BEFORE WATCHING THE FILM

1. Pedro Almodvar. Here you have an exercise that will help you know a bit more about this film director and his filmography. Fill in the gaps with the vocabulary that appears in the box. critics launched cinema roots awards censors audience film-makers genius

feature film

Pedro Almodovar is considered as one of the greatest Spanish _________. He was born in Calzada de Calatrava (Ciudad Real) in 1951 and in 1967 he moved to Madrid. He worked as an administrative assistant for the Spanish Telecommunications Company. He combined his job with his cinematographic interests and collaborations in theatre, music and magazines. In 1980 he premiered his first _________: Pepi, Luci, Bom and other girls like Mom. His first films are part of the Movida Madrilea (Madrid scene cultural movement), in which all kind of artists took part. They aimed at getting over social conventions and showing with humour those irreverent and blasphemous aspects of society that the Francoist _________ had forbidden. From this moment on he devoted himself to _________ completely. Together with his brother Agustin he founded El Deseo film producing company. With What have I done to deserve this? (1984) he achieved the recognition of the _________. The film is about the suffering and unsatisfying life of a housewife who also works as a house cleaner. With his next films he got recognition at international level: Matador (1985) and Law of desire (1986). However, Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (1987), nominee for the Oscar for Best Film in a Foreign Language, was the film that embodied the archetype of Almodovars _________. His award winning career continued with his next productions: Tie me up! Tie me down! (1989), High Heels (1991), Kika (1993), The Flower of my Secret (1995) and Live Flesh (1997). In 1999 he __________ All about my Mother, which obtained the applause of the critics and the _________. The film won the Oscar for Best Film in a Foreign Language together with the Golden Globe Award, 7 Goyas (Spanish Film Awards), etc In 2001 Almodovar was awarded the Oscar for Best Screenplay and 2 BAFTAS, among many other ________, for his film Talk to Her. After a controversial film, Bad Education (2004), Volver represents a return to his _________ in La Mancha.

2-Summary of the plot. Try to put the following sentences in order, check if you have done it right after watching the film.

a) Before that, Raimunda must solve some personal problems. b) The main protagonists are two sisters, Raimunda and Sole. c) However, soon afterwards, their aunt dies and Raimunda and Soles mother, Irene, appears.

d) There they also reunite with Agustina, a neighbour who explains that their
aunt, in spite of her age and poor health, can manage very weel on her own, or so it seems. e) They both, together with Raimundas daughter, travel to a village in La Mancha where their aunt lives. They visit her after going to the cemetery and cleaning their parents tombs, who had died in a fire.