Top Ranked Films of Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar
5 titles, 57th in points with 13,429

I always enjoy every Almodóvar film. I agree with the rankings of these, especially the first four, only I'd have them all higher ranked. He has a great touch with films with nearly all-female casts, as are these first four. I first discovered him in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which is probably his most comic film, almost out of character. It's an exercise in controlled chaos which works, it has an energy all it's own.

These are all the films of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. All About My Mother (1999) #206
2. Talk to Her (2002) #317
3. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) #369
4. Volver (2006) #525 [photo above, w Penelope Cruz]
5. Bad Education (2004) #864

Outside the top 1000
6. Law of Desire (1987) #1271
7. Broken Embraces #1447

I agree that All About My Mother is his best work - for me it's a near top 100 film, very mature and moving. I also found Talk to Her and Volver fascinating. I loved the Oscar®-nominated performance of Penelope Cruz in Volver, who got a nod for best actress, and deserved it.

The first four films here have almost entirely female casts. Not so with Bad Education and Law of Desire, and for some reason I didn't like those films as much - maybe I'm biased, but he seems to have an uncanny affinity for the feminine characters he films. All About My Mother was dedicated to "all women, all women who played women, and all those who want to be women", and begins with All About Eve (1950) on a small television.