Pedro Almodovar's Madrid

Curious spectators of Almodóvar’s films often find themselves trying to spot the various filming locations scattered across Madrid. Some of these places have become iconic symbols of his cinematic world, while others remain more obscure. Below are some intriguing details about the hundreds of locations that shape Almodóvar’s Madrid.

The Spanish filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer has earned numerous international accolades, including two Academy Awards: Best Foreign Language Film for All About My Mother (1999) and Best Original Screenplay for Talk to Her (2002). He also won the Ariel Award for Best Ibero-American Film for Pain and Glory (2019) and, more recently, the Golden Lion for Best Picture at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 for The Room Next Door. Over the years, he has also accumulated an impressive collection of Goya Awards, starting with his first win in 1988.

In 2023, Almodóvar premiered his short film Strange Way of Life, starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, at the Cannes Film Festival. By 2024, he celebrated a major milestone at the 81st Venice Film Festival, winning the prestigious Golden Lion for his first English-language feature, The Room Next Door, featuring Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and John Turturro. A portion of the film was shot at Szoke House, an eco-friendly architectural marvel located outside Madrid, in El Escorial.

The M-30 apartment blocks

In the final scene of What Have I Done to Deserve This?, the camera pulls back from the towering apartment blocks where the characters reside, gradually revealing a vast expanse of urban buildings. These three imposing structures are situated along the M-30 motorway, near the mosque in the La Concepción neighborhood. Almodóvar first took notice of them years earlier: “When I worked at a Telefónica warehouse near Fuencarral, I would drive down the M-30 every day. Those enormous, hive-like buildings by the motorway always caught my attention.”

La Bobia

Flirty glances and seductive exchanges were always part of the scene at this iconic cafeteria, now called La Bobia (No. 3 Calle del Duque de Alba) in El Rastro. A legendary hotspot during Madrid's La Movida movement in the 1980s, it plays a key role in Labyrinth of Passion. The opening scene, featuring a heated encounter between the main characters, portrayed by Imanol Arias and Cecilia Roth, takes place here.

Conde Duque 

"¡Riégame! ¡No seas tímido!" (“Water me! Don’t be shy!”). Standing outside what is now the Conde Duque cultural centre (No. 9 Calle del Conde Duque), Carmen Maura's character pleads with a street cleaner to hose her down and offer some relief from the sweltering summer heat in Law of Desire. This moment has since become one of the director's most iconic scenes.

Calle del Arenal

Almodóvar filmed the finale of Live Flesh on Calle del Arenal, taking advantage of the festive Christmas decorations. One of the shots features the iconic Museo del Jamón, located at the start of the street. The director discreetly filmed the scene from inside a van, while the street bustled with pedestrians and extras hired for the shoot. After hours of filming, Almodóvar noticed something unexpected: in every take, a man stood waiting outside the bar. "I suppose he was waiting for someone who never showed up," Almodóvar later remarked. The man, wearing glasses, appears briefly in the film’s final scene.

Postcard-perfect Madrid

Almodóvar’s cinematic journey through Madrid offers a vastly different experience from the typical tourist bus route. However, there are a few notable exceptions: The Flower of My Secret features Plaza Mayor, and the night skyline over the Puerta de Alcalá bridge provides a stunning backdrop for the opening credits of Live Flesh.

A cardboard city

In Kika, Almodóvar avoided filming in easily recognisable locations, yet he still incorporated some iconic symbols of Madrid. One room in the house features cardboard models of the Torre de Madrid, Torres Kio and Torre Europa skyscrapers. The theme continues with the decorative backdrop in Verónica Forqué’s apartment, which includes a model of Torre Picasso. This skyscraper, once Madrid's tallest, makes another appearance in Broken Embraces, where it can be seen from the office of the tycoon played by José Luis Gómez.

Cemeteries, trains and airports

La Almudena Cemetery and Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport are among the most frequently featured locations in Almodóvar's films. Always attuned to the city's new developments, the director filmed scenes at the new high-speed AVE train station in Atocha in Kika, capturing Peter Coyote’s arrival on a luxury train. Years later, in All About My Mother, Cecilia Roth travels between Madrid and Barcelona by AVE, despite the fact that the high-speed train had not yet reached the Catalan capital at that time.

Museo Chicote cocktail bar

A pivotal scene in Broken Embraces was filmed at the iconic Museo Chicote cocktail bar (No. 12 Gran Vía avenue), a favourite among both Spanish and international celebrities. If the walls of Museo Chicote could speak, they would recount tales of Ava Gardner seducing the famous bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín. In Broken Embraces, Blanca Portillo portrays a character who, fueled by gin and tonics, uncovers a long-buried secret.

Crown of Thorns

The headquarters of the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute (No. 4 Calle Pintor El Greco - Ciudad Universitaria), known as the Crown of Thorns, serves as the setting for a conference delivered by the vengeful character portrayed by Antonio Banderas in The Skin I Live In. Architect Richard Rogers described the building as "creative and energetic in every way, down to every last detail." Designed by architects Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró in an organic style, its construction began in the mid-1960s. Almodóvar chose this location to enhance the film's expressiveness and depth.

Segovia Viaduct

Though it didn’t open until 1949, the city's viaduct is a prime example of Madrid’s 1930s Rationalist style. Connecting the Royal Palace to the Vistillas area, most Madrid residents invariably associate it with suicide. This haunting connection to death is explored in Matador, a film about passion pushed to the extreme, and even more prominently another of Almodóvar’s works, I’m So Excited. In this provocative comedy, filmed almost entirely in a studio, Paz Vega's character finds herself involved in a suicide attempt at this very location.

Doré Cinema

The headquarters of the Spanish Film Library (No. 13 Calle de Santa Isabel) makes an appearance in two of Almodóvar's films. The first is Talk to Her, in which Benigno (played by Javier Cámara) goes to see the short film El Amante Menguante. In Pain and Glory, one of Almodóvar's most personal works, Antonio Banderas—who serves as Almodóvar's alter ego—pays homage to the cinema, leading to a memorable and hilarious scene.

Other Almodovar streets and corners

• No. 7 Calle de Montalbán. The seventh-floor attic serves as the home of Pepa (Carmen Maura) in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, with the Gran Vía skyline and the towering Telefónica Building visible in the background.
• No. 38 Calle de Almagro. This address is the family home of Antonio Banderas's character in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
• No. 3 Calle de Sevilla. Known as Casa de Kika in Kika.
• Tablao Flamenco 1911 (formerly Villa Rosa) (No. 15 Plaza de Santa Ana). The venue where drag queen Miguel Bosé performed in High Heels.
• Teatro María Guerrero (Calle de Tamayo y Baus). The theatre where Marisa Paredes sings in High Heels.
• The café at Círculo de Bellas Artes (No. 42 Calle de Alcalá). The location where Victoria Abril and Peter Coyote meet to discuss the script in Kika.
• Plaza del Alamillo. The setting for the basement caretaker's house where Marisa Paredes lives in High Heels.
• Plaza de Puerta de Moros. The spot where Leo (Marisa Paredes) struggles to remove her ankle boots at the beginning of The Flower of My Secret.
• No. 18 Paseo de Eduardo Dato. The residence of Javier Bardem and Francesca Neri in Live Flesh.
• Calle de Segovia. The area where Lluis Homar's character resides under the viaduct in Broken Embraces.
• Cock (No. 16 Calle de la Reina). The nightclub where Tamar Navas worked as a DJ in Broken Embraces.
• Sala Mirador (No. 31 Calle del Doctor Fourquet). In this small alternative theatre, Alberto Crespo (played by Asier Etxandía) performs his monologue in one of the most emotional scenes of Pain and Glory

• Paseo del Pintor Rosales. This is where Salvador Mayo, the character played by Antonio Banderas, lives, sharing many traits with the director himself. It’s a charming street located directly across from Oeste Park, with Casa de Campo Park visible in the background.

At the tender age of 17, Pedro Almodóvar left Calzada de Calatrava in Castile-La Mancha to come to the capital. Convinced that his village represented a prison for his artistic impulses, he betrayed his family’s wish for him to work in a bank as a respectable citizen, and much to their dismay, packed his bags in search of a brighter future.

