European Films

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has started writing a trilingual blog that will record his thoughts during the shoot of his new film Los abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces). Much like the shooting diary for his previous film Volver, it will offer personal insights from the film-obsessed La Mancha director while also chronicling the making of his latest oeuvre. In the first couple of pieces published, Almodóvar talks about his obsession with Jeanne Moreau, Juliette Binoche's knees and the death of Deborah Kerr. He also explains how Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Lift to the Scaffold), in which Moreau starred in 1958, has the kind of embraces his new film will talk about. Though "talk" might not always be the right word.

"I like films in which the characters talk, or listen. In "Broken Embraces" a lot of things happen, in fact of all the scripts I’ve written to date it is the one with the most plot, but there are many moments when the characters express themselves through words, and silence. It is a film of characters, a film of actors."

As previously described by the director, Los abrazos rotos revolves around an amour fou and will have hints of fifties Hollywood noir -- though it actually takes place in the 1990s and today and is set in the world of cinema and big business.

Los abrazos rotos will star Pénelope Cruz and Blanca Portillo, who already co-starred in Volver, as well as Lluis Homar from La mala educación (Bad Education) and José Luis Gómez (El 7º día /The 7th Day), who at age 67 is a very experienced actor but who will be the only newcomer to universe of Almodóvar.