Spanish film-maker Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film I’m So Excited! is a raunchy screwball comedy that the Oscar-winning director said marks a return to his roots as a satirist even as it delivers biting commentary on modern-day Spain.
In Spain, being excited means being horny
The Spanish-language movie, that will be on limited release in US cinemas on June 28, follows passengers on a flight from Spain to Mexico City after their plane experiences a serious malfunction.
Almodóvar, 63, returns to his comedy past after exploring more dramatic themes over the past decade, including 2002’s Talk To Her – which won him a best original screenplay Oscar – and 2011’s The Skin I Live In.
“During the 1980s, I made a lot of comedies, so this was like returning to my roots,” Almodóvar said. “I think I just needed to make something lighter.”
In the film, the pilots and flamboyantly gay flight attendants attempt to distract the passengers by providing them with alcohol and drugs, which leads to sex and dancing to the 1982 Pointer Sisters’ hit song I’m So Excited.
The film stars several actors who previously worked with Almodóvar, including Javier Camara, Lola Duenas, Cecilia Roth and Blanca Suarez. Spanish Hollywood stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz also make appearances.
Almodóvar said he unconsciously channelled the vision of sexually explicit American film-maker John Waters, who directed 1988’s Hairspray and 2004’s A Dirty Shame. He referred to him as “one of my best American friends”.
With Waters in mind, Almodóvar said the film has elements that may lead viewers to describe it as “dirty”, as the passengers “do everything that is forbidden to do on a plane”.
“In Spain, being excited means being horny,” the director said. “In the second part of the movie, this is the state of the passengers.”
Almodóvar, who is gay, grew up during the repressive rule of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. After the caudillo’s death in 1975, democracy suddenly brought a “big explosion of freedom”, he said.
His debut film, 1980’s Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom is described as having captured the newfound cultural and sexual freedom of that time.
While I’m So Excited! was intended to play for laughs, Almodóvar said it is also a metaphor for Spain that has been hit by a two-year recession that has left about a quarter of its workforce jobless.
The director said the film reflects the “political corruption and financial embezzlement” that has ensnared the country, and its banking crisis that required a €41 billion EU-backed bailout last year.
“What is metaphorical (in this movie) is that journey which consists in turning around in circles without knowing where they are going to land,” Almodóvar said. “They need an emergency landing but don’t know exactly who will be commanding (it).”
“There is a lot of fear and uncertainty – two words that define my feeling as a Spanish citizen.”