Discuss Pedro Almodovar's creative influences and to what extent they are present within his films.

Pedro Almodovar's creative influences are clearly visible within many of his films and can be roughly divided into three categories; individual, personal and cultural. First of all, his individual influence can be found in his homosexuality. Whether he chooses to frequently discuss this theme within his films for the sake of queer represenation in film or becuase he feels that he can best tell a narrative of which he has personal experience is up for debate. Regardless, Almodovar discusses the phenomenon of internalised homophobia in his film "The Law of Desire" and discusses the deconstruction of the gender binary in his film "All About My Mother". Secondly, we see how Almodovar's personal relationships with his family have heavily influenced his film-making practices and particularly the role of women in his films. Not only are the female characters almost always diversely and carefully charcaterized they also seem to reflect the values, strength and empowerment that Almodovar saw within his own female family members during his most formative years. Finally and more passively, we see how culture, history and society's influence is present within Almodovar's films. The filmmaker was a pivotal part of "The Madrid Scene" and the cultural explosion of a society that had, for too long, been censored and oppressed under Franco's regime. This goes some way to explaining the often graphic nature of many of his films (particulary his early projects) and the "taboo" nature of many of his themes and stories; this includes drug use, substance abuse, AIDS, gender and sexual identity.