Own an autographed copy of Pedro Almodóvar’s paper back book: El ultimo sueño/The Last Dream in his native language of Spanish.
The ACLU SoCal's June auction will celebrate LGBTQ artists and content creators in honor of Pride Month!
Film director, scriptwriter and producer. One of the greatest exponents of Spanish cinema worldwide." Almodóvar was one of the first filmmakers to include transgender characters in his work. Thirty years before the contemporary campaign to cast transgender actors in trans roles, he was making bold choices. Trans actors played trans roles, but they also played cisgender characters.
"In the '80s, when my movies were particularly rich in gay and transgender characters, it was something that hadn't appeared in Spanish movies before. I made a point to include these characters, because they were part of my life. I tried to treat them with the same naturalness that I would bring to a housewife or any other character. I wasn't talking about their problems, or The Transgender Problem -- I was saying that they exist and their lives are as legitimate as any other."
His first experiments with Super 8 led him to produce several short films from 1974 to 1979, in addition to his first feature film Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Ordinary Girls (1980). After titles such as What Have I Done to Deserve This? and Matador, in 1988 he released Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which won numerous awards and became the best box-office debut in the US in 1989. With his production company, El Deseo S.A., he made several films in the 90s. His greatest box-office hits included All About my Mother and Talk to Her, which won Almodóvar his two Oscars, for best foreign language film and for best original screenplay respectively.
ABOUT EL ÚLTIMO SUEÑO / THE LAST DREAM
El libro más personal de Pedro Almodóvar: un autorretrato articulado en doce relatos que revelan su pasión secreta por la escritura «Un libro de hallazgos. Que Almodovar era un gran escritor ya lo sabía, sólo hacía falta descubrir desde cuando. De la infancia hasta anteayer, su escritura nos lleva de la mano por un bosque sorprendente. Nacer al revés, (al final), y vivir para atrás es sólo uno de sus talentos. Hay más, avanzar también como un tranvía (de deseo). Al leer estos relatos uno no sabe si ha sido invitado a su cabeza o a su alma. En cualquier caso, es un regalo. Y una dulce intromisión».—Ray Loriga «Este libro es lo más parecido a una autobiografía fragmentada. […] El lector acabará obteniendo la máxima información de mí como cineasta, como fabulador y el modo en que mi vida hace que una cosa y las otras se mezclen». Así define el autor este volumen, en una brillante introducción que sirve también de puesta en perspectiva: los doce relatos que lo componen abarcan varias épocas, desde finales de la década de los sesenta hasta la actualidad, y en ellos se reflejan algunas de sus obsesiones más íntimas, además de su evolución como artista. Los oscuros años escolares, la influencia de la ficción en la vida, los efectos inesperados del azar, la sofisticación del humor, los inconvenientes de la fama, la fascinación por los libros o la experimentación con los géneros narrativos son algunos de los temas que pueblan este libro imprescindible, que contiene múltiples capas de lectura. En librerías el 13 de abril de 2023.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Pedro Almodóvar’s most personal book: a self-portrait articulated in twelve tales that reveal his secret passion for writing. “A book of findings. That Almodóvar was a writer, that I already knew. We just needed to find out since when. From an early age up until the day before yesterday, his narrative takes us by the hand through an astonishing forest. To be born backwards (at the end) and to live backwards is just one of his talents. There are more—moving forward like a streetcar (of desire) too. By reading these tales, one does not know if it is an invitation to his head or his soul. Either way, it is a gift. And a sweet intrusion.” —Ray Loriga “This book is the closest thing to a fragmented autobiography… The reader will obtain great insight about me as a filmmaker, as a storyteller, and in the way my life makes one thing, and all others mix.” This is how the author defines this volume in a brilliant introduction that also sets a perspective: the twelve tales that comprise it encompass several eras, from the late sixties to date, all of them reflecting some of his most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist. His dark school years, the influence of fiction in his life, the unexpected effects of chance, the sophistication of humor, the downside of fame, his fascination with books, and his experimentation with different narrative genres are some of the themes that inhabit this indispensable book, with a multilayered interpretation.
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