All Almodovar: 7 films by Spanish director coming to Bangkok

It’s been a while since Bangkok sat down together for a real-theater film event. 

For seven days in November and December, seven critically acclaimed films by famed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar will take center stage when the Spanish Film Festival opens at a Bangkok cultural venue. 

The Alliance Francaise program will show Almodovar’s movies, iconic for their use of vibrant colors and over-the-top melodrama, selected from three decades including Oscar winners and a recent Cannes’ Palme d’Or-nominated masterpiece.

The event kicks off with black 1984 comedy, What Have I Done to Deserve This?. Almodovar’s fourth film paying homage to Italian neorealism. It recounts the misadventures of an overworked Madrid housewife and her dysfunctional family.

The film for which Almodovar, now 72, is best known for outside Spain,was his critically acclaimed feminist comedy Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The story’s centered around a group of late 20-century Madrid women whose relationships with men lead to a tumultuous 48 hours of love and confusion. The film was nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won five of Spain’s Goya Awards including Best Film and Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Others selections include All About My Mother, a 1999 comedy drama dealing with issues like AIDS, homosexuality, and existentialism that won the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. 

Arguably the most personal film made by Almodovar is Pain and Glory, however. The film shows a filmmaker in physical decline remembering his past from a 1960s village childhood to heartbreak in the 1980s. Released in 2019, the drama was nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Actor at the Academy Awards.

The retrospective runs on select dates from Nov. 11 to Dec. 9. All films will be shown in Spanish language with English subtitles. Tickets for each movie are THB60. The schedule and advance reservations are available online.

All will show at Alliance Francaise, which is located off Wireless Road and can be reached via BTS Phloen Chit or MRT Lumphini.