spains almodovar to head cannes film festival jury
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Spain's Almodovar to head Cannes film festival jury

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Spain's Almodovar to head Cannes film festival jury

Pedro Almodovar, Spain's most celebrated living movie director
Paris - AFP

Pedro Almodovar, Spain's most celebrated living movie director, will lead the jury at this year's Cannes film festival, its organisers said on Tuesday.

The flamboyant auteur, who made his name with a string of colourful and melodramatic black comedies including "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!", said, "I am grateful, honoured and a bit overwhelmed."

He is the first Spaniard to preside over the world's top film event in its 70-year history.

"I can only tell that I'll devote myself, body and soul, to this task, that it is both a privilege and a pleasure," the 67-year-old director added.

Although Almodovar won the best foreign film Oscar for his powerful 1999 drama "All About My Mother", which also won him best director at Cannes, he has never taken its top prize, the Palme d'Or.

The man who would become known as the "Tennessee Williams of La Mancha", first began to make his mark during the "Movida", the hedonistic Madrid-led cultural revival that followed the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975. 

"Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (1988) brought him a cult international following, and his movies are often marked by the strength and warmth of his leading women, played by Carmen Maura, Victoria Abril, Rossy de Palma and Marisa Paredes.

- Exuberant rebel -
As his films grew more ambitious and serious, Almodovar helped launch the Hollywood careers of the actors Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Cannes film festival director Thierry Fremaux said his "20 films form an incandescent work, a legacy of his punk, protest-filled youth, driven by an insatiable passion for female figures and the history of film itself." 

Born to a farming family in a small, dusty town south of Madrid where his mother wrote letters for her illiterate neighbours, Almodovar was sent to a Catholic seminary at eight in the hope that he might become a priest.

But the exuberant rebel later ran off to Madrid and joined a parody glam rock duo, and began dabbling in film-making while he working as a telephone company clerk. 

Fremaux said "with his dazzling and iconoclastic 35-year filmography, this virtuoso storyteller has forged a strong bond with filmgoers the world over." 

Although he is "ever surprising", he said Almodovar never loses "sight of his pet themes: passion, friendship, destiny, guilt and buried secrets."

English-speaking directors have presided over the Cannes jury in eight of the past 10 years.

The 70th Cannes film festival will run from May 17 to 28. 

The rest of the jury and the films that will make up its official selection will be announced mid-April.

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

spains almodovar to head cannes film festival jury spains almodovar to head cannes film festival jury

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

spains almodovar to head cannes film festival jury spains almodovar to head cannes film festival jury

 



GMT 11:28 2017 Saturday ,15 April

President Al-Bashir's visit to Kuwait and Bahrain

GMT 07:51 2017 Sunday ,26 November

HRH Crown Prince condoles with Egyptian President

GMT 14:35 2018 Friday ,12 October

Bahrain's media history documentation hailed

GMT 11:45 2017 Friday ,29 December

10 bodies found in mass grave in Myanmar

GMT 08:44 2016 Monday ,19 December

Hopeless Afghan struggle to save boy sex slaves

GMT 15:15 2013 Friday ,05 July

I breathe freedom in Jordan

GMT 12:55 2016 Sunday ,18 December

Kerry in likely last visit with Saudi king

GMT 05:49 2017 Wednesday ,24 May

Indian police make arrests after mobs lynch 8

GMT 12:12 2017 Sunday ,19 February

More South Sudanese officials quit unity gov't

GMT 09:25 2017 Wednesday ,09 August

Ghada Abdel Raziq prefers exciting drama

GMT 15:03 2017 Saturday ,14 October

HM King congratulates French President

GMT 22:10 2017 Wednesday ,03 May

Boosting Bahraini-Czech relations discussed

GMT 12:43 2017 Thursday ,30 November

Saudi prince freed in 'billion-dollar deal'

GMT 03:55 2017 Friday ,17 November

Al-Hilal's Eduardo looking to lead from the front

GMT 03:26 2017 Saturday ,18 November

Tesla's all-electric semi truck
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday