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LIMITED SERIES PEDRO ALMODÓVAR: MUSES AND INFLUENCES APR 21–29, 2023
Kika Fri, Apr 21 | 7:30pm | TMT
The singular Academy Award–winning Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar (b. 1949)—whose immersive, multichannel media installation is on view as part of the Academy Museum’s Stories of Cinema exhibition—was the focus of a career retrospective film series at the museum in 2022. With 23 features to date and an active filmmaking practice since the 1970s, Almodóvar’s vibrant films have touched many genres, from melodrama and comedy to drama and high-camp musical. To present a dimensional experience of the director’s rich works, we’ve pulled from some of his most iconic inspirations for a program that highlights his influences, including Luis Buñuel, Nicholas Ray, Ingmar Bergman, and 1950s American science fiction, as well as his many muses, including Gena Rowlands and Joan Crawford. To launch this series, which we’ve timed to celebrate the release of the Academy Museum’s visually stunning book, Pedro Almodóvar: Installation/Instalación (2023, DelMonico Books), we’re kicking off the series with his sensational 1993 feature Kika , a still from which graces the cover of our dazzling new publication. Programmed and notes by K.J. Relth-Miller, except where noted.
dream,” and in Almodóvar, who references the film’s color palette and story arc for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988). In Breakdown , Almodóvar literalizes his inspiration when voice actress Pepa (Carmen Maura) is seen dubbing Johnny Guitar into Spanish. DIRECTED BY: Nicholas Ray. WRITTEN BY: Philip Yordan. WITH: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge. 1954. 110 min. USA. Color. English. Not Rated. 35mm.
Kika Fri, Apr 21 | 7:30pm | TMT At the time cited as his most controversial film, Kika follows the titular character (the marvelous Verónica Forqué), a beautician who is such a charming chatterbox she is (literally) able to raise the dead. When she marries the much younger son of her former lover, the fates intervene to upend their happiness. Reflecting on sexual violence, the media, and the paradoxes of desire, Kika features Almodóvar regulars Victoria Abril and Rossy de Palma. Note by Diana Sanchez. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Pedro Almodóvar. WITH: Peter Coyote, Verónica Forqué, Victoria Abril, Rossy de Palma. 1993. 114 min.
Opening Night Sat, Apr 22 | 7:30pm | TMT
Ferociously independent American filmmaker John Cassavetes directs wife and longtime creative collaborator Gena Rowlands in an arresting, immersive film about the unraveling of an aging stage actress after she witnesses the death of a young fan. Drawing on that tragic scene for a pivotal moment in All About My Mother , Almodóvar reinforces his admiration for middle-aged female stage performers in the closing dedication to his 1999 film by singling out Rowlands by name, whose gravity and spirit in Opening Night would easily find their place within any Almodóvarean melodrama. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Cassavetes. WITH: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Joan Blondell. 1977. 140 min. USA. Color. English. Rated PG-13. 35mm. Print courtesy of UNC School of the Arts’ Moving Image Archives.
Spain/France. Color. Spanish. DCP. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
Johnny Guitar Sat, Apr 22 | 2pm | TMT
Nicholas Ray’s unorthodox Western about the perilous future of resolute Arizona saloon owner Vienna (Joan Crawford) and reformed outlaw Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) was snubbed by American critics and audiences alike upon its original release. It found fans in Europe, notably in Cahiers du cinéma contributor François Truffaut, who hailed the film as “a Western
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