There are several Spanish film directors who you have probably heard of like Alejandro Amenábar who directed Open Your Eyes (adapted in an American production as Vanilla Sky) and The Others (with Nicole Kidman as the main actress) and Julio Medem, famous for Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Sex and Lucía and his last film Room in Rome.
But there is no doubt Pedro Almodóvar is the most well- known Spanish film director. He was nominated for the Academy Awards several times and awarded twice with an Oscar for his movies: All about my mother and Talk to her.
His last film Silencio seems to be a return to the “cinema of women”. Almodóvar has always been famous for his obsession with strong female lead characters as he stated in one of his most internationally recognized films ‘Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown’, which had a musical version on Broadway.
However, Almodóvar did not call his usual bunch of actors (which frequently includes actors like Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura or Antonio Banderas) to work together with him in his last movie. In his new film, very few of the players are “chicas/os Almodóvar”, except Rossy de Palma who had also a role in Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown and the Argentinian actor Dario Grandinetti who worked in Almodóvar´s Talk to her.
In this 20thAlmodóvar production, the main actresses are Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suarez. The plot tells one woman´s life since 1985 to the present day. This woman is called Julieta, and Ugarte and Suarez play respectively a younger and an older Julieta who is a woman “struggling to survive on the verge of madness” due to the mystery that makes people abandon the people they love, removing them from their lifes like if they had never meant anything to them, and the pain that this can cause.
That is all that we can tell about Silencio so far. The best thing to do is go to the cinema when the film comes out and enjoy all that Almodóvar has to offer us this time.
Almodóvar is famous as a director because it is said that the people either love his films or hate them. If you have never seen any of his films maybe is time to give him a chance and see if you are on the side of the lovers or the haters. What is sure is that, as always, Almodóvar will not leave anyone indifferent.
To read an article about Silencio in Spanish click on the following link:
http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2015/03/26/actualidad/1427403279_834152.html