Fans Overload Almodovar Talk

Police forced part of a crowd of more than 1,000 people to leave the Science Center last night before a question-and-answer session with legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar could begin.

The non-ticketed event was held in Science Center B, which has a capacity of 500, but more than twice that hoped to get in. Harvard University Police Department officers barred the event from starting until people cleared the aisles and the back of the room in order to comply with fire codes. The crowd soon began to hiss and boo officers and event officials when asked to leave.

“I’m sorry, I’d like to run it this way, I really would, but we can’t,” Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 told the audience. “Anyone who is not in a seat has to leave.”

But nobody moved, and the crowd remained for nearly 20 minutes until Almodovar announced through a translator that he was willing to hold two sessions in order to accommodate all those who were interested.

Although most of those sitting in the aisles left, in the end both sessions were still over capacity. The symposium began 30 minutes behind its scheduled start of 6 p.m.

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Professor Bradley S. Epps moderated and translated for the director along with a Romance languages professor from Wellesley College.

Almodovar, whose film Bad Education will be released in American theaters in late November, won the Academy Award for screenwriting in 2003 for Talk To Her.

The event drew fans from all over the region, some of whom were not pleased with the confusion.

“We came all the way from Hartford and some from even further away because we trusted the event would be organized, but the doors opened at 5:15 [p.m.], and not 5:30, when it was supposed to happen, so when we came at 5:20, the place was already packed and we could not find any seats,” said high school Spanish teacher Jesus Meneses.

“They should have organized it better so we wouldn’t have had to wait so long, but I thought it turned out pretty well,” said Eirene C. Markenscoff ’05. “I’m a very big fan of his. His movies have changed my life. It was very moving to see him.”

Although most of the questions focused on Almodovar’s film career, he briefly addressed the current political situations in Spain and the United States after one audience member asked for his political perspective in light of the Madrid train bombing by al Qaeda seven months ago.

“What happened in Madrid gave the political party in power a choice as to how to deal with the people’s fear,” he said. “If it was carried out by an Islamic group, then the responsibility certainly lay at the doorstep of the party in power and the pathetic way in which it handled the issue with Iraq.”

Almodovar was referring to the Spanish government’s support of the war in Iraq and its commitment of Spanish troops to the effort.

The filmmaker then addressed politics in the United States.

“You’re going to have the opportunity to vote in these elections and it is very important because it will affect the entire world,” he said. “In these times, timidness and apathy only serve the interest of those reactionaries in power. Silence and abstention are opposed to liberty and freedom.”

Almodovar then declined to answer any more questions about politics because he said he had addressed the topic completely.

Asked about the possibility of making an English-language crossover film, Almodovar said it was unlikely.

“For the last 14 years, I’ve been pushed to make films in the United States, but I haven’t yet given in,” Almodovar said. “Partly, it’s because the American studio system makes me nervous...there is a lack of independence and freedom. This is a production system where the director does not have the power in the artistic process.”

Almodovar called the process of writing a script a “very mysterious process.”

“It comes from all aspects of reality—my reality and the reality of others,” he said.

He said the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco led to a cultural revolution in Spain that coincided with his start in filmmaking.

“Those of us who never knew the shadow of dictatorship found ourselves in a veritable explosion in our lives,” he said.

Almodovar said after the final session that despite the chaotic beginning of the night, he was happy to have come.

“This has been a marvelous experience, almost cathartic at times,” he said. “Harvard is a great part of the world.”