He arrived in Madrid via the Extremadura motorway. In an autobiographical article published in Diario 16 in 1993, he described his first encounter with the city as somewhat disappointing: “It was nothing like how I had imagined; the landscape was colourless, grubby and unwelcoming.”

That being said, all his dreams were deeply connected to Madrid, residing in some misty corner of his imagination.

In that same article, Almodóvar recalled his mother’s stories of travelling to Madrid in the 1920s. Captivated by these fantastic tales, he imagined life in Madrid would resemble the glamorous world depicted in the Empress Sissi films. To him, Madrid became a place for catalogue shopping, epitomised by the Galerías Preciados building. “I remember the catalogues, with their black-and-white photographs of all kinds of beauty and household products. It was my first encounter with pop culture and I will never forget it.”

His perception of that legendary city continued to develop, and by the time he was a teenager, to him Madrid was a symbol of freedom. “It represented the place where films premiered before anywhere else, as well as the place where people built their lives. In short, it was a dream.”

He admits that, upon arriving in the capital, it bore absolutely no resemblance to the gardens of Empress Sissi. Later, he would recount how he had to adjust to the smell of the underground and the fact that you couldn't see the stars at nighttime. “Those were the first impressions I can remember—not exactly fascinating, but I stayed”.

His evolution as a person and an artist is closely intertwined with the capital. The city itself plays a very significant role in his movies, with the filmmaker skilfully portraying the transformation that Madrid has undergone in recent decades.

New York has Woody Allen, Rome has Fellini, and Madrid is lucky enough to have Almodóvar. This bond has formed without any perceptible effort from either the city or the director. Unlike Allen or Fellini, Almodóvar has never paid tribute to the city or publicly declared his love for the capital. Their connection has emerged much more naturally, as each recognised they were leading parallel lives.

Having become one of Almodóvar's main characters, Madrid is essential to the understanding of his films. The director himself has even said so in the past: "This city has always provided me with the perfect landscape and the ideal, sassy characters for each and every one of my films." In Broken Embraces, the director uses the two key settings of Lanzarote and Madrid to complement the plotline. He pays a subtle tribute to the capital with the movie poster of Girls and Suitcases—a film within the film—which depicts a blonde Penélope Cruz standing among tall, emblematic buildings in Madrid.

Almodóvar and Madrid have grown up together, evolving from provincial children to international, cosmopolitan adults, all the while never losing their rural roots. In Madrid, the filmmaker has found the ideal stage for his paradoxical worldview: a place where the most avant-garde design coexists happily with a tacky dressing gown.

Outside Madrid, fans of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown regarded the idea of Carmen Maura breeding hens on her attic terrace as a stroke of genius. Ultimately, these contradictions define the city. The same can be said of Almodóvar, who has used Madrid as his mirror. It was simply a question of knowing where to look and looking without fear. In the most natural way, he has acknowledged the places where his characters live their lives.

The attic with the hens is located in Calle de Montalbán, while the serial killer featured in the same film is called the serial killer of Cuatro Caminos. Then there's the rapist in Kika, who is known as the rapist of Orcasitas, and the weary star of What Have I Done to Deserve This?, who lives her life in Barrio de la Concepción... Oddly enough, even with the abundance of local references, his films became worldwide box office hits: “There are certain local features in my films which are easy to understand elsewhere, in New York, for example. Life in big cities is similar everywhere; the discomfort is mutual, and despite cultural differences, they're becoming increasingly connected”. 

If you're eager to study the evolution of Madrid over the last 25 years, well then you'll want to also study Almodóvar's films. Rustic meets urban with the three stars of Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom: one minute we're at a modern nightclub and the next we're knitting on the sofa. The movie Labyrinth of Passion presents the vibrant, fun side of Madrid as seen in El Rastro, evoking the spirit of the capital during the La Movida movement.

In the words of one of its more outrageous characters, the Emperor of Tirán, Madrid is “the most exciting city in the world”. So, let's explore it! Why not start at the convent from Dark Habits (1983), which is located in the heart of the city, on Calle de Hortaleza. Later, in What Have I Done To Deserve This? (1984), the director used barren land and lizards to portray the outskirts of Madrid.

