Minutes before the talk, Lecture Hall B in the Harvard ScienceCenter was jammed with angry and uncomfortable students,professors, filmmakers and movie buffs.
What was expected to be a quiet conversation with PedroAlmodovar was quickly turning into a heated argument before theguest of honor had even appeared.
The audience was overflowing. Police unsuccessfully tried toshuffle people out of the aisles and floor.
And then out he came, gray hair all disheveled, clad in grayslacks and a gray sweater. Pedro Almodovar is much different inperson than one would have expected from the reputation of thisnotoriously shocking director, probably the most widely known facein Spanish cinema.
Almodovar gained household recognition with his 2002 film,"Habla con Ella," which was nominated for two Oscars, includingBest Director, and went on to win Best Original Screenplay.Although appearing on the mainstream American scene only recently,the director has been making movies since the late 1970s. He haswritten, directed and co-produced 15 features, with his latest,"Bad Education," currently in theaters.
The famed director has made a career out of portraying Hispanicwomen oppressed by their machismo society. Almodovar tries toexpose the things that women are forced to do due to theirpowerless positions, and his movies often deal with thetransvestite, prostitution and drug culture found in his two mainbackdrops, Madrid and Barcelona.
It was not unexpected that he would have such a magnetic draw ata venue in Harvard on Tuesday. The turnout for his lecture turnedout to be so unexpectedly huge that the lecture hall that had beenprepared for the event was far too small to accommodate everyonewho wanted to attend.
"We can talk about anything tonight," the director said inSpanish as he opened the discussion. "My personal life the, thetranslator's personal life. I don't know the [female translator] aswell, so you can just ask her yourselves."
He spoke of his own experiences starting out in the business. Inmaking his first film, "Pepi, Luci, Bom, y Otras Chicas delMont�n," Almodovar faced bankruptcy.
He took out loans and was unable to pay the actors until afterthe movie had become a hit.
Although Almodovar now has the means to make big budgetpictures, he still maintains his allegiance to independent cinema.He said that he would be reluctant to make a film in English orwork with American film studios because what is important to him is"el modo de producir" (the method of production).
With independent films, Almodovar explained, a director has morecontrol over his vision, perhaps contributing to why he has createdhis own production company, El Deseo (The Desire).
Going beyond his personal experiences to draw on broad themesthat related to both life and his movies, he fielded the oftenvague questions thrown by the audience.
"Life is full of contradictions," the translator sitting to thedirector's right said in a loose translation of Almodovar'saccount.
It is precisely these types of contradictions in which Almodovarfinds his inspiration for his characters. Many of his ideas comefrom newspaper articles and the real world.
Almodovar was soft-spoken and polite, yet he clearly possessed acrass sense of humor.
"I know Salma Hayek," he said. Moving his hands in the air tomake the shape of imaginary breasts, he called her a "miniature"with perfect proportions.
Even while Almodovar maintained his composure, he often seemedto be struggling to make his meaning clear through the translator.He occasionally resorted to speaking in English himself in order toensure that his statements come across as he had intended.
The director recounted a story when a transvestite once told himabout a man with "beautiful tits" who loved to show them off andsleep around, but would not let his wife wear short skirts.
This is "the best example of machismo," Almodovar explained, andhe decided to include this in one of his films.
Overall, his stories and anecdotes were both humorous andenlightening. Even if he didn't look like his audience might havethought, Aldomovar clearly possesses those characteristics that onewould have expected from this controversial, humble, andworld-renowned filmmaker.
