Two-time Oscar winning Spanish filmmaker, Pedro Almodovar, while writing a small-piece for the New York Times on the versatility of Penelope Cruz, got the ball rolling for the buzz on his latest film, “Broken Embraces.”
The filmmaker’s ability to weave complex narratives, stunning art direction, irreverent humor and well-endowed women into his layered films has given him worldwide acclaim, culminating with an Oscar win for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2000 for “All About My Mother” and again with a Best Original Screenplay award in 2003 for “Talk to Her.”
Cruz is set to appear his latest endeavor,”Broken Embraces” as a desperate and struggling actress from Spain’s provinces who is pursued by an unscrupulous financier. She also appeared in Almodovar’s 2006 critically successful film “Volver,” and Almodovar apparently came off the set of “Broken Flowers” with nothing but praise for the actress, and saying us Americans have just begun to see the depths of her talents.
“Last year she finally came into her own in America, as she had already done in the rest of the world. Penélope is one of the most versatile actresses with whom I’ve worked. And this season she has proved it, with two performances in very different keys: the hysterical, very funny painter in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and the young, neatly coiffed student in “Elegy.”
Later in the article Almodovar noted that his film is finished and will show Cruz “plumb depths we haven’t seen before.” But despite its status as finished and its Spanish release date of March 18th, it won’t be seeing the light of day stateside until it receives a November 6th limited release.