Much like the city’s evolution, Almodóvar’s career went full speed ahead, with his films addressing a wide range of topics. Any Madrileño would tell you that the best place in the capital to reference death is Segovia Viaduct on Calle de Bailén, a notorious spot for suicides. This is why Almodóvar chose this site as the location for his bullfighting- and death-obsessed movie Matador (1985), which was also shot in Casa de Campo Park and Matadero Madrid in Legazpi. In a night scene in The Law of Desire (1986), Carmen Maura asks a street cleaner to hose her down. Of that scene, the director has commented, “I believe that that image is the best representation of what we call desire”. It's also the most effective depiction of the suffocating Madrid summer nights ever captured on the big screen.

In Pain and Glory (2019), Almodóvar’s relationship with Madrid reached new depth, with the city becoming a central presence shaping the characters’ lives. Through subtle graffiti in certain frames, he captures key issues facing the capital: one message reads, “Hermana, yo sí te creo” (“Sister, I believe you”), in support of the survivor of the La Manada rape case in Pamplona in 2016; another protests the touristification of Lavapiés.

You see, every scene and corner of Madrid that appears in Almodóvar's films has a purpose. Sometimes symbolic and at other times autobiographical—why not? He chose Gran Vía avenue as the backdrop for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1987), with the Telefónica building, where he once worked, clearly visible in the background. “It’s one of my favourite landscapes.” A student of Madrid’s evolution will also notice the changes in the human geography of the capital. Before becoming the gay neighbourhood of Madrid, Chueca was once home to substance users and low lifes, as evidenced by the night scenes featuring Antonio Banderas in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989).

As his international fame soared, Almodóvar became a sort of ambassador for Madrid, although it became progressively harder for him to keep his finger on the pulse of the city. “I’ve always enjoyed the company of others; I’ve always liked meeting new faces, listening to conversations, mingling with people, and observing—that's where I draw my inspiration. Now, however, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to connect with reality.”

Perhaps this is why High Heels (1991) and Kika (1993) were both shot indoors? It wasn't long before the filmmaker was back on the streets to shoot The Flower of My Secret (1995) and explore some of the city’s more emblematic locations. The writer played by Marisa Paredes lives and works in Plaza de la Paja, and in one of the flick’s most charming scenes, Juan Echanove tap dances in Plaza Mayor at night.

Twenty-five years had passed since Almodóvar arrived in the city. “I grew up, had fun, suffered, put on weight, and matured in Madrid. Many of those experiences occurred at the same rate as the city itself,” Almodóvar wrote in 1998, when he chose to look back on his life and career for the first time and reflect on the many changes.

The story of Live Flesh (1997) begins with the birth of a baby during Christmas 1970, at a time when the country was under a state of emergency. By the end of the film, that baby, played by Liberto Rabal, is about to become a father himself. “When I was born, people were at home, terrified,” the main character says to his son, continuing, “...luckily for you, my son, the people of Spain lost that fear a long time ago.” Notably, in this same film, Almodóvar found one of his most dramatic filming locations: La Ventilla, a shanty town of crumbling shacks on the brink of demolition to make way for the modern, leaning towers of Plaza de Castilla. Here again, we see Madrid and Almodóvar filled with striking contrasts and contradictions.

By that point, he had directed twelve feature films—twelve unique portrayals of a single city. His thirteenth film, however, was a surprise departure. When he announced that he would shoot All About My Mother (1999) in Barcelona, the filmmaker confessed to feeling a pang of guilt. “I feel I have betrayed Madrid,” he admitted. The result was a landmark film set in Barcelona, though, as if to emphasise it as an exception, he returned to old Madrid in Talk to Her (2002). Here, he revisited the street corners (“I have a thing for corners”), the balconies, and the houses adorned with flowerpots, capturing once again the essence of his city.

Over the years, he has received all sorts of tempting offers—proposals to make a film in the United States, to shoot in English, etc. Yet the director has no intention of leaving Madrid behind. Madrid is a modern city, but in some ways, it remains almost like La Mancha. Perhaps, if he were to leave for good, he might experience what Marisa Paredes does on returning to the capital in High Heels:

• My God. How has the city changed so much?
• There are parts that you won’t recognise.
• What worries me is that the city won’t recognise me.