Pedro Almodóvar
lifestyles that transgressed the Spanish ‘norm’ can be seen in many other Almodóvar films of the period, m ost notably Almodóvar’s very first feature film, 1981’s Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del monton , which featured similar subversive characters and plotlines, such as a sadomasochistic housewife who falls in love with a lesbian punk rock singer, the la tter played by ‘Alaska’ , a popular Mexican singer who was especially known for her own role in La Movida Madrileña. For these reasons, it could very well be argued that it is impossible to fully separate Almodóvar’s narratives and fundamental themes from t he historical period in which they were conceived, as La Movida clearly plays an undeniable role in the intentions and notions behind much of Almodóvar’s work. Another, extremely prominent example of the socio-political background of Spain playing a major influence in Almodóvar’s films is the concept of the Catholic Church. Almodóvar’s 1983 black comedy, Dark Habits ( Entre Tinieblas ), can be viewed as a film that totally rejects the deeply institutionalized religion in Francoist Spain, employed by Franco and the right wing to further their own social values and build up the power Franco held over the Spanish people until his death in 1975. The film features a famous cabaret singer being taken in by a Spanish convent after her drug overdose. The nuns have names such as ‘Sister Damned’ and ‘Sister Sewer Rat’, who practi se heavy illicit drug use, homosexuality, and sadomasochism. Through these outrageous and absurd details that fundamentally undermine everything Catholicism claims to stand for, Almodóvar heavily implies a dichotomy between the pious and conservative values the church stood for in Spain, and the often hypocritical actions prominent Catholics themselves might take. Through this film, Almodóvar weaponizes his signature brand of camp and bizarre humour against the oppressive force of Catholicism in Spain, applying layers of irony and satire through details like ‘the chain - smoking chaplain’, ‘a long lost grandson of the Mother Superior who has been ra ised by Apes’ 3 and the pet tiger, kept within the grounds of the convent. In stark contrast to the satire of Dark Habits is the much more gritty and substantial depiction of the Catholic church in Spain, Almodóvar’s 2004 drama , Bad Education ( La Mala Educacion ). In a particularly horrifying metadramatic episode, two young boys in a Catholic boarding school, Ignacio and Enrique, fall in love, but are caught by the school principal ‘Father Manolo’, and , as a punishment, Ignacio is sexually abused by this priest. Clearly, this sequence, reacts to somewhat recent revelations about the Catholic Church as a whole, as well as Almodóvar’s own experience within the Catholic church. In an interview with GQ in 2007, Almodóvar reflected on how the act of kissing the pr iest’s ring filled him with disgust, remarking that he ‘could almost literally see their hands dirtied with sperm’. 4 Thus, the scathing critique of this institution within Bad Education , is important in demonstrating how much of Almodóvar’s filmography is , in fact, reacting to social and political ideas in Spain at the time. Through these two films, Almodóvar clearly expresses his views on the Catholic church, and its overwhelming influence in Spain, in Dark Habits through thick satire, employing comedy and camp aesthetics to use countercultural influence in attacking the establishment, and in Bad Education , by relying on recent events, combined with his own experiences to criticize the church further. This lack of confidence and faith in the Catholic church is not exclusive to Almodóvar and his worldview. In fact, in the 21 st century, more than ever, fewer and fewer Spaniards are identifying as
3 Entre Tinieblas at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entre_Tinieblas. 4 ‘Girls on Film’, interview with Pedro Almodóvar by Jim Nelson, for GQ Magazine at https://www.gq.com/story/pedro-almodovar-girls-on-film-april-2007.
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