Pedro Almodóvar: A Cinema of Desire, Passion and Compulsion edited by Arlene Kramer Richards, Lucille Spira with Merle Molofsky

This is a book celebrating Pedro Almodóvar for making films that are courageous, often outrageous and visually stunning. The authors discuss the themes played out in his films such as: sexuality, sexual identity, gender roles, trauma, and the struggle for power. They come from the perspectives of socio-politics, psychoanalysis, history, and ethics. Desire, passion, compulsion, nostalgia, along with bullfights, rape, murder, Shakespeare, Cocteau, the life cycle and the struggles of contemporary society are all part of the Almodóvar mix examined here. In short, the editors and the contributors show why Almodóvar’s work is both a feast for the mind and for the eyes.

“This is an exciting and excited collection of essays by a talented group of  psychoanalysts, scholars and artists who take us right into the dark, antic, ribald, mocking heart and brilliant mind of that enfant terrible of Spanish film–Pedro Almodóvar. His wildly joyous, and viciously murderous, transgressive social misfits loving and torturing each other leap out here on the edge of fragmentation – yet are held together by this analytic approach that never lectures but urges exploration. The chapters are a film festival–a carnival of his movies. Spanish history and how it holds trauma is also offered. Power, desire and intense passion is fulsomely addressed by the editors; a fascinating read.”

Rosemary H. Balsam, F.R.C. Psych., Assoc. Clinical Prof Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine. Training and Supervising Analyst, Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis. Author: Women’s Bodies in Psychoanalysis, Routledge.

“What unifies the seemingly diverse range of commentaries is the common task of each author to understand the relation of Almodóvar’s films, and cinema in general, to the affective life of individuals. Ostensibly anchored in psychoanalytic readings, this volume goes beyond that framework to pose a range of questions of aesthetics and ethics, even identity politics. Beyond all the specifics of the analyses, this volume is a testament to the joy of cinema.”

Marvin D’Lugo, Ph.D. Research Professor of Spanish and Screen Studies at Clark University. Author: Pedro Almodóvar, University of Illinois Press, 2006.

“It has often been said that watching movies is the poor man’s psychoanalysis. The films of Pedro Almodóvar can be viewed as a direct descent into the unconscious. In this outstanding collection of psychoanalytic essays, the contributors take the reader on a journey through gender ambiguity, raw sexuality, death, desire, passion, violence and the mystery of what it means to be human. The link between dreams and the cinema is nowhere more compelling than in the work of Almodóvar, and readers of this superb new volume may feel they have emerged from a kaleidoscopic dream, richer and wiser as a result of the experience.”

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine. Author of The Psychology of the Sopranos, Basic Books.

“‘Applied psychoanalysis’ is a tricky business. All too often it puts the creative individual on the couch and offers what simply cannot be offered in the absence of that individual him or herself. The

contributors to this volume succeed precisely for not doing anything of the sort. Instead, we are treated to an understanding of why we, as spectators, identify empathically with those whom Almodóvar puts on the screen; how this filmmaker views the significance of intra-and inter-cultural conflict; what he knows and wants us to know. And what a treat it is!”

Lois Oppenheim, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures, Montclair State University. Courage to Dream Prize, APsaA. Author: Imagination from Fantasy to Delusion, Routledge.