Spain’s most famous director hasn’t slowed down since he released his first short film in the early 1970s. Pedro Almodóvar continues releasing complex, dark films, often starring his favorite actors, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz. Earlier this year, he awed audiences at Cannes with The Skin I Live In, a dark thriller starring Banderas as a disturbed widower obsessed with cultivating the perfect skin. But the latest from the filmmaker won’t be coming to a theater near you. Taschen is publishing The Pedro Almodóvar Archives, a photo-filled book documenting all 18 of his feature-length movies and including guest introductions along with the director’s eccentric captions. Here is a sneak peek of the pictures that will be released when the book comes out in December.
Penelope Cruz credits Almodóvar with her decision to become an actress. Here she poses as Marilyn as Almodóvar snaps the picture.
Paola Ardizzoni and Emilio Pereda, © El Deseo
The filmmaker grew up poor, but didn’t let that dull his aspirations. In the mid-1980s, Pedro and brother Agustin set up a production company called El Deseo in order to make their film, The Law of Desire.
Jorge Aparicio, © El Deseo
The first film that brought Almodóvar’s name into American houses was Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a comedy about a professional movie dubber.
Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990). Banderas frequently stars in Almodóvar’s films. In Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, the actor’s graphic sex scene prompted the film to get a rare X rating for American audiences.
Jorge Aparicio and Mimmo Cattarinich, © El Deseo
Almodóvar steals a scene in rehearsals for the 1991 movie, High Heels, which was filled with pop music and spontaneous dance scenes.
Mimmo Cattarinich, © El Deseo
A man of many trades, Almodóvar isn’t afraid to jump into the action. Here he rehearses with the stars of Kika, a movie that also featured his elderly mother.
Jean-Marie Leroy, © El Deseo
Using silent scenes alongside modern dance, Almodóvar flaunted his avant-garde filmmaking techniques with Talk to Her, a film about a comatose woman being fought over by two men.
Miguel Bracho, © El Deseo
Talk to Her went on to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2002.
Miguel Bracho, © El Deseo
In Bad Education, Gael Garcia Bernal sings “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas.”
Diego López Calvín, © El Deseo
Almodóvar says his intention of doing an overhead shot in Bad Education was “to give the impression that the boys had been gunned down, or are about to be, by an aerial bombardment.”
Diego López Calvín, © El Deseo
The 2006 film Volver shows the difference between the dead and the living by following three generations of women.
Paola Ardizzoni and Emilio Pereda, © El Deseo
Volver was partially set in La Mancha, Spain, the region where Almodóvar grew up.
Almodóvar calls Broken Embraces “superstylized pop.”
Paola Ardizzoni and Emilio Pereda, © El Deseo
Almodóvar again hops into a scene on the set of Kika.
Jean-Marie Leroy, © El Deseo.
Locked in an almost embrace, Almodóvar practices a love scene in The Flower of My Secret. While the film wasn’t critically well received, many mark its release in 1995 as the beginning of Almodóvar’s second, more mature filmmaking period.
Jean-Marie Leroy, © El Deseo
Coaching Penelope Cruz for a scene in Broken Embraces. The film was Almodóvar’s longest and most expensive production.
Paola Ardizzoni and Emilio Pereda, © El Deseo
Antonio Banderas laughs with the director on the set of The Skin I Live In, a horror film about a widower obsessed with recreating his dead wife.
José Haro, © El Deseo.
