Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most celebrated filmmakers working today. His bold films feature quirky characters, vibrant colors, especially shades of red, and offer viewers frank explorations on sexuality, identity, family and relationships. Almodóvar is involved in every aspect of the filmmaking process including writing, directing and casting, and he has input in other aspects including set design, costumes and cinematography. His films are uniquely his vision.

Almodóvar has a lifelong love of film and it shows in his work. In his early days he was influenced by the work of the great Spanish directors Luis Buñuel and Luis García Berlanga. He also drew inspiration from directors like Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Elia Kazan, Fritz Lang, Ingmar Bergman, Michael Antonini, Francois Truffaut and many others. Almodóvar was mostly self-taught and learned filmmaking from watching the masters. The characters in Almodóvar’s films are extensions of himself; they too are moviegoers who love and appreciate the art form. You can see this in subtle clues in his films, like posters on a wall, DVDs stacked on a table or what the characters are watching on television. Then there are the more obvious examples including classic film clips and homages to iconic movie scenes. And for classic movie fans, watching Almodóvar’s films can be like a fun treasure hunt seeking out all the references to familiar favorites.

In Almodóvar’s early works, a well-placed poster can illuminate an aspect of the character’s personality. For example, in KIKA (’93), a deranged psychologist has classic horror movie posters in her apartment including from THE SADIST (’63) and CIRCUS OF HORRORS (’60). Almodóvar was particularly inspired by classic movies with strong female leads. In his early film PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND OTHER GIRLS LIKE MOM (’80), Almodóvar took inspiration from George Cukor’s THE WOMEN (’39) to tell the story of a trio of women living during the cultural revolution of Madrid called La Movida Madrileña. 

ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER‘s (’99) title comes from Bette Davis’ comeback classic ALL ABOUT EVE (’50). In the very first scene, a mother and son sit down to watch the film on television. It’s announced in Spanish as “Eve Unveiled,” something the characters discuss because the title should have been “Todo Sobre Eva”. Later, in the film, we see a Davis poster pinned to a dressing room wall and the film ends with a note celebrating actresses and mothers and noting Davis, Gena Rowlands and Romy Schneider. Classic actresses come to the forefront in BROKEN EMBRACES (2009) where Penelope Cruz is the mistress of a wealthy magnate who dreams of becoming a star. When she gets the plum role of lead actress in a feature film, she’s made over several times to look like Goldie Hawn, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

One of Almodóvar’s most celebrated works, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (’88), starts with a scene from JOHNNY GUITAR (’54). Two actors are dubbing Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden in Spanish. We learn that the actors, much like Hayden and Crawford in the film, have a tempestuous relationship. Almodóvar’s film got the attention of American audiences and earned a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. And perhaps more importantly for Almodóvar, it got him a meeting with his hero Billy Wilder who greatly admired the up-and-coming filmmaker’s work. In this film, Almodóvar also pays tribute to one of his favorite directors: Alfred Hitchcock. In one scene, Carmen Maura sits on a park bench and watches a young woman dancing alone in her apartment, a clear reference to Miss Torso from REAR WINDOW (’54). In KIKA, a voyeur with a long-focus lens witnesses a crime being perpetrated against a woman, much like Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock’s film.

As Almodóvar’s films became more and more autobiographical, he began to add more clues to his lifelong love of cinema. Characters are often seen watching some of Almodóvar’s favorite films on television. In VOLVER (2006), a dead mother returns to her community and watches BELLISSIMA (’51) while caring for a dying woman. In TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! (’89), Antonio Banderas kidnaps Victoria Abril, ties her up and leaves her to watch NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (’68). Movie watching becomes an important plot device in later films. In BAD EDUCATION (2004), Gael Garcia Bernal and Lluis Homar have just committed a crime and attend a film noir festival to decompress and create an alibi for their whereabouts. As they leave the cinema, Homar says, “it’s as if the films were talking about us” and the camera pauses on three posters: DOUBLE INDEMNITY (’44), LA BETE HUMAINE (’38) and THERESE RAQUIN (’53).

In his most autobiographical film to date, PAIN AND GLORY (2019), Almodóvar shares his journey in becoming a filmmaker, his early love of classic film and his struggles with the creative process. The young Salvador, played by Asier Flores, collects classic film star cards in a beautiful scrapbook. His collection includes Betty Hutton, Piper Laurie, Loretta Young, Donna Reed, Kirk Douglas, Tyrone Power and Robert Taylor. In the present, filmmaker Salvador, played by Antonio Banderas, is working on a screenplay called La Addiccion. His actor Alberto plays out the scenes, where he projects SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (’61) and NIAGARA (’53) on a screen and shares a soliloquy about watching water-themed movies as a child. And at the cinema where the filmmaker’s latest film is being screened, the audience can spot a poster of THE EXECUTIONER (’63), which is one of Almodovar’s favorite films.

There is something gratifying about watching a movie made by someone who truly loves and appreciates classic film. Pedro Almodóvar’s work is incredibly contemporary but extends an invitation to those of us who love the old in order to embrace the new.

He may have been born on April Fools’ Day, but don’t you dare call him a fool.

