On October 23, Rubens Riol, a third-year Ph.D. student at SPO, presented his paper titled “Overdose of Desire: The Orgiastic Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar” as part of the Second International Conference on the Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar held in Spain. The event was organized by the Complutense University of Madrid and took place from October 23 to 25 at the UCM Faculty of Information Sciences.
“Multipersonal desire has been a recurring theme in Almodóvar's filmography, spanning from the beginning of his career to the present. Many of these narratives of promiscuity, featuring eccentric prostitutes, hippies, gays, and nymphomaniacs, originate from his early fictional literature. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the representation of the orgiastic drive in his cinema,” the presenter has said.
During his talk, Riol commented on films, including Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap, Labyrinth of Passions, Kika, All About My Mother, The Skin I Live In, and Strange Way of Life. Drawing from Jean Luc-Nancy's theoretical formulations on the circulation of bodies in contemporary cultural images, Riol argued that Pedro Almodóvar employs cinematographic language to provide an optimistic commentary on orgiastic behavior, representing scenes of group sex—sometimes explicitly or parodic, and at other times, coded with double meaning or subtext. These notions are further emphasized on an aesthetic level through the deliberate use of excessive, residual, intertextual, and labyrinthine imagery.
Riol also added, “I would especially like to thank Professor Javier Guerrero, for whom I originally wrote this paper, for approving the topic and encouraging me to continue the research. I'd also like to express my gratitude to the Director of the Spanish Language Program, Alberto Bruzos Moro, for supporting me, as well as the coordinator of the Spanish 107 course, Iris Hauser, and the instructors who covered for me while I was away.”
As a closing remark, the event organizers officially invited all participants to submit their articles for review and potential publication in a book scheduled for release in 2024. Furthermore, presenters have the opportunity to submit their work to the indexed journals Fotocinema and Estudios LGBTIQ+.