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If you’re any fan of motion pictures, then you just know when you’re watching a film from a director who truly is in love with this oddball medium versus that of one who is simply going through the connect-the-dot motions in order to score that next big payday which will land them a coveted palatial estate in Malibu. You can look at a film like P.T. Anderson’s Boogie Nights or Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and you just know: This cat truly is in love with the art of making movies. The same accolades could be said for auteur Pedro Almodovar and his many masterful turns behind the camera – Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down and Volver are just a few of this Spanish maestro’s many masterpieces that have won him a loyal following across the globe. We all have a favorite Almodovar film; mine goes back to 2002’s Talk to Her which opened my eyes up to a style of filmmaking that radically altered how I looked at and enjoyed going to the movies. It’s a heartfelt and deep experience to sit back in a darkened theater and get swept up in the worlds that this writer-director creates. Luckily, Almodovar has a fan-base that goes beyond this purple prose hack; his admirers extend all the way to the vaunted Venice Film Festival which, according to those Pain and Glory fans over at The Hollywood Reporter, is where his latest film is set to kick off the annual gathering.
Madres Paralelas (which, for the non-bilingual among us, translates to Parallel Mothers) is Almodovar’s newest film starring Penelope Cruz. It spins a yarn about two mothers who happen to wind up in the same hospital ward at the same time to give birth and wind up developing a strong bond with one another. The film has the distinction of being the one to open the 2021 Venice International Film Festival, a high honor indeed.
In a press release, Almodovar said that he “was born as a film director in 1983 in Venice in the Mezzogiorno Mezzanotte section. Thirty-eight years later I am called to open the festival. I cannot explain the joy and the honor, and how much this means to me without falling into complacency. I am very grateful to the festival for this recognition and hope to be up to it.”
Madres Paralelas will act as the official curtain raiser on the exotic Lido this September 1 and Mr. Almodovar’s concerns about being up for such an honor are misplaced: The man who has given so many of us our treasured cinematic dreams is always on point, his love for his craft always shining through in the best and most infectious of ways.
