A Companion to Pedro Almodóvar -- Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Skin He Lives In -- A Spotlight on the Self-Conscious Auteur -- The Companion to Pedro Almodóvar -- Notes -- References -- Part I Bio-Filmography -- 1 Almodóvar's Self-Fashioning: The Economics and Aesthetics of Deconstructive Autobiography -- Notes -- References -- 2 Creative Beginnings in Almodóvar's Work -- Searching for His Own Voice -- The Short Stories in Relatos -- Epilogue -- Notes -- References -- 3 Almodóvar and Hitchcock: A Sorcerer's Apprenticeship -- Introduction: Self-Education via Hitchcock -- Almodóvar's Guilt Complex from Spellbound to Laberinto de pasiones -- Casting and Close-ups in Entre tinieblas and Stage Fright -- The Domestic Crime Scene Enlivened by Wallpaper: "Lamb to the Slaughter" and ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto! -- Looking through Objects and Almodóvar's "MacGuffin": From Dial M for Murder, The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, and Rear Window to Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 4 A Life, Imagined and Otherwise: The Limits and Uses of Autobiography in Almodóvar's Films -- Inventing the Self: Autobiography between Fact and Fantasy -- A Portrait of the Young Gay Man as a Star-to-be: Personal Experience into Cultural Mythologies -- Notes -- References -- Part II Spanish Contexts -- 5 El Deseo's "Itinerary": Almodóvar and the Spanish Film Industry -- Marks of Identity -- Family Resemblance -- The Back Story: Almodóvar -- The Course of Things: El Deseo's Other Films -- Other Stories: Latin American Co-productions -- Home Cinema -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- 6 Almodóvar and Spanish Patterns of Film Reception -- La ley del deseo -- Kika -- Hable con ella -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References.

7 Memory, Politics, and the Post-Transition in Almodóvar's Cinema -- From Novela Rosa to Film Noir: The Breakdown of the Transitional Paradigm -- Carne trémula: The Irruption of History -- Memory and the Redemption of Theater in Todo sobre mi madre -- Reinterpreting the Past: La mala educación -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 8 The Ethics of Oblivion: Personal, National, and Cultural Memories in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar -- Visual Palimpsests and Narrative Arrhythmias -- Rhopography: Making the Apparently Trivial into a Movie Star -- The Ethics of Makeup -- Notes -- References -- Part III At the Limits of Gender -- 9 Our Rapists, Ourselves: Women and the Staging of Rape in the Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar -- Specularizing Visions of Excess: Of Human Bondage, Petits Mortes, Parts Maudites, and Rape -- Masters of Delusion -- Immaterial Girls: Of Graves and Private Places -- Notes -- References -- 10 Paternity and Pathogens: Mourning Men and the Crises of Masculinity in Todo Sobre Mi Madre and Hable Con Ella -- Notes -- References -- 11 Domesticating Violence in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar -- Notes -- References -- 12 La piel que habito: A Story of Imposed Gender and the Struggle for Identity -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Part IV Re-readings -- 13 Re-envoicements and Reverberations in Almodóvar's Macro-Melodrama -- Mastering Sound: Re-envoicing the Movida and Macro-Melodrama -- Musical Substitutions and Intertexts in Laberinto de pasiones -- Dubbing as Re-envoicement in Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios -- The Maternal Voice in La flor de mi secreto -- Macro-Melodrama in Hable con ella and Todo sobre mi madre -- Retro-seriality in Los abrazos rotos: Reverberations in the Age of Audio Culture -- Note -- References -- 14 The Flower of His Secret: Carne trémula and the Mise en Scène of Desire -- Acknowledgments -- Notes.

References -- 15 Scratching the Past on the Surface of the Skin: Embodied Intersubjectivity, Prosthetic Memory, and Witnessing in Almodóvar's La mala educación -- Introduction -- Torn Surfaces, Shattered Subjectivities -- The Skin of the Dress -- Cinema as an Embodied Witnessing Practice -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 16 Almodóvar's Stolen Images -- Cinematic Quotation as Theft -- Visual Metaphors as Poaching -- Plagiarism, Pastiche, and "Transvestism" -- The Search for Style -- Textual Transvestism -- Los abrazos rotos, or the Synthesis of Almodovarian Transvestism and Pastiche -- Notes -- References -- Part V Global Almodóvar -- 17 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: From Madrid (1988) to New York (2010) -- Notes -- References -- 18 Almodóvar's Global Musical Marketplace -- All About World Music -- Caetano Veloso: Hearts, Minds, and Market Share -- Chavela Vargas: Icon and Muse -- Buika: Synthesis and Synergies -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 19 Almodóvar and Latin America: The Making of a Transnational Aesthetic in Volver -- Mapping Cultural Affinities -- Tango and Communal Memory -- Constructing a New Geocultural Imaginary -- An Auditory Imaginary -- Co-Producing a Cinematic Latin America -- Notes -- References -- 20 Is there a French Almodóvar? -- Distribution and Reception of Almodóvar's Films in France -- From the Untranslatable to the Genuine -- Towards Translatability: The Global -- Just Another filmmaker (or almost) -- Notes -- References -- 21 Almodóvar in Asia: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and LGBT Film Culture -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Part VI Art and Commerce -- 22 To the Health of the Author: Art Direction in Los abrazos rotos -- Color -- Set Design -- Atrezzo -- Meta-narrative -- Hospitals -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 23 Making Spain Fashionable: Fashion and Design in Pedro Almodóvar's Cinema.

A History of Spanish Fashion and State Policy -- Almodóvar and Costume Design in Film -- Made in Spain -- Made in Europe -- La flor de mi secreto -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 24 Almodóvar, Cyberfandom, and Participatory Culture -- Internet Users, Piracy, and the Re-regulation of the Web -- The "Sinde Law": from de la Iglesia to Almodóvar -- From La Edad de Oro to Enrique Goded: The Auteur-Fan Interface -- "Almodóvar" as El Deseo S.A., Fan-made Artifacts and the Question of Ownership -- From "Almodovarlandia" to Facebook: Social Networking and the Demise of the Cinephilic Object? -- Conclusion: Almodóvar and the Future of Participatory Culture -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.