Penélope Cruz, seen above in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, will not look like this in Pedro Almodóvar's next film, Los Abrazos rotos, for the director asserts he doesn't want his leading lady to "repeat those [hairstyles] she has worn in other films."
Pedro Almodóvar, on his website:
"Regarding the English translation of the original title, Los abrazos rotos, I have seen in some publications that it has been translated as 'Broken Hugs' and in others as 'Broken embraces.' I don’t have a sufficient knowledge of English to decide which is correct, or if both are, but I get the impression that in my story the 'abrazos' are more embraces than hugs.
"My 'abrazos' are not fraternal or friendly but those of a passionate lover. Like the embraces by Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet in the final photos of Elevator to the Gallows or like those which appear at the start of Hiroshima, mon amour or the definitive embrace by Jennifer Jones and Gregory Peck in Duel in the Sun. Embraces by lovers at the height of their passion, in my case broken, literally torn, by a third person."
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In the Abrazos rotos stellar cast: Almodóvar's new muse, Penélope Cruz (sporting different hairdos, which can be seen on the site) in the role of a woman leading two different lives, plus veteran Ángela Molina (one of Fernando Rey's two — quite obscure — personifications of desire in Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire), Volver alumni Lola Dueñas and Blanca Portillo, Carmen Machi, Carlos Real, Dani Martin, Tamar Novas, José Luis Gómez, Lluís Homar, Rubén Ochandiano, and frequent Almodóvar collaborators Kiti Manver, Rossy de Palma and Chus Lampreave.
Los Abrazos rotos, which the sometimes photophobic director (who suffers from severe headaches) says was inspired by "darkness" and by a "mysterious" photo of a couple on a deserted beach, is scheduled to open in Spain in March 2009. As far as I'm concerned, that's next year's most eagerly awaited release.
In the above entry, written in April '08, Almodóvar also explains that his follow-up project should be his "very free" adaptation of Thierry Jonquet’s novel Mygale.
Too bad Carmen Maura isn't in this one.
te quiero Carmen!
Can't waitto see it! Almodovar is a genius.