Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz team up for Broken Embraces :: Music News :: Articles

After the success of their collaboration on Volver (Paste's #6 film of 2006), Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz are once again working together, this time on a film entitled Los Abrazos Rotos ("Broken Embraces").

"To be specific: Broken Embraces is an original script and it is not inspired by any novel," Almodóvar writes on his blog. "It's inspiration comes from darkness." He goes on to explain that following the promotion of Volver, he suffered a period of persistent migraines and photophobia that left him necessarily in the dark a lot of times. "It was those moments of darkness that gave rise to Broken Embraces," he writes. "At first the story had other titles: The prisoner of O’Donnell Street, Double Identity, Sub-version… At that time I was living on O’Donnell Street (a prisoner). But no one should think of Broken Embraces as a kind of autobiography. The only thing that my life and the script of 'Los abrazos rotos' have in common is the darkness in which one of the characters lives (at one moment in the film), but his is due to other reasons. In the film there is no analgesic, no neurologist and no acupuncturist. No one has a headache. There are other problems. And a lot of fiction, a real feast of it. This is probably the most novel-like story I have written to date."

Ángelina Molina will play Cruz's mother in the film. Carmen Machi, Kiti Manver, Rossy de Palma and Chus Lampreave will all make brief appearances, and Lola Dueñas, Tamar Novas and Rubén Ochandio have signed on to the cast as well.

Filming begins next month, and release is tentatively scheduled for 2009.

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