Penélope Cruz: all the films, year by year, of the Spanish actress who is looking for the 2022 Oscar

Penelope Cruz He traveled to the United States at the age of 19 to study English. He was going from Madrid to the mecca of cinema and along the way he was adding achievements together with important directors, such as Woody Allen (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), Rob Marshall (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Sailing in mysterious waters”) and Mathieu Kassovitz (“ Gothika”). Today his filmography adds up to at least 76 films in his audiovisual work, among these, the most recent is the premiere of Netflix“Madres Paralelas”, by the director who adopted her as a muse, Pedro Almodóvar.

Cruz works with Almodóvar since 1997, when they made “Carne trémula” (available on Prime Video), where she also shared a set with her future husband, Javier Bardem. Then, I continue to act in other stories under the direction of the filmmaker, such as “All about my mother” (1999), “Volver” (2006) or “The passenger lovers” (2013), a comedy where the actress shares a set with some other muses and favorites of the Spanish director such as Antonio Banderas and Cecilia Roth.

The penultimate cult film of the Almodóvar-Cruz duo It was “Pain and Glory” (2019), which breaks down the unknown passages of the director’s life. It is an autobiographical image of him when he was young and contemplates his homosexual journey from his humble past, while in the fictional present he has a promising life as a film director. Thus, on the tape, the multi-award winning actress shines in the role of Salva’s motherAlmodóvar’s alter ego and the adult version of the protagonist.

To date, Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar have seven films together on their record. “You are one of the people who have helped me the most to trust myself,” the actress told the Spanish director in an interview with Fotogramas. “How good”, he replied, who is known in the middle for his demands in front of the actors. “But also, putting myself in a place where I had to listen to those things (that you said to me) and learn to interpret them,” she added, looking at him.

OTHER SUCCESSES

But Cruz’s appearances in front of the Spanish camera have not been his only cinematographic achievements. Films like “Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona” (2008) and “To Rome with Love”, directed by Woody Allen, are also important in the career of the 47-year-old artist, who if she had not been an actress would be a dancer or a doctor, but He preferred acting to the point of shooting at least four movies a year, he said in an interview with S Moda.

One of his dreams is to work with Martin Scorsese and Lars Von Trier, with whom he was about to collaborate, but schedule complications made it impossible. In addition, the Spanish actress has an eagerness for the world of directing. “At the moment, she directs my short films and advertising. You have to keep learning, growing. I will not launch myself into the world of feature films yet. Someday? Surely yes. It will be a natural process for me. I am interested in the address and since I was 16 years old I have been asking many questions and driving directors crazy on the set, because I want to know, take advantage of being there with the greats, and learn from them. But that doesn’t prepare you to dare to do a pitch”, said Cruz.

In the list of films and series in which she has participated as an actress, she has more than 60 films. According to the book “Penélope Cruz” (2014) by the American writer Ann Davies, it reads: “Penélope Cruz is part of a remarkable influx of actors and stars from non-English speaking countries in the Hollywood film industry in the last two years. decades. Of this group, is by far the most prominent actress and star of Hispanic origin. (…) that she has consolidated her position as a leading actress in Spain, often referred to by the local press as ‘our Penélope’”.

If you want to know all the films in which Penélope Cruz has participated, take a look at the timeline on the cover.

PARALLEL MOTHERS

“Parallel Mothers” is a script that Pedro Almodóvar had in his drawer for a long time and reached the end point during the pandemic. It is about two women (Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit) who meet in a hospital after giving birth. From that day on, life unites them, since the conflict of these powerful characters is related to motherhood and the historical past of Spain. In an interview published by RTVE on the premiere date in the country, October 8, 2021, the director assured that the film meant “historical truth and personal truth”.

“One must be aware of their past so as not to repeat it and to try to prosper from it. And in that common, collective past, there is a result of each one’s past, but without living them. So, we must also correspond with that same collective truth, something that does not happen to one of the characters, and that is what the film is about,” Almodóvar told RTVE.