The melodramatic traits of Tennessee Williams in Pedro Almodovar: study of characters of the Law of Desire, High Heels and the Flower of My Secret/Los rasgos melodramaticos de Tennessee Williams en Pedro Almodovar: Estudio de personajes de la Ley del Deseo, Tacones Lejanos y la Flor de mi Secreto

• Published in: Vivat academia (Alcalá de Henares) no. 138; p. 96
• Main Author: Manso, Valeriano Duran
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad Complutense de Madrid 01.03.2017
• Subjects: Estados Unidos
• ISSN: 1575-2844; 1575-2844
• DOI: 10.15178/va.2017.138.96-119

The main film adaptations of the literary production of the American playwright Tennessee Williams premiered in 1950 through 1968, and they settled in the melodrama. These films contributed to the thematic evolution of Hollywood due to the gradual dissolution of the Hays Code of censorship and, furthermore, they determined the path of this genre toward more passionate and sordid aspects. Thus, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or Suddenly, Last Summer incorporated sexual or psychological issues through tormented characters that had not been previously dealt with in the cinema. The classic Hollywood melodrama has had a remarkable influence in the filmography of Pedro Almodovar, and the best evidence is the tendency of the director from La Mancha to deal with this genre in his complex plots. In addition, the tormented characters starring in them contain many personal, family or sexual traits which are very present in the main characters of the southern playwright. From these considerations, this paper aims to reflect on the presence of the melodramatic traits of the adaptations of Williams in Almodovar by analyzing, as a person and as a role, the main characters of his three films belonging to this genre: The Law of Desire, High Heels y The Flower of My Secret.