(Dis)locating Spain: Performance Intertextualities in Pedro Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre

Building on Tim Bergfelder’s distinction between reputedly “open” Hollywood films and “culturally specific” European fare, this article focuses on the production and reception of Pedro Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre (All about My Mother, 1999). Critics have pinpointed intertextual references but have assumed that the Spanish filmmaker draws on “universal” texts to make a “culturally specific” vision legible for international audiences. The binaries on which such a model is predicated do not withstand close cinematic or sociohistorical scrutiny. Todo sobre mi madre conveys distinct meanings in Spain as compared to the international arena; this is not exclusively, or even necessarily predominantly, the result of autochthonous reference points; it is also due to the contingencies of reception when Hollywood films are translated out of their domestic habitat. Tracing some of these journeys and identifying various interpretive communities will develop understanding of Almodóvar’s craft and commercial success, and also help contextualize and potentially reconcile some of the frequently embittered battles between Spanish and Anglo-American critics over the right to define and describe his cinematic output.