Finally: The First Book from Pedro Almodovar

Over the course of his 50 years in cinema, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has been offered countless deals from publishers to write his memoir – but he has always rejected them, as the two-time Oscar-winner explains in his new book “The Last Dream” (HarperVia).“I’ve been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I’ve always refused,” he writes in the introduction.“I’ve never kept a diary, and whenever I’ve tried, I’ve never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox.“It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little enigmatic.”Featuring 12 short stories selected from his decades of personal writings, some dating back as far as the late 60s, “The Last Dream” is a more than adequate substitute for a fully formed memoir.

The book reflects not just on Almodóvar’s life and career as a film-maker but also some of his particular fixations, most of which will doubtless be familiar to his cinema fans.Surprising and surreal, it tackles everything from sex and sensuality to abuse and trauma, religion and mortality.In the title story, meanwhile, he addresses the death of his mother, Francisca Caballero, speculating on what she dreamed of before passing away in 1999.                 There are lighter moments.“The Visit”, for instance, focuses on the revenge mission of a transgender woman while “Confessions of a Sex Symbol” sees Almodóvar revisit one of his older characters, the high-end porn star from Madrid, Patty Diphusa.“The Mirror Ceremony,” meanwhile, sees Almodóvar’s humor come to the fore, with the gothic tale of a weary Count Dracula seeking solace in an Italian monastery.“The Last Dream” is a heady mix of the profound and the absurd. In other words, just what you might expect from a creative force like Pedro Almodóvar.

“This collection of stories (I call everything a story, I don’t distinguish between genre...