16. Almodóvar's Stolen Images

Summary

This chapter explores Almodóvar's conception of stolen images which is ironically the result of a very personal search on the director's part for his own cinematic style. That search will lead him not only to a complex mirroring of the films of other directors in his own work, but also a highly original and creative transvestism. In Almodóvar's films, all the cinematic quotations considered for this discussion are of the simple insertion type. Almodóvar combines two variations of visual metaphors: visual-cinematic audiovisual in terms of the Siegel poster and then combines it further with the monomodal in terms of the George Romero clip, thereby folding back onto the main fictional line which is now enriched by the association of junkie = living dead. In the introduction to the 2006 catalogue for the Paris exhibition, he asserts that what he has done “are not homages to other filmmakers but ‘complete thefts’.