Salvador García Bardón
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Pedro Almodóvar, Doctor H.C. of Arts de Harvard
08.06.09 @ 16:15:00. Archivado en Las Américas, Universidades, España, Pro amicitia universale, Arte, Cine
El director cinematográfico y escenarista castellano-manchego Pedro Almodóvar, uno de los cineastas españoles más reconocidos internacionalmente, tanto aquende como allende el Océano Atlántico, fue investido el jueves 04 de junio 2009 doctor Honoris Causa en Artes de la prestigiosa Universidad de Harvard.
En una ceremonia de promoción de diez doctores honoris causa, entre los cuales había un premio Nóbel, y de graduación de seis mil alumnos, la rectora de la universidad, Drew Gilpin Faust, dirigiéndose a Pedro Almodovar, lo llamó, con evidente emoción en la voz y en el gesto:
"el ingenioso hombre de la Mancha".
Pedro Almodóvar estaba sentado junto al premio Nóbel de Física y nuevo ministro de la energía estadiunidense Steven Chu, promovido en el mismo acto académico que él doctor honoris causa en Ciencias.
La rectora de la Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust es una eminente historiadora de América del Sur y de la Guerra Civil, al mismo tiempo que una ardiente promotora de la multidisciplinaridad en la formación universitaria, con una "especial atención al estudio de la mujer y del género en la sociedad" (1). Uno de los temas preferidos de su investigación como historiadora es el sufrimiento de las mujeres durante las guerras y las revoluciones.
Pedro Almodóvar agradeció el interés científico de esta prestigiosa universidad por su obra cinematográfica, en unas declaraciones recogidas por Televisión Española:
"Yo no he ido a la universidad, soy una persona autodidacta, sin embargo, mi obra es estudiada aquí exhaustivamente".
Almodóvar, que recogió el diploma revestido con la toga roja y el birrete negro doctorales de Harvard, es el cuarto español reconocido por la prestigiosa universidad estadounidense, tras haberlo sido el rey Juan Carlos I, el arquitecto Josep Lluís Sert y el pintor Joan Miró.
El director y escenarista manchego había obtenido un Óscar de la Academia de Cine de Estados Unidos a la mejor película extranjera en 1999 por "Todo sobre mi madre", filme que le había hecho merecedor también de la Palma de Oro del festival de Cannes al mejor director. Unos años después, en 2003, Pedro Almodóvar había obtenido su segundo Óscar al mejor Guión Original con "Hable con ella" (2).
Actualmente el dos veces oscarizado "hombre de la Mancha" está promocionando su trabajo más reciente, "Los Abrazos Rotos", película protagonizada por la también oscarizada Penélope Cruz.
Fuentes: Harvard University y Reuters (MADRID)
Documentos de la Harvard University: Commencement 2009
Ten honorary degrees awarded at Commencement
Harvard University has conferred today (June 4) honorary degrees on 10 outstanding individuals: Energy Secretary Steven Chu, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, author Joan Didion, religious historian Wendy Doniger, legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin, immunologist Anthony S. Fauci, anthropologist Sarah Hrdy, engineer Robert Langer, musician Wynton Marsalis, and political scientist Sidney Verba.
Video archive:
Morning Exercises: http://video2.harvard.edu:8080/ramgen/pluto/Commencement2009Archive.rm
Pedro Almodóvar
Doctor of Arts
Love, desire, sexuality, and gender have recurring starring roles in the films of the renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, the creator of sometimes sensational, often controversial works involving complex narratives, such as “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” (1989) and “Talk to Her” (2001), winner of the 2002 Academy Award for best original screenplay.
Born in a small rural town in the province of Castille-La Mancha, Almodóvar moved with his family to the city of Cáceres in western Spain when he was a young boy. He left home at the age of 17 for Madrid, intent on learning how to make movies, but his education in film was hardly an academic one. In 1967, his keen interest in filmmaking coincided with Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco’s decision to close down the National School of Cinema. As a result, Almodóvar was largely self-taught.
To support himself, the future filmmaker worked for the phone company for more than a decade. The experience proved fruitful: By day he became familiar with the inner workings of the Spanish middle class, what would ultimately become the subject of many of his future films. By night, he was able to work on his craft.
In the 1970s, Almodóvar’s interest in experimental cinema and theater led to a collaboration with the theater group Los Goliardos, where he met actress Carmen Maura, who would eventually star in many of his film projects, including his first feature-length work, the low-budget “Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap” (1980). During that time, he also contributed to a number of underground magazines and was part of a punk rock band.
In 1986 he formed the production company El Deseo with his brother Augustín. Two years later, Almodóvar found international fame with his film “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”
For several years, Almodóvar has worked with his “muse,” Spanish film star Penelope Cruz. The pair has collaborated on a number of productions including the 2006 film “Volver,” which earned Cruz an Academy Award nomination for best actress. Many of Almodóvar’s films include strong, robust female characters, homage, the director has said, to the influential women in his own life.
In 2000, Almodóvar took home the Oscar for best foreign film for his production “All About My Mother.”
-oOo-oOo-oOo-
(1) 
Drew Gilpin Faust took office as Harvard’s 28th president on July 1, 2007. Faust, a historian of the Civil War and the American South, is also the Lincoln Professor of History in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Previously she had served as founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, a post she took up on Jan. 1, 2001.
As the first dean of the Radcliffe Institute, Faust guided the transformation of Radcliffe from a college into a wide-ranging institute for advanced study. Under her leadership, Radcliffe emerged as one of the nation’s foremost centers of scholarly and creative enterprise, distinctive for its multidisciplinary focus and the exploration of new knowledge at the crossroads of traditional fields. In recognition of its roots in Radcliffe College, the Institute maintains a special commitment to the study of women, gender, and society. To support its mission, Faust directed a comprehensive administrative restructuring, secured the Institute’s finances, attracted major new gifts, and undertook an extensive renovation of Radcliffe’s historic campus. Radcliffe’s flagship fellowship program became a prized opportunity for established and emerging scholars throughout the academic world...
She is the author of six books, including Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 1996), for which she won the Francis Parkman Prize in 1997. Her most recent book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008) looks at the impact of the Civil War’s enormous death toll on the lives of 19th-century Americans. It was nominated for a National Book Award, and named by the New York Times one of the “10 Best Books of 2008.”
Harvard University: Office of the President: http://www.president.harvard.edu/biography/index.php
(2)
"Hable con ella" es una historia sobre la amistad de dos hombres, sobre la soledad, y la larga convalecencia de las heridas provocadas por la pasión. Es también una película sobre la incomunicación de las parejas, y sobre la comunicación. Sobre el cine como tema de conversación. Sobre cómo los monólogos ante una persona silente pueden ser una forma eficaz de diálogo. Del silencio como "elocuencia del cuerpo", del cine como vehículo ideal en las relaciones de las personas, de cómo el cine contado en palabras detiene el tiempo y se instala en las vidas de quien lo cuenta y del que lo escucha."Hable con ella" es una película sobre la alegría de narrar y sobre la palabra como arma para huir de la soledad, la enfermedad, la muerte y la locura. También es una película sobre la locura, ese tipo de locura tan cercana a la ternura y al sentido común que no se diferencia de la normalidad.
ClubCultura.com
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