Labyrinth of Passion
Laberinto De Pasiones
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| Poster Origin : | Spain |
| Poster Size : | Spanish 1 Sheet / 70 x 100cm |
| Poster Artist : | Iván Zulueta |
| Poster Year : | 1982 |
| Poster Version : | First Release |
| Film Origin : | Spain |
| Film Director : | Pedro Almódovar |
| Film Year : | 1982 |
This poster from Iván Zulueta, a heroin-addicted director-in-exile, sums up Almodovar’s outrageous comedy, capturing the vivid colours and sexual energy of the film and its hedonistic era. The pink neon nail-varnished lettering gives an expressive early-80s flourish, and the whole piece seems to celebrate the sexual liberalism of the Movida Madrileña backdrop.
Here, love and sex are obscured and complicated by each other, the distinction is blurred and they appear as one entity - the giant heart shape which is also an exposed rear-end. As a heart, beaten and bruised and patched with adhesive bandages, it is pierced again by Cupid’s arrow. As an exaggerated voluptuous arse, flogged and mutilated, it is symbolic of the damaging relationships the characters crave; their own bizarre form of sado-masochistic wounding. Glistening red lips with teeth greet us as the buttocks part, grinning or snarling - probably both - fun fraught with danger awaits.
Almodovar called this a ‘pop film’ - the heart shape is underlaid with newspaper clippings (actually classified ads for sex products) and the assortment of cut-out figures underneath resemble Roy Lichtenstein’s comic book pop-art; perhaps a suggestion that beyond their sexual demeanours the characters are actually rather flat and two-dimensional.