With a penchant for vibrant prints, saturated colour palettes and mid-century modern design, Pedro Almodóvar’s aesthetic is unmistakable. The director’s body of work – spanning over 40 years, 21 feature films and earning him two Oscars – has cemented his position as the modern master of Spanish cinema, but it’s his maximalist visual style that makes him a cultural mainstay. The key? Eclectic sets, exquisite cinematography and bold, playful costuming.
Following a three-year hiatus, Almodóvar has returned with , the tale of an aging filmmaker reflecting on his life, as played by his longtime muse Antonio Banderas. Ahead of its release, looks back at Almodóvar’s career to date through his seven most stylish films.
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(2009)
An austere Alaïa suit, a silk Loewe scarf, a Chanel ballgown dripping with gold chains – the costumes in this thriller are some of Almodóvar’s best, setting the scene for a tense, Hitchcock-esque romance. Penélope Cruz plays an aspiring actress caught between her relationship with a jealous financier and a passionate affair with a director. When she chooses the latter, they flee to Lanzarote and her sculpted dresses give way to floaty skirts and wide-brimmed straw hats.
(1988)
A heartbroken TV actress sets out to discover why her lover abandoned her in Almodóvar’s first mainstream hit, a mile-a-minute madcap comedy that takes one shocking turn after another. In line with the surreal script and larger-than-life characters, the costumes are delightfully kitsch: bedazzled denim jackets, candy-coloured skirt suits and polka dot blouses paired with headbands and towering bouffants. It’s worth keeping an eye out for the jewellery too, which includes earrings in the shape of miniature espresso pots.
(1999)
Groundbreaking in its dissection of parenthood, trans identity and the AIDS epidemic, the drama earned Almodóvar an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and a legion of international fans. It follows a nurse who travels to Barcelona after the death of her son, hoping to track down the boy’s father. Instead she meets an eccentric cast of sex workers, hustlers, movie stars and a pregnant nun, played to perfection by a fresh-faced Penélope Cruz. Their wardrobes are stylish and dotted with cherry-red accents – from Cruz’s headscarves to Cecilia Roth’s eye-popping coat.
(2002)
In the auteur’s next film, two women – one a matador gored during a bullfight and the other a ballerina hit by a car – fall into comas and become voyeuristic objects of desire for two men. While the art direction is subdued compared to the Pop Art exuberance of or , the costumes are no less ravishing. Among the best dressed is Geraldine Chaplin as an elegant dance teacher, in crisp white shirts and impeccably-tailored jackets.
(2006)
Taking its style cues from Spanish soap operas and a pre-Hollywood Sophia Loren, sizzles with sensuous promise. A riot of colour and print fills every corner of the screen; and much is owed to Penélope Cruz’s (above) explosive performance as Raimunda, a working-class woman fighting to protect her daughter. Costume designer Bina Daigeler’s attention to detail is unparalleled as she dresses Cruz in patterned pencil skirts, floral tops and plunging gingham cardigans, offset with gold hoops and a locket featuring a tiny rendering of the crucified Christ.
(2016)
Adapted from three short stories by Alice Munro, is a tender portrait of a mother’s estrangement from her child. We meet the eponymous heroine in Madrid, when a chance encounter with Beatriz, a friend of her daughter Antía, brings news of her whereabouts. Consumed with guilt, grief and the hope of reconciliation, she seeks to re-establish contact. Hallucinatory flashbacks to Julieta’s youth contain plenty of 1980s references (power shoulders, clip-on earrings), but their modern-day ensembles are the most sophisticated: she favours old Céline and Hermès, while Beatriz is a vision in head-to-toe Dior.
(2019)
In the director’s most personal project to date, a brooding filmmaker recalls his childhood, examines his emotional scars and faces up to his own failings. Antonio Banderas gives a ruminative and melancholy lead performance, but his wardrobe remains unapologetically flamboyant. There are bright leather jackets, jewel-toned suits and printed shirts, some of which were even sourced from Almodóvar’s own closet.