Consumo de drogas en el cine de Pedro Almodóvar

Abstract

Aims: To analyse the legal and illegal drug taking in films directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The objective is to ascertain how the cinema contributes to creating an image of drugs. Method: To study drug types, gender differences, drugtaking types, administration ways, prototype characters, consumption’s context and director’s attitude in front of drugs. Using structured observational techniques designed specifically. Findings and Conclusions: The presence of drugs is to be observed in thirteen films by Pedro Almodóvar. 150 minutes were devoted to legal drugs and 30 to the illegal ones. Women consume more drugs that men, there is no single pattern of a user and the only drugs that generate dependency are alcohol, tobacco and heroin. Although Almodóvar is always permissive about the consumption of cocaine and alcohol, the image of heroin changes at the end. To summarise, drug use and addiction is not a central subject for Almodóvar but a resource to characterise people and contexts. Finally, the risk that films increase their revenue through the hidden publicity given to brands of alcohol and tobacco should not be underestimated.