Cracking Up The Crowd

The movie is filled with eccentric characters, most based on people Almodovar has encountered. During his research in Madrid, he found an order of nuns that has a home for transvestite drug addicts. "The nuns help them through detox, teach them how to sew or some new profession," he says. "All of that is real." Same for the transvestite fathers. "When I first went to Paris in the early '70s," he says, "I saw real transvestites, working as whores. They were all Spanish, and they all had children back in their village."

Though Almodovar is heralded throughout the international film world, he says the Spanish media are "respectful but lukewarm" toward him. This time, however, Spanish critics have applauded his new film. Almodovar thinks it could be the movie's underlying message: "The solution for all of our problems is in those people who are closest to us, sometimes people we may not even know. It's as simple as that."

© 1999