Pedro Almodóvar Amagra Navidad (Bitter Christmas)It is the Spanish director’s first film since winning the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and it received a warm response from its premiere in competition at Cannes. The melodrama marks the 76-year-old director’s return to his native language after making his English-language debut with the Venice Award-winning film. Next roomwhich featured Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as estranged friends brought together for medically assisted suicide.
In contrast to this film’s 17-minute standing ovation, with Almodovar running up and down the aisles, the six-and-a-half-minute standing ovation from the audience at the Grand Thêatre Lumière seemed positively sober.
The gala premiere itself was one of the most star-studded of the festival, with Juliette Binoche sitting in a row in front of the cast and crew, ready to hug Almodóvar as soon as he entered. Also walking the carpet to huge applause was 89-year-old Ken Loach, a two-time Palme d’Or winner.
He represented the younger generations of directors Darren Aronofsky and Jordan Firstman, who may be the biggest star at Cannes, having purchased A24 for $17 million, after a bidding war, for his first feature film. Kid Club. Model Helena Christensen turned heads as she did so Kid Club Beloved Diego Calva. Dita Von Teese and James King also attended to pay their respects, as did Rossi De Palma, Almodovar’s longtime collaborator.
When he was handed the microphone during applause, Almodóvar looked visibly moved. “This is so moving that I have no words. It’s beyond words,” he said. “I remember all the expectations and schemes I had in this place, and I must say, I never found an audience [as warm] “Like when I’m here…this is really a dream for me and I’m going to miss it so much when I’m not coming.”
Almodovar received several minutes of applause even before he sat down, a tribute to his long history with this festival and the love he has in the world of cinema. Bitter Christmas The film is ultimately about artists lost and trying to find themselves, which feels like a not-so-subtle exploration of what Almodovar feels at this late stage in his career.
It’s all beautifully shot, with Almodovar’s signature vibrant color palette and stunning set design. Hollywood ReporterDavid Rooney describes it as “beautifully acted by a cast of regulars and newcomers alike; dripping in visual style; and crescendoing with intense melodrama, wrapped in a lavishly turbulent score by the director’s long-time indispensable composer Alberto Iglesias.”
The industry jokes got the most laughs, like when Elsa (Barbara Linney) tells the doctor that she’s considered a “beloved” film director because not many people were interested in seeing her films but a few people really liked her. (The doctor thought that meant she was leading a cult.) Later, during an argument, someone close to Raul told him: “Netflix has been waiting for you all your life!” – Clearly, in Almodovar’s opinion, the greatest insult anyone can direct is to a screenwriter. The audience exploded with laughter.
The heart of the film may be the clip in which Mexican singer Chavela Vargas sings a folk song about La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, the subject of many ghost stories in which she wanders riverbanks searching for children to replace her dead children. Almodóvar lets the entire song play while Elsa and her boyfriend cry. When Vargas concluded his screening, the Cannes audience applauded midway through the film. It seemed symbolic in some ways — a gesture of thanks for a great moment in an Almodovar film, in a career we all hope will have more of those moments to come.
