Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.No artist has been more closely identified with the liberalisation of Spanish society following the death of General Franco than Pedro Almodóvar. In a string first of black comedies and then of romantic melodramas, he has challenged the religious, social and sexual shibboleths of the military dictatorship. Now, aged 74, he is publishing The Last Dream, a collection of short stories, fluently translated by Frank Wynne, which features many of the themes — and, on occasion, settings and characters — familiar from his films.The most accomplished of the stories, which were written between the late 1960s and 2023, are the two earliest — “The Life and Death of Miguel” and “Redemption” — perhaps because, at the time, Almodóvar was writing for magazines and comic strips and had yet to step behind the camera. “The Life and Death of Miguel” takes its protagonist, Benjamin Button-like, on a nuanced reverse journey through life, during which he sheds skills, memories and autonomy. “Redemption” depicts a prison cell romance between Christ and Barabbas, in which “spellbound” by the thief’s brutishness, Christ comes to embrace his own humanity. Despite the irreverence, it is written with a discretion that precludes offence. The story is marred only by the melodramatic climax, in which Barabbas arrives on the road to Calvary, seizes the Cross from a weary and disillusioned Christ, flattens the guards and flees to the mountains with his lover in his arms.This cartoonish absurdity is even more marked in several of the collection’s other stories. Almodóvar writes in his introduction that, had he had the finance, he would have made his directorial debut with versions of either “Joanna, the Beautiful Madwoman” or “The Mirror Ceremony”. On reading them, one gives thanks that funds weren’t available. The legend of Queen Joanna of Castile, who refused to be parted from the corpse of her husband, Philip the Handsome, allegedly even transporting it on her travels, is extravagant enough without an extended prelude in which Philip’s kiss releases her from a coma. Similarly, the gothic horror of “The Mirror Ceremony”, in which a jaded Count Dracula seeks refuge in a Mount Athos monastery, where he gorges himself on the blood that flows miraculously from a wooden crucifix, is undercut by the quasi-sexual frenzy into which he draws the monastery’s rector.Almodóvar writes that the collection might best be described as a fragmentary autobiography. Two of the stories do, indeed, feature film directors and two others are deeply felt personal reflections on the deaths of his mother and the Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas. In a final piece, “A Bad Novel”, he muses on the difference between writing screenplays and fiction, and admits he “wouldn’t be up to the task” of writing a novel. That difference is exemplified by “The Visit”, which became the basis of his 2004 film Bad Education. On screen, as embodied by Gael García Bernal, the young transvestite who confronts an abusive priest is a menacing avenger; on the page, he is a melodramatic caricature. It is fascinating to discover such a celebrated director’s ventures into another medium. But unlike that of, say, Pier Paolo Pasolini or Neil Jordan, Almodóvar’s work on the page is far less adept than his work on screen. For all its incidental virtues, this uneven collection will be of interest largely to Almodóvar completists.The Last Dream by Pedro Almodóvar, translated by Frank Wynne Harvill Secker £16.99/HarperCollins $26, 240 pagesJoin our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen
