PARALLEL MOTHERS Conversation with Pedro Almodóvar

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A post-screening conversation with PARALLEL MOTHERS writer/director Pedro Almodóvar at AFI FEST 2021, moderated by film critic Alonso Duralde.
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[@65g4]

Great interview. Saw the film yesterday loved it. Pedro is one of my favourite filmmakers.

[@pilarjaenes]

I've never seen Pedro Almodóvar speaking in English. He tries and make himself to be understood.. congratulations! You have to take into account that when we express ourselves in a different language we use to translate directly and it is not the same. A good film by the way!

[@welshtoro3256]

I think it's a brilliant and entirely necessary film, coming, as it does, from Spain's greatest modern film director. Far too many people have said that it is a film about the intertwining lives of two mothers with the backdrop of the graves and Civil War. In my opinion, the film is all about the Civil War and, more importantly, the Franco years of repression (physical and mental), the inadequate process of Transition and the resurgence of the far-right who are vehemently opposed to the opening of the mass graves. As Almodovar is not, by his own words, a documentary film maker, he uses the device of the two women (three, if we count Anna's "apolitical" mother) as a vehicle to thread his own ideas and themes. It's a great film on many levels but the more you know about Spain the more interesting it is. Throughout the film we pay witness to the clues he places to old and new, young and old, left and right. We start when Janis serves Arturo a plate of Iberico jamon cut from the leg held in place by the jamonero (ham stand) in her kitchen and not the shop bought variety. Later, when Janis is casually yet brilliantly preparing a tortilla (Spanish omelette), we discover that Anna, a whiz with a smart phone, has never even peeled a potato and has to be shown how do do so. The food clues and motifs continue until the end when the traditional sweet pastries are consumed in the old family home. The process of forgetting, or even caring about, the past is well represented in the young Anna. However, Anna's upbringing (Opus Dei) and trauma resonate with the continuation of reactionary, far-right, values to this day. Her own father, based in Granada (the home of Lorca) is more concerned with the family reputation than bringing the men guilty of her rape to justice. Today, the far-right in Spain are vocally hostile to those wishing to highlight gender violence as represented by her rapists (a possible reference to a current infamous case). Even the mix up of the children reminds us of the awful crimes during Franco, when children were removed from their mothers, put into orphanages and made to renounce their parents before being adopted by Francoist supporters. A fine interview.

[@cleenegame]

Wouldn't it be fab if both Javier and Penelope won on Oscar night 🙋🏻‍♀️

[@65g4]

Not likely but they should both get nominated at least.

[@samanthanickson6478]

hey! good to see u alphonso!

[@santiagolopezlopez5356]

Hombre Alonso cuanto tiempo ¡¡¡ la última vez fue cuando comentabas la serie Asesinato de Gianni versace...