Pedro Almodóvar on Parallel Mothers: 'Yes, I have felt a huge desire for Penélope Cruz'

You expect a burst of colour and Pedro Almodóvar doesn’t disappoint. The Spanish auteur walks into the hotel room in Knightsbridge, London, in a blue and red zigzag jumper by Prada and a yellow and blue Hermès neckerchief, plus a whirl of silver hair, jeans and the kind of intimidatingly cool trainers that few 72-year-olds would attempt. The ensemble is spoilt only by a facemask, which he removes as soon as he can.

He could be a character in one of the vividly hued melodramas he has been writing and directing for 40 years, talking up a storm in an exuberantly decorated apartment in Madrid. Almodóvar’s catalogue rivals that of any living film-maker, from Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), which sealed