Exhibitions
Installation: Pedro Almodóvar

Past Exhibitions

Stories of Cinema:

Installation: Pedro Almodóvar

September 30, 2021–December 1, 2024

Previously presented on Level 3 (L3) in the Rolex Gallery

#immersivefilm

About the Exhibition

This gallery features an immersive, multichannel media installation created by the legendary director specifically for the Academy Museum.

Academy Award–winning filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (b. 1949), one of the most daring and influential writer-directors of our time, transformed Spanish cinema with his 21 feature films to date. He directed the first in 1980, during La Movida Madrileña (The Madrid Scene), a countercultural movement that emerged as Spain transitioned from a repressive military dictatorship to democracy. Pushing the boundaries of representation, he centers dynamic female and LGBTQ+ characters and stories that express a fuller spectrum of the human condition. At times outlandish and provocative, Almodóvar’s films—marked by exquisite performances, lush production design, and moving scores—are also deeply humanistic and compassionate.

El Deseo D.A. S.L.U., photo: Nico Bustos
Installation: Pedro Almodóvar, Stories of Cinema 3, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation
Installation: Pedro Almodóvar, <i>Stories of Cinema </i>, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation
Pedro Almodóvar, El Deseo D.A. S.L.U., photo by Nico Bustos

Each of the twelve channels of this installation offers a poetic distillation of a crucial theme or iconic scene from his body of work. These segments are titled Noir; The Shrinking Lover; Bodies; Religious Education; Guilt and Pain; Musicals; Comedy; Bergman and Melodrama; Sex and Desire; Mothers; Café Müller; and Family. Spanning What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Spain, 1984) to Pain and Glory (Spain, 2019), the installation also recalls Almodóvar’s cinematic influences—such as Ingmar Bergman, Luis Buñuel, and Georges Franju—and features his longtime muses Victoria Abril, Antonio Banderas, Pina Bausch, Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Rossy de Palma, Marisa Paredes, Cecilia Roth, and Julieta Serrano.

This gallery is curated by Exhibitions Curator Jenny He and Assistant Curator J. Raúl Guzmán and is located on Level 3 of the Stories of Cinema exhibition.

Continue reading here for a full list of channels and films found in Installation: Pedro Almodóvar.

A visually immersive exploration of the provocative and humanistic themes at the heart of Almodóvar’s cinema. Edited with text by Jenny He, J. Raúl Guzmán. Foreword by Tilda Swinton. Interview by Rachel Handler. Afterword by Agustín Almodóvar. Design by Content Object

Exhibition Catalogue

Explore the Book
As bold and beautiful as Almodóvar’s films themselves, Pedro Almodóvar: Installation/Instalación captures the dynamic female characters, tantalizing stories, colorful humor and depth of emotion that exemplify this Academy Award–winning director’s career. This bilingual (Spanish and English) book also features a new conversation between Almodóvar and film journalist Rachel Handler, an introduction by Tilda Swinton, a preface by curator Jenny He, texts by curator J. Raúl Guzmán and Agustín Almodóvar, and a richly illustrated filmography.

Supported By

Dolby is the exclusive audio sponsor of this gallery.

Stories of Cinema is presented by PwC. Major funding is provided by Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman. Generous support is provided by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Ruderman Family Foundation, FotoKem, Barbara Roisman Cooper and Martin M. Cooper, Jocelyn R. Katz, John Ptak and Margaret Black, Lauren Shuler Donner, Randy E. Haberkamp, Kevin McCormick and A. Scott Berg, CHANEL, and John and Lacey Williams. Technology solutions generously provided by Panasonic and Sony Electronics Inc. Powered by Dolby. Academy Museum digital engagement platform sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.