The Fierce of Honor of Pedro Almodóvar was not given to him or Penelope Cruz by Victoria April by Cecilia Roth by Carmen Maura in Emma Suarez. None of them went up this Saturday to interpret their role as Almodovar Girls at the Fierce Awards. But Emma, protagonist of Juliet, at least was present in the auditorium.
Between the Almodovar Girls who did go up to honor the filmmaker was Juliet Serrano, who turned 90 on January 2, and alone has enough cinema and theater to honor any genius on the planet. They accompanied the great lady Aitana Sanchez Gijon, Rossy de Palma, Bibiana Fernandez, Milena Smit y Leonor Watling.
Almodóvar, who “has taken ten years to accept the award”, as María Guerra, the president of the association that awards the Feroz, recalled, was moved to the point of crying after contemplating the image of her mother in the video montage that preceded her speech to receive the award.
The genius from La Mancha demonstrated in an emotional thank you speech that at 73 he is very capable of being moved when collecting an award. The video dedicated to his career, which included an image of his mother, broke him. “I was very sure but when I saw that image I fell apart,” he said after admitting that it was “too hard and exciting.” Almodóvar showed on the stage of the Zaragoza auditorium all the ranges of his cinema because he cried when he picked up the Ferocious of Honor, but he was also funny, brave, committed, and reviewed his life.
He had to ask for a glass of water (“there are a lot of emotions, I don’t care if it’s from the nose”) when he was referring to the passage of time and he even used a handkerchief to wipe his nose. she started her speech ironizing, and assuring that the award was not expected, when it was an award that they had been offering him for a decade and in fact it was the only one that was known prior to the gala.
The speech was somehow a monologue version of pain and glory, the autobiographical film that describes his life. He talked about how being born in La Mancha has marked him, receiving an education from a mother who educated him for “survival”), being a stranger in Madrid (“the city that would be my home”), the years of the Transition and the Movida From Madrid, having had an addicted boyfriend and the “terrible education” he received during his school years in religious schools. He affirmed that from studying with the Salesians he came out “illiterate and atheist”, three years that he described in Bad Education.
Against the health policy of the Community of Madrid
The most ideological and demanding part of his message was directed against Isabel Diaz Ayuso and in favor of public health, criticizing the policy of the Community of Madrid and standing up the Vice President of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, who shared a tablecloth with the filmmaker, Minister Iceta, also sitting at that table, and all those present. At that time, Almodóvar asked for applause for the toilets “who fought so hard in the pandemic” to then denounce “the barbarism that is taking place” in Madrid, with the collective “having a bad time” and the system “on the verge of collapse “. “Health problems affect us all, although some of us have the possibility of going to private healthcare,” he remarked.
Almodóvar had shown his emotion for receiving the Audi Feroz de Honor Award before the gala and remembered the recently deceased Agustin Villaronga, filmmaker and screenwriter. This award, he stated, “I have to dedicate to all the people who have worked with me, which are many, that I will not be able to name, but also to Agustín Villaronga, who should be the one to receive the award of honor and not me”.
In addition, he referred to the nomination for best actress at the 2023 Oscar Awards of the Spanish Cuban Ana de Armas in Blonde. “He deserves the Oscar”, since “his interpretation of Marilyn Monroe is “impressive”, although he admits that it is complicated because he competes with “two beasts”, such as Cate Blanchett y Michelle Yeoh. “They are going to make it difficult for her, but the role of Ana that deserves an Oscar.”