- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- Israel widens Lebanon strikes as troops fight Hezbollah along border
- Bowlers' graveyards: Pakistan's placid pitches under fresh fire
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Vietnam, China to expand rail links, cross-border payments
- Americans get their belief back as Pochettino makes his mark
- Vietnam, China to boost economic, defence cooperation
- Winning start for Pochettino's American adventure
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- US firms brace for more tariffs as election approaches
- Winning start for Poch's American adventure
- Morocco's tribeswomen see facial tattoo tradition fade
- Centre-left set to win as pro-Ukraine Lithuania votes
- Colombia guerilla group urges delegations not to attend COP16 in Cali
- Pakistan frets over security ahead of SCO summit
- Ronaldo scores 133rd Portugal goal in Nations League win over Poland
- 40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'
- Eight dead as heavy rain thrashes Brazil after long drought
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- Morocco crush Central African Republic, Guirassy scores hat-trick
- Dupont scores quickfire hat-trick on Toulouse Top 14 return
- Ronaldo scores in Portugal's Nations League win as Spain sink Denmark
- Interim boss Carsley has not applied for England job
- Mets hurler Senga ready to take on Dodgers in game one of NL Championship Series
- Ronaldo on target again as Portugal defeat Poland in Nations League
- Guardians rip Tigers 7-3 to advance in MLB playoffs
- AFP, BBC win top French war reporting awards
- Carsley goes back to basics as humbled England face Finland
- Alex Salmond: the man who took Scotland to the brink of independence
- Scotland's former leader Alex Salmond dies aged 69: party
- UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war
- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
Almodovar's love affair with Madrid explored in new exhibition
Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodovar's decades-long love affair with Madrid is the focus of a new exhibition in the Spanish capital which has appeared in all of his feature films to varying degrees.
"Madrid, Almodovar Girl", which runs until October 20 at the Conde Duque cultural centre, features 200 photos from his 23 movies, as well as notebooks, movie props and the first camera Almodovar bought, a hand-held Super-8.
This year marks the 50th anniversary since Almodovar began his film career in Madrid in 1974 with the release of his first short film.
"The story of Pedro Almodovar and Madrid is a story of requited love, Pedro Almodovar is Pedro Almodovar thanks to Madrid," Pedro Sanchez, the commissioner of the exhibition and author of a book on the director's links to the city, told AFP.
"Almodovar has paid back to Madrid in spades what the city has given him by being his muse," he said, adding that many foreigners' first contact with Spanish culture and Madrid is through Almodovar's works.
A huge chart at the exhibition shows what percentage of the action in each of Almodovar's films takes place in Madrid.
It ranges from just six percent in 2011 drama "The Skin I Live In", about an amoral plastic surgeon who seeks revenge on the young man who raped his daughter, to 100 percent in seven films.
These include his international breakthrough, the 1988 romantic black comedy "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown".
- Cemeteries and bars -
Almodovar moved to Madrid from a small village in Castilla-La Mancha, an arid and rural region in central Spain, in 1967 during the final years of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco when he was just 17.
"I have never felt like a stranger here," he has said.
After Franco's death in 1975, Almodovar became a key part of the cultural movement in Madrid dubbed "la movida" which saw artists break the Roman Catholic dictatorship's many taboos.
Sanchez said that like Madrid, Almodovar has a "transgressive, multifaceted, critical, open, fun, cosmopolitan and friendly personality".
The exhibition features a map of Madrid marked with the 272 locations that have appeared in his films.
Spain's most famous director tends to avoid famous landmarks, preferring working-class areas like Vallecas and places such as hospitals, taxis, bars and cemeteries where people go about their daily lives.
One of his most iconic scenes was shot outside the facade of the building housing the exhibition -- the moment in the 1987 film "Law of Desire" where a city street cleaner hoses down Carmen Maura's character on a hot Madrid summer night at her request.
- Adoptive son -
Almodovar is known for using vivid colours, which he has said is "a way of taking revenge" on the grey years of the Franco dictatorship, Sanchez said.
He reproduced his Madrid flat for the 2019 film "Pain and Glory" about an ageing film director, even using some of his armchairs.
When he visited the exhibition before it opened to the public on June 12, Almodovar reportedly said "this is my life".
The 74-year-old won the Oscar for screenwriting for his 2002 movie "Talk to Her", about two men who form an unlikely bond when both their girlfriends are in comas.
He also picked up the best foreign language Oscar for the 1999 movie "All About My Mother" about a woman struggling with the sudden death of her teenage son.
The exhibition ends with a video of part of the speech he gave when Madrid city hall in 2018 declared him to be an "adoptive son" of the city.
"I came mainly to get away from the village, to urbanise a bit and then to go and live in Paris or London, but without realising it, I stayed," he said.
"Now I can say that both me and my characters will continue to live here."
X.Karnes--AMWN