Pedro Almodóvar is blogging about his new movie Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) which is partly shot in Lanzarote and staring Penelope Cruz. His posts are available in Spanish, French and English. For instance, there are notes on a couple of screen tests (first picture below).
The film is going to be released in spring 2009.
Here is an excerpt about his photophobia:
If you ever find a photo where yours truly appears, in an interior, hidden behind dark glasses and a hat, don”™t think that I”™ve turned into a jerk in search of glamour, I”™m just a director who suffers from photophobia, scorched by hundreds of kilowatts of light.
But, in the cinema, the light is what matters. Without the light with which Von Sternberg lit Marlene”™s face, Marlene would never have been Dietrich, she would have just been a sarcastic girl who was verging on chubby. The magic is in the light, so I won”™t complain.
Bye for now.
“European porn-start beginning her career in L.A. This is no use either.”
© Pedro Almodóvar
“Lluis Homar (in vintage) fixing Penélope”™s Chanel (also vintage) while she”™s daydreaming.”
© Pedro Almodóvar
“I apologized to my companions in the photo for my conventional outfit (an always attractive Armani tuxedo). To my relief Alaska supported my choice. After fifty, she told me, you become either a gentleman or Sigfried and Roy.”
© Pedro Almodóvar
(…) I intend to say as little as possible about the story and the characters, I”™ll wander around on the fringes, in purely tangential elements. You”™ll think I”™ve got a real cheek, and I”™m sure you”™re right. (Anything to celebrate the lack of intermediaries). I”™ve been nurturing a dream for some time. I”™d like that at least once spectators would go to see one of my films without knowing what it”™s about.
I know that it”™s an almost impossible dream, but I”™m going to try to get as near to it as possible. Still, I am going to show lots of images of the different processes, images that will be transferred directly from my camera to this page. (source)