{"product_id":"the-passion-of-pedro-almodvar-a-self-portrait-in-seven-films-9780231220040","title":"The Passion of Pedro Almod?var: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe films of Pedro Almod?var teem with characters who at once are and are not alter egos of the director. In film after film, the Spanish auteur mines his past for alternative selves, telling and retelling formative stories from his own life, plumbing the depths of his memory while exploring other lives he might have led. What can Almod?var's work tell us about the quest for self-knowledge--for understanding who we are and who we might yet become? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJames Miller considers seven of Almod?var's most personal films, arguing that together they offer a revealing self-portrait of the director and his search for meaning. Beginning with \u003ci\u003eVolver\u003c\/i\u003e, Miller traces Almod?var's signature obsessions backward and forward through the director's filmography. Deeply shaped by the counterculture of the 1960s--which arrived belatedly in Franco's Spain--Almod?var has long been fascinated by the exhilarating power and devastating limitations of artistic and sexual transgression. In rich readings, Miller shows how Almod?var tests the blurry line between fiction and reality, the bounds of individual freedom, and the durability of a sense of self. In so doing, the director turns cinema into a form of philosophical investigation and self-exploration. A keenly observed, masterfully written portrait of one of world cinema's greatest creative forces, \u003ci\u003eThe Passion of Pedro Almod?var\u003c\/i\u003e finds in film new ways to tell the story of a life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJames Miller is professor of politics and liberal studies at the New School for Social Research. Among his books are \u003ci\u003eCan Democracy Work? From Ancient Athens to Our World\u003c\/i\u003e (2018); \u003ci\u003eExamined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche\u003c\/i\u003e (2011);\u003ci\u003e Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll \u003c\/i\u003e(1999); and \u003ci\u003eThe Passion of Michel Foucault\u003c\/i\u003e (1993).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51243869241618,"sku":"9780231220040","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_09c8708f-b6ad-4671-bfef-6dfc324768ef.jpg?v=1745873475","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-passion-of-pedro-almodvar-a-self-portrait-in-seven-films-9780231220040","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}