Toshirô Mifune was born on April 1, 1920 in Tsingtao, China (now Quingdao, Shandong), which at that time was under Japanese military rule. His parents, both Japanese citizens, were Methodist missionaries and had moved to Tsingtao as part of a largescale, coordinated effort by the Japanese government to encourage its citizens to move into the region to help maintain its military control. In addition to being a missionary, Mifune’s father was a photographer and owned his own shop where young Toshirô learned the trade. Because Mifune was a Japanese citizen, when he turned 20 years old, he was immediately drafted into the Imperial Air Force, despite never having stepped foot onto Japanese soil. (Which he did for the first time at the age of 21.) From 1940-1945, during World War II, Mifune’s photography training was put to good use with him becoming a sergeant in the Imperial Air Force’s Aerial Photography Unit. However, like many men who were forced into wartime service, Mifune was not at all cut out for a military career. When asked about his service during World War II several years later, Mifune recalled a time of great personal fear and hard, menial work saying, “These big laborer’s hands of mine are my unwanted souvenir of that time.”

After World War II, Mifune moved to Tokyo in hopes of finding a photography job. One of Mifune’s friends, who worked at Tokyo’s Toho Studios, encouraged him to apply for a position as an assistant cameraman. Instead, Mifune found himself auditioning for the studio’s “Wanted: New Faces” talent search. It was during this audition that director Akira Kurosawa discovered him. When asked about how he first met Toshirô Mifune, Kurosawa said:

“A young man was reeling around the room in a violent frenzy. It was as frightening as watching a wounded or trapped savage beast trying to break loose. I stood transfixed. But it turned out that this young man was not really in a rage, but had drawn ‘anger’ as the emotion he had to express in his screen test. He was acting. When he finished his performance, he regained his chair and with an exhausted demeanor, flopped down and began to glare menacingly at the judges. Now, I know very well that this kind of behavior was a cover for shyness, but the jury seemed to be interpreting it as disrespect.“

Akira Kurosawa saw the great potential in Mifune and convinced the studio to put him under contract. Mifune made three films for the studio in 1947, including his screen debut in Senkichi Taniguchi’s SNOW TRAIL (written by Kurosawa), followed by two for director Kajirō Yamamoto: THESE FOOLISH TIMES and THESE FOOLISH TIMES PART 2. In 1948, Mifune was cast in DRUNKEN ANGEL, his first collaboration with Kurosawa. This film was important for both men as it established Kurosawa as one of Toho Studios’ top directors and set Mifune on the path to be its biggest international star, as well as launched one of cinema’s most famous and beloved director-star collaborations, joining other legendary partnerships such as John Ford and John Wayne; Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant; Frank Capra and Barbara Stanwyck; William Wyler and Bette Davis; Michael Curtiz and Errol Flynn; John Huston and Humphrey Bogart; and Anthony Mann and James Stewart.

Over the next two decades, Kurosawa and Mifune’s names were intrinsically linked, perhaps even more so than their famous Hollywood counterparts. While Mifune often worked with other directors, including multiple collaborations with Senkichi Taniguchi, Kajirō Yamamoto and Ishirō Honda, the same could not be said of Kurosawa and his leading men. Of the seventeen films Akira Kurosawa directed from 1948-1965, all but one, 1952’s IKIRU with Takashi Shimura (another one of Kurosawa’s favorite actors), starred Mifune, who was undoubtedly his muse. 

While both Kurosawa and Mifune had success outside of their collaborations, the sixteen films they made together are widely considered to be the finest work of their respective careers and includes recognized masterpieces such as STRAY DOG (’49), RASHOMON (’50), SEVEN SAMURAI (’56), THRONE OF BLOOD (’57), THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (’59), YOJIMBO (’61) and HIGH AND LOW (’63). Unfortunately, Kurosawa and Mifune’s partnership came to an end with the production of RED BEARD (’65), during which they had a major falling out, leading to an estrangement that lasted the rest of their lives. Regardless, their work together and friendship could never be forgotten. According to actor Yu Fujiki, who worked with both men, it was clear how connected they were, saying "Mr. Kurosawa’s heart was in Mr. Mifune’s body.”

Outside of his work with Kurosawa, Mifune achieved considerable success, including starring roles in Hiroshi Inagaki’s THE SAMURAI TRILOGY (MUSASHI MIYAMOTO [‘54], DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE [‘55] and DUEL AT GANRYU ISLAND [‘56]); Kihachi Okamoto’s THE SWORD OF DOOM (’66) and Kenji Mizoguchi’s THE LIFE OF OHARU (’52). Mifune also starred in several Hollywood films, including John Frankenheimer’s GRAND PRIX (’66), John Boorman’s HELL IN THE PACIFIC (’68) and Jack Smight’s MIDWAY (’76). Mifune also launched his own production company, Mifune Productions in 1963, which was behind the release of over a dozen films, including Kobayashi Masaki’s SAMURAI REBELLION (’67), in which Mifune also starred. By the 1970s, Mifune’s popularity with international audiences had faded, but he enjoyed a bit of a career resurgence, particularly with American audiences with his role as Lord Toranaga on the television miniseries Shōgun, based on James Clavell’s novel published in 1975. Mifune continued to work throughout the 1980s and well into the 1990s, with his final film being DEEP RIVER (’95), released two years before his death in 1997.

