Madrid, Almodovar’s favorite actress

The brick arches of the rooms in Conde Duque’s barracks are the frame for the exhibition Madrid, daughter of Almodovar. In the filmmaker’s words: “My life and my films are linked to Madrid like two sides of a coin.”

Pedro Almodóvar and Pedro Sánchez Castrejón, curator of the exhibition

Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodovar

The filmmaker has been able to see this show

The exhibition, organized by the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Madrid City Council, is organized by Pedro Sánchez Castrejón, the author of the book All about my Madrid. Walk through Almodóvar’s Madrid. It can be visited until October 20 in Room 1 of the Contemporary Culture Center Condeduque, and it has everything from the Madrid skyline sets of Women on the verge of a strange attackto the Super 8 camera with which he began to take his first steps as a filmmaker, when he was still an employee of Telefónica.

First and Madrid the immigration

The cottages of motley houses in the neighborhood of Concepción is a platform for What did I do to deserve this? These new neighborhoods were for people from the areas who came to Madrid in search of a better life. The character of the grandmother, played by the adorable Chus Lampreabe, appeals to the difficulty of finding herself in an impersonal city and missing the city, exclaiming: “In Madrid, it’s colder than even the berries…”

Studio houses Expensive and Pérez Mínguez

The house of the mythical architects’ workshop of ‘Illustrated Chochonism’ on 14 Calle de la Palma, the apartment where Bom lived, the character Alaska played in Almodóvar’s first film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and other girls of the group. Nerve center and meeting place Entertainment in Madrid in the 80s.

In Labyrinth of passions, Almodovar feeds the myth of the movida with a mythological Madrid in which the city is considered the most fun city in the West. At the moment, the center of activity is the Movida photographer Pablo Pérez-Mínguez’s home studio in Monte Esquinza.

Bailén, the Viaduct and San Francisco el Grande

Later, the empty Madrid gains special prominence, with memories of romantic suicides throwing themselves from the railway bridge. This Almodovarian obsession with the bridge that bridges the gap between the streets of Bailén and Segovia is constant in his work. Rising in Matador with María Cardenal walking with her ‘Fashion of Spain’ style, to appear again in The lovers who pass byin a terrible image of Paz Vega with the clear intention of throwing herself into the void.

In Broken catches We are in the ‘Madrid of the Austrias’ and the neighborhood of La Morería: Bailén street, stairs that lead to the lower part of the viaduct.

Visitors at the exhibition

Details about one of the shows

Spectator details

Inside the show

In flower of my secret, The deserted Plaza Mayor, with its typical cobblestones, is the impromptu flamenco tablao on which Juan Echanove tries to impress Leo (Marisa Paredes), imitating the ‘zapateao’ of the dancer Joaquín Cortés . Other scenes in this film also take place in the historical center: the view of San Francisco el Grande from the Plaza de la Puerta de Moros, where a junkie helps Leo by taking off ankle boots that are killing him.

Barracks of Conde Duque, Plaza de las Comendadoras and old convents

In The Law of Desire We can see the Barracks of the Conde Duque in the beauty of the night with a false and sticky feeling, in the summer of Madrid, which is the best setting for the release of desire and all desires. It is one of the most iconic and memorable scenes of Almodóvar’s cinema, which Susan Sontag even compared to Marilyn’s flowing dress. Temptation resides above. That hard heat, so Madrid and visceral, gives a wild impulse in Tina, who asks the sweeper to water with his hose, with the currigueresque Conde Duque cover in the background, where the show now displayed.

In the dark It was filmed in a convent on 88 Hortaleza Street.

Janis, the photographer played by Penélope Cruz in Parallel motherslives next to Plaza de las Comendadoras, where the characters in the film sit and have coffee while chatting on one of the terraces.

The most cosmopolitan and flyest Madrid

Just like Woody Allen with New York and Fellini with Rome, Almodóvar creates a very personal image of Madrid, giving it a cosmopolitan and universal character. And the Oscar-winning director always found in the city of Madrid a perfect landscape and a wrong and ideal animal for each of his films.

In Women on the verge of a strange attacka false ceiling appears with a forillo or ornament on the back which represents the sky Alcalá Madrid with Gran Vía and the Telefónica building in the foreground.

Flying locations are also frequent in Almodóvar’s filming. Barajas Adolfo Suárez Madrid Airport features in the films: Labyrinth of passions, What did I do to deserve this?, Women on the verge of breakdown, High heels, Talk to her, Back and of course, The lovers who pass by.

Rockola, cinemas, theaters, Chicote Museum and other temples of the night

The exhibition includes the legendary poster of the Rockola room, the temple of solidarity and the center of Madrid’s vision.

One of the oldest flamenco tablaos, the Villa Rosa, next to the Plaza de Santa Ana, appears in Far Heelswhere a handsome lawyer by day transforms into a transvestite by night singing the hits of Becky del Páramo.

In Juliet We see the main character in Martín de los Heros, “the street of cinemas”, next to the Golem and Renoir, which Pedro himself usually attends.

Sample Picture

In All about my mother, Madrid’s theaters like the Bellas Artes and the Lara are at the center of the stage, where there are works like this Car Street named Desire and the Agrado monologue.

Two of the capital’s most established cocktail bars are the indoor setting Broken catches: Chicote and Cock Museum.

Videos, audios and QR codes with extended information

Madrid, daughter of Almodovar It includes monitors through which you can see the most iconic scenes of the filmmaker from La Mancha. You can also listen to audio captured through QR codes, which expand the content of certain points along the presentation route.

Super 8 camera, photos and other fetishes

Periodicals from the City Newspaper Archive are presented in exhibition cases, along with a Super 8 camera, the beginning of Almodóvar’s cinematic adventure. Fetishes like the multicolored screen All about my motherwith whom Cecilia Roth takes shelter on a wild, wild night.

Pictures taken by the filmmaker himself of the so-called ‘Almodóvar Corner’, which is just the corner of Alcalá Street and Gran Vía, with the Metrópolis building and the winged figure on top of the tower.

But if there is something uncertain, a piece of furniture without which is the female figure Women on the brink of a strange attack, It is the red sofa, a source of secrets, joys and sorrows for its protagonists.

A plan that doesn’t get lost

The author of the book is the Madrid City Council About my Madrid, to develop a tourism map with a selection of 25 places in Pedro Almodóvar’s Madrid. The plan has been supervised and authorized by the production company El Deseo, and can be obtained for free at any of the tourist information centersor download HERE

Map of Almodovar’s Madrid

For more information go to the following interesting links:

https://www.esmadrid.com/madrid-de-almodovar

https://todosobremimadrid.com/