Pedro Almodóvar: “It’s a story about surviving under extreme conditions, which is the story of humanity, too.”

Pedro Almodóvar presented his film, La Piel que habito (The Skin I Live In) in competition at Cannes, at a press conference, accompanied by actor Antonio Banderas, actresses Marisa Paredes, Elena Anaya and Blanca Suárez and producer Augustín Almodóvar.
 

Pedro Almodóvar, on the family in his film:
“I wanted them to be a family of savages, who weren’t brought up with a Judeo-Christian culture like I was. I wanted them to have other roots because they all have something extraordinarily violent and a sort of madness inside them.”

On thrillers, a new genre for him:
“This genre suits where I am in my life right now. When I started, I made mostly poppy comedies. I wanted to move into different film genres, even though I don’t strictly follow all of their rules. I think I’ll do more of them. And for this film, one of my influences was Fritz Lang.”

About the film’s plot:
“It’s a story about surviving under extreme conditions, which is the story of humanity, too.”
“I thought about the myth of Frankenstein afterwards and especially about the myth of the Titans and Prometheus.”
 

Antonio Banderas, about working again with the director and about his character:
“I’m meeting up with Pedro again after 20 years. In this film, as he requested, I worked on the character’s interiority and sparingness. I want to publicly thank Pedro for bringing me to territory that was new and unknown to me.”
“Working with Pedro again was like returning to my roots. He was responsible for my early artistic education.”
 

By E. B.