Round 7 for Penelope & Pedro with "Parallel Mothers"
Friday, July 3, 2020 at 12:30PM by Nathaniel R
Given the elegaic tone of Pedro Almodóvar's brilliant autobiographical Pain & Glory (2019) we worried that it might be his last film. We're so pleased to be feeling paranoid about that now. The 70 year-old master is already writing again or perhaps has finished writing something new. And not just one new project, but three! His next feature (which will shoot in early 2021) is a melodrama called Parallel Mothers, which will star his muse Penélope Cruz. The film will follow the lives of two mothers who give birth on the same day but whose lives take different courses (no word yet on who will play the other mother or if this is a dual role for Cruz). This will be the director and actress's seventh collaboration...
Pedro & Penélope, the early yearsShe previously had supporting roles in Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999), I'm So Excited (2013) and Pain & Glory (2019) and headlined Volver (2006) and Broken Embraces (2009). This will not quite put her at the tippity-top of Almodovar's muses as Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas both made 8 pictures with the director (and both had more leading roles, too), but she's getting there!
There has always been a lot of hysterical talk -- which one might argue implies a very skewered Ameri-centric view of the world -- around when Almodóvar will make his first English-language feature. We frankly don't know why people keep eagerly awaiting that since his Spanish language features are so perfect! But, at any rate, English language stars will line up if and when it happens. A short film with Tilda Swinton called The Human Voice is going before the cameras this summer and after Parallel Mothers there will be a feature based on Lucia Berlin's short stories A Manual For Cleaning Women. Cate Blanchett reportedly wants the lead for the latter, but then again ... who wouldn't?
Still we shouldn't assume that the latter project will happen at all or in that form until it actually happens. Almodóvar has dangled the English language carrot for as long as we can remember following his career; recently Julieta (2016) was going to be the film that crossed that line but in the end it stayed in Spain. Though Almodóvar usually writes originals A Manual For Cleaning Women will not be his first adaptation. Live Flesh (1997), The Skin I Live In (2011) and Julieta (2016) were also based on books or short stories.
Reader Comments (22)
~ gay gasp! ~
I wish he would work with other Spanish actresses for a change. This is so boring.
Boring
Annette Bening is lobbying very hard to get the leading role in A Manual for Cleaning Woman. According to Almodóvar himself in one of his Coronavirus diaries, she tried to get the rights. When she got to know he got the rights, she went after him to get the role. I think she's getting it. He would not tell this if he were not going to cast her in it.
On The Human Voice - The Anna Magnani/Rossellinni version is available at Amazon Prime and YouTube. Magnani is just magnificent. Not even Tilda can beat her.
That's exactly what Almodóvart said:
"Before the awards were handed out, Annette Bening came to my table to greet me. She was radiant next to her husband Warren Beatty, also radiant at 83. We congratulated each other and Annette told me that she had asked for the rights for Lucia Berlin’s “A Manual for Cleaning Women,” and she’d been told I had them. We talked about the book – I do recommend it for this quarantine, time stops when you are reading one of Lucia Berlin’s stories – and I told her that she would definitely be the ideal option for when the character is older. "
Peggy Sue... Maribel Verdú! She has never worked with Pedro, and honestly, Penélope has one Oscar but Maribel should have four by now (Amantes and Pan's Labyrinth as Supporting and Lucky Star and Y tu mamá también as lead)
Another Almodovar/Cruz collaboration... sweet!!!! I'm sure Almodovar could find a role for Annette Bening. She'll have to learn Spanish unless she already does.
Ana Belén, Concha Velasco, Maribel Verdú, Anna Castillo, Mònica López, Clara Segura, Vicky Peña, Sonia Almarcha, Greta Fernández, Petra Martínez, Natalia de Molina, Ariadna Gil, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Mercedes Sampietro, Laia Marull, Cristina Castaño, Belén Cuesta, Mona Martínez, Ingrid García-Jonsson, Lolita, Verónica Echegui, Mari Paz Sayago, Isabel Ordaz, Mercè Arànega, Ana Duato, María León, María Pujalte, María Galiana, Malena Alterio...
or maybe repeat with Bárbara Lennie, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Candela Peña, Carme Elias, Cristina Marcos, Blanca Portillo, Nathalie Poza, Ana Wagener.
I sincerely hope Annette Bening becomes his English language muse.
I have been watching many netflix/amazon Spanish movies and TV series since the lockdown and I must say there are SO MANY actors/actresses worthy of Almodovar. So yeah, I agree with Peggy Sue...why keep sticking to the same old, same old? Boring.
I know people love her but I find Magnani to be pure ham so I have lots of faith in Swinton.
I’m personally so excited about Cruz and Almodovar reuniting! I love their work. He brings out the best in her and she gets his style perfectly.
Penelope is only watchable with Pedro.
I am sorry, but nobody ever asked Bergman/Fellini/Hitchcock/Ford/Allen to stop casting Ullmann/Mastroianni/Stewart/Wayne/Keaton.
Of course there are great actors around, but each director has his own preferences and sometimes even write parts for certain actors.
Maybe all these actresses are perfect, but are they perfect for Almodóvar?
my opinion on this topic is that directors should work with their favourite actors MORE (it would improve so many movies!) but they should look to new faces if they stop challenging each other (like Burton & Depp who are clearly bad for each other now). to recharge the creative batteries. Cruz and Almodovar have hardly run out of creative juice together. And one might argue that Almodovar got some of his old mojo back by reuniting with Banderas.
@Nutradeica, I could add Monica Cervera and Yolanda Ramos. I bet bet they could play an Almodovarian juicy comic role.
I am more than happy with Almodóvar directing Penélope Cruz once again but, if we are going to suggest new faces for his filmography, I can only wish he rescues Pilar López de Ayala from that insane (obliged? voluntary?) retirement.
@Juan
Fact: Penélope has 3 Oscar noms, only one was in a Pedro film. She won for a Woody Allen one.
Plus "La Niña de tus Ojos" is probably, still, her best performance to date, and it is a Fernando Trueba film. Plus she won a David di Donatello for "Don't Move", which was an Italian-speaking performance (and she did not speak italian at the time).
While I am not a Cruz fan because when her lows are horrendous, she is a very good actress (latest example: her cuban wife in Wasp Network, in Netflix) and certainly she's alreay history of spanish cinema.
Jesús - Wasp Network? Ay, qué horror!
Should have said this earlier, but: Pedro has some really flattering photos. That one, where he looks like a 60 or 70-something Guy Fieri, is not one of them.
Juan... her performance shines in Wasp Network and her cuban accent is extremely good. The movie is not that good, agreed, but it was refreshing to see one american film siding down with Castro, for once, because he was right: the spionage was to try to avoid terrorism in the island.
Annette Bening... is not the English-speaking actress you want to see work with Almodóvar
@César Gaytán
Yolanda Ramos had a brief role in Volver and she hated working with Almodovar. She said on a Tv show Pedro was scary and she doesn't like working like this.