The filmmaker has long collaborated with the graphic designer Juan Gatti to make alluring posters for his films, including one for his latest, “The Room Next Door.”
Few filmmakers have as distinctive a visual style as the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. The palette for his work often includes ravaging reds, piquant pinks and bruising blues. And over four decades, Almodóvar’s aesthetic has reached far beyond the silver screen. Posters for his films adorn everything from T-shirts and tote bags to postcards and pins.
“It makes me laugh sometimes when people talk about ‘el estílo Almodóvar,’” the Argentine graphic designer Juan Gatti said in Spanish over a video call last month, cigarette in hand. “Of course he has a style that’s quite bold and recognizable. But I hear it all the time. ‘Oh, this is so Almodóvar.’ But sometimes it’s about things that are mine, actually.”
Gatti, 74, is behind some of the director’s most well-known posters. He’s designed steamy images for erotic thrillers (“Live Flesh”) and playful tableaus for campy comedies (“Kika”). And while he’s riffed on the likes of Saul Bass (“Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”) and Andy Warhol (“Broken Embraces”), Gatti’s work with Almodóvar — including for his latest, the English language feature “The Room Next Door” — has long felt distinctly his own.
The most well-known collaboration between the two remains the artwork for “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” The 1988 dark comedy was Almodóvar’s first crossover hit. And the Argentine designer’s concept for the film’s poster helped brand the Spanish filmmaker’s sensibility for a global audience.
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