1. Almodóvarós Self-Fashioning

The Economics and Aesthetics of Deconstructive Autobiography

Summary

Almódovar's Los abrazos rotos/Broken Embraces (2009) received a rhapsodic review from the chief critic of the New York Times, the most important “gatekeeper” for admission to the select world of art cinema in the United States. The particular importance of this feature is that it focuses on the construction of an auteurist self for the filmmaker, the theme that will be a main concern of this chapter. In the chapter, the author argues that Los abrazos rotos, a film about a filmmaker and his craft, can be read in part as a kind of deconstructive autobiography of Almódovar's personal and professional career to date, complex and contradictory as it is. The chapter then examines how Almódovar's self-fashioning can be re-read in the various contexts sketched out at the crucial time of the production and release of Los abrazos rotos, his seventeenth feature.