Marzo Todo Almodóvar
Following on from the last post, there happens to be a special celebration this month (March 2017) at the Cine Doré in Lavapiés barrio of Madrid, showing all 20 of Almodóvar's films. It opened last night with a special introduction by the director himself, and Carmen Maura, one of the actresses most associated with his work, before a screening of La Ley Del Deseo.
Tickets were extremely limited, and I queued up for hours, but in the end I had the supreme luck of getting the very last two tickets left before they sold out.
We were up in the balcony, and had a pretty good view. However there must have been easily 300 seats, yet only 100 of those went on sale to the public, which is pretty shocking given the huge demand that existed (there were queues down the street behind me, and I was the last to get a ticket). Worse still, there were even a few empty seats here and there, and the boxes weren't used at all.
Being English, I didn't recognise all the VIPs in attendance, but I saw Manuela Carmena, the Mayor of Madrid - when she entered the whole room gave her a round of applause, and on my way out I rubbed shoulders with actress Carmen Machi, another Almodóvar regular. I don't mean I talked to her, I mean I literally brushed past her on the way to the cloakroom. Oh well.
Spanish speakers, to read more about the evening check out Todo Almodóvar.