Mifune was not only one of the most recognizable faces in Japanese cinema, but he was also an inspiration in Western pop culture. He heavily influenced actors such as Clint Eastwood, who channeled Mifune’s rōnin character in YOJIMBO in the Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name trilogy. Filmmaker George Lucas was also heavily influenced by both Mifune and Kurosawa, which is clearly evident in STAR WARS (’77), with a storyline that is heavily borrowed from THE HIDDEN FORTRESS. Lucas even asked Mifune to star as the aging Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi or the menacing Darth Vader, but we all know how that worked out.

Of his work with Hollywood directors and actors, Toshirō Mifine was once asked, “Now [that] you’re working with foreigners. Dealing with them is easy for you?” With a smile on his face Mifune replied, “Well, people are people, regardless of nationality, so it’s no different to me.” That progressive approach to working with all kinds of people, as well his dedication to his craft and loyalty to his fellow collaborators, solidified his status as one of cinema’s most important and recognizable icons. Toshirô Mifune was an original; a unique trailblazer and the epitome of cool in a way that never has, nor will ever be replicated. His performances and characters have never been out of style, even when he played characters from a distant era – and that is why audiences still love him today.

Yeah, he’s definitely no April Fool.

In the early 1970s, American cinema was going through a major transformation. The abandonment of the Production Code gave freedom to filmmakers who had previously been restricted by censorship. Directors gained creative control over their films as the studio system declined. European and Asian art cinema was influencing the way that movies were being made around the world. All of these factors resulted in an era of filmmaking that transitioned classic Hollywood into American cinema as we know it today – the New Hollywood era. Directors around this time were making films that were more experimental, that challenged the norms and broke the rules. It was at this time that Martin Scorsese began to emerge as one of the great American auteurs. His films from the early 1970s reflect the creativity of this groundbreaking era, and they infuse genres of classic Hollywood with a modern, realistic style. Two of these films, ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (‘74) and MEAN STREETS (‘73), are on Watch TCM  as part of a Martin Scorsese double feature.

In the brilliant seven-minute opening of MEAN STREETS, we understand that we are entering a new sort of crime film. The gangsters here don’t wear suits or talk like Edward G. Robinson. They’re people like Johnny Boy – an immature, impulsive man who we first see blowing up a mailbox for no ostensible reason; or Charlie – a man searching for meaning in a spiritually bankrupt world. Scorsese shows us these men’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities, though they may try to hide them from themselves and from each other. These complicated characters are unusual for a genre known for its archetypes, but MEAN STREETS was primarily influenced not by classic film noir but by Italian neorealist films, like Fellini’s I Vitelloni (‘53), which is less focused on eventful plot points and instead explores its characters and their everyday lives. With MEAN STREETS and throughout his career, Scorsese moved the crime genre in a new, more interesting direction.

Similarly, ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE draws on the traditions of Hollywood melodrama but subverts them with a distinctly modern sensibility. This is epitomized in the opening scene, when we meet the protagonist, Alice, as a young girl. The scene takes place on a wildly artificial set reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz (‘39), but the saccharine atmosphere is undermined by blunt dialogue that would never be heard in a 1930s movie. This scene’s stylistic incongruity mirrors the overarching style of the film: Modern elements are presented within an antiquated context. Part of the brilliance of ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE is how, within the framework of the 1950s melodrama genre, Scorsese explores ideas that are completely antithetical to 1950s values.

Though the film, with its shocking turns of events and heightened emotion, is certainly influenced by the melodrama genre, Alice is not at all a typical melodrama protagonist. Like the primary audience of 1950s melodramas, she is a housewife, but she is discontent and dreams of a more meaningful life for herself. When her husband is killed in a car accident, she moves to Arizona to pursue her dream of becoming a singer while raising her son. She ends up working at a diner, where she meets a man named David. She eventually falls in love with David, but this is by no means a glamorous love story. Alice is resistant at first – she’s not a desperate romantic looking for a man, but a skeptical woman who has been hurt before. Scorsese shows us that Alice and David are not perfect people, but that they are two human beings. With ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, Scorsese takes the melodrama genre—which was so often used to portray shallow romances and reinforce postwar gender roles—and instead uses it to tell a nuanced love story with a complex female protagonist.

Recently, Scorsese was criticized for saying that modern superhero movies are “not cinema,” and that they’re more like “theme parks.” Though this may seem like a harsh statement, it’s easy to understand why the director of films like ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE and MEAN STREETS doesn’t think much of superhero movies. Scorsese, along with many other directors, revitalized Hollywood by breaking away from the formulas and creating something new. Generally, superhero movies simply serve our desires for what is familiar and comfortable without offering any artistic vision or creativity at its forefront. Many people can make a movie that will be profitable, but very few people can make a movie that will stand the test of time. These two films are just as interesting, smart, funny, heartbreaking and fresh today as they were when they were released over 40 years ago.