Pedro Almodovar tells Lisa Williams about his favourite actors and the restrictions of fame

PEDRO ALMODOVAR bursts into the room offering water, coffee or gin and tonic. He sits down – a piping hot double espresso in front of him – and beams at everyone around the table.

This is no ordinary start to an interview, but then Almodovar is no ordinary man.

Making movies in Spain during the punk explosion which followed the death of Franco – the country’s dictator – in 1975, Almodovar found fame with humorously scandalous films reflecting Spain’s new freedom.

Sex, drug-taking, strange fetishes and cross-dressing are just some of the subjects tackled in films such as High Heels, and Pepi, Luci, Bom And Other Girls On The Heap.

They all makes his latest offering, Broken Embraces, with Penelope Cruz in the starring role, seem rather tame by comparison.

Arguably his most mature work to date, the film depicts a love triangle between actress Lena (Penelope), her older, reptilian husband Ernesto, and Matteo, the younger, more handsome film director who casts Lena as the lead in his film.

Thrown into the mix is Blanca, the film’s producer who has history with Matteo, and Ray X, Ernesto’s son, who also takes a fancy to the director.

So, not tame exactly, but certainly less controversial than his earlier work. On the brink of turning 60, could Almodovar be growing up?

"I never intended to be scandalous, as the Bible says, scandal is in the eye of the beholder," he says.

"I just wanted to tell my stories from my point of view and from my mentality, and I admit that sometimes that perspective could have been scandalous.

"I’ve been making movies for 30 years and probably the way I feel now is less shocking and that’s only natural. I never set out to be shocking, that’s what Lars Von Trier does, that’s what Madonna does, but that was never my intention."