Pedro Almodóvar and
Penélope Cruz are teaming up again, following their acclaimed collaboration on
Volver. Their new project is a drama entitled
Los Abrazos Rotos (
Broken Embraces), which begins filming next month in Spain.Details of the plot are still unclear although Almodóvar has previously said that the movie, which he also wrote, will be shot in the “style of a 50s film noir”.
“It's the longest script I've ever written,” the Spanish director told
El Mundo last December. “It's got something of film noir. There will be about an hour of American film noir from the 1950s. It won't be a comedy but there will be humour.
“Cruz is to portray a woman who has a passionate and destructive love life. On his blog (
www.pedroalmodovar.es), Almodóvar explains how he sees Cruz's characters leading two very different lives. One life sees her “grave, hurt, pursued by fate … a fallen angel, a woman straight out from a 50s thriller translated to the 90s”. The other facet will see her “blonde, light, pop, ingénue, absurd”. Almodóvar's blog, available in Spanish, English and French, promises to chronicle production on Los Abrazos Rotos.
Regular Almodóvar contributors, such as
Rossy de Palma,
Kiti Manver,
Chus Lampreave and
Lola Dueñas have also joined the cast. Veteran actor
Ángela Molina, who starred in
Live Flesh, will play Cruz's mother.
It was previously thought that Cruz and Almodóvar would work on a thriller entitled
La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In), the story of a plastic surgeon who exacts revenge on the men who raped his daughter. But it seems the project, adapted from the novel
Mygale (Tarantula) by French writer
Thierry Jonquet, has been put on the backburner. “I am thinking of filming it after Broken Embraces,” writes Almodovar on his blog, “but I still want to tinker with the script.”
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