they wanted to hear. ()l‘ course. I was seandalised. .\'ow I see that I learned something essential: the dil'l'erenee between tietion and reality and how reality sometimes needs a dash of fiction to work better.‘
Sueh strong inlluenees haye inl'ormed Almodoyar”s work. lrequently uneonseiously. He lL‘Cls no need to justil‘y the strong female eontent ol' his films. 'But.‘ he says. ’the reason I make lilms about women is that they’re more fun. They haye more seerets. more eapaeity to surprise. 'l’hey are also more shameless and tell their girllriends eyen what they do in bed with their husbands.‘
Both .»l// .l/mul my .lIoI/n'r and lit/k In Her begin with medieal baekgrotmds: the l'ormer in a hospital. the latter in a elinie. .’\lmodo\ar says that it‘s just a eoineidenee. although he has an abiding loathing lor hospitals. ‘In 'léz/k m llt’l' it‘s less about the sttl‘lering ol‘ the eharaetersf he says. 'but more abottt the day to day lil‘e in the plaee. ()lten one lilm links up with the ne\t one: .>\// xllmlll my .lluI/m' linished with a theatrieal eurtain elosing: 'léI/A In Her begins with a etirtain opening.‘
.\ltnodo\ar in his middle years harbours regrets l‘or the lost Madrid ol' his youth. 'l‘he .\lo\'ida (the eultural reawakeningt happened between WW and IOU}. 'During that period it was the most joy lul. the most l'un. and the most permissiye eity in the worldf he says. ‘lt was ;tlt explosion in the wake ol
i l i i
repression. The young deeided to get some pleasure and joy ottt ol'lil'e.~
:\s a background for ereatiye flowering the period eould not have been tnore l‘ertile. ;\lmodo\'ar slept hardly at all. He made his lirst leature. I’e/ii. 1.1m. Bum um/ Mom. while he was still working as a teleeommunieations engineer. ‘lt was the time when drugs beeame ayailable and there were a lot on ol‘l‘er in Madrid. 1 was pretty l'oettsed with beeoming a lilmmaker. and that stopped me. because I knew the next day I had to be ready to work on the lilm. So it was only hall a line ol' eoke rather than the whole one. All my l‘irst l'ilms were built around this noeturnal tmiyerse. We didn’t know how long it was going to Inst beeause all good things eome to an end. as we know . . .'
Talk to Her plays GFT, Glasgow and Cameo, Edinburgh from Fri 23 Aug. See review.
THE LIST 7