideology. Only one Spaniard remains the spokesman for freedom, eccentricity and love: Pedro Almodovar.

Not only has the director proven himself to be a visionary artist, but he has also been an important figure in Spain’s evolution as a free, open and welcoming democracy since Franco’s reign of terror.

Now, after years of turning down opportunities to work in America, Almodovar is finally standing up. This year, he presented a western short film titled Strange Way of Life with Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke at Cannes.

Thus, Netflix is ​​well inspired from May 26 with a collection dedicated to the director of Madrid with five excellent films.

All About My Mother (1999)

All About My Mother won Almodóvar his first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and made the world empathize with people most would happily ignore.

When Manuela (Cecilia Roti), a single mother in Madrid, sees her only son die on his 18th birthday, she decides to return to Barcelona to tell her father about the death of the son she never knew.

In the 1990s, when homophobia and transphobia peaked with the AIDS crisis, Almodóvar reclaimed the LGBTQ community from the humanity that had rejected them, showing that no matter what they do and no matter who they are, they deserve love.

talk to her (2002)

Talk to Her is one of Almodovar’s few films that focuses on two male protagonists and offers a completely different perspective from the director. The two men, Benino and Marco, could not be more different, but their love for two comatose women binds them together. Almodovar offers an empathetic analysis of the relationship between love and obsession and how easily it can cross.

While most of the men in Almodovar’s films are brutally punished for their heinous behavior, those who “talk to him” enjoy sympathetic portrayals. Although they are not saints, they are endowed with a depth of feeling unheard of for heterosexual men in Almodovar’s cinema.

Wolverine (2006)

In one of the most charming melodramas of the 21st century, Almodovar made us laugh and cry. Volver is located in a small town in La Mancha where secrets abound and the dead never rest. It’s a film best approached coolly and let its secrets envelop you in this (very) Spanish tale of betrayal, maternal love and trauma.

With Penelope Cruz at the helm, the story gains grace and power as well as emotional depth. No other film can claim to have won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for all its protagonists. A moving film in many ways and a breathtaking performance by Penelope Cruz!

The Skin That Lives (2011)

La Piel que Habito is one of the few scary and difficult to watch films from the director’s work. It follows a brilliant plastic surgeon, Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), who has just created a tough synthetic skin. His guinea pig is a mysterious woman imprisoned in his house and who is not at all what she seems.

It’s a body horror film without the screams and gushes of blood, and with much more relevant commentary on gender-based violence. With the help of Banderas and Elena Anaya (God!) Almodóvar tackles issues of gender identity, sexuality and the violence of self-realization in a particularly disturbing way.

Pain and Glory (2019)

It is Almodovar’s most personal and autobiographical film. It explores the secrets of what it takes to become an artist. Pain and Glory tells the story of Salvador Malo (Antonio Banderas) who grows from a precocious young boy in a small cave in La Mancha into an accomplished author in adulthood. A person who is trying to find the meaning of his life.

Almodovar offers on the one hand a story about the pain of growing up in a strange place and on the other hand a kind of confession about his romantic failures and professional successes.

More than any of his films, this film feels like a depraved intrusion into his life that would be uncomfortable to watch if it weren’t for Antonio Banderas’ incredible portrayal and the sincerity with which Almodóvar tells the story.

All of these movies are available on Netflix starting this Friday, May 26.