Almodóvar: Madrid and La Mancha on Screen

Labyrinth of Passion (1982), Almodóvar's second feature, opens at La Bobia, a bar on Calle del Duque de Alba in the El Rastro district. It was a legendary Movida hangout, full of provocative glances and flirting, and here the film starts: the torrid first meeting of the two leads, played by Imanol Arias and Cecilia Roth. The film itself centres on the pop star Sexila and sets the tone for the city Almodóvar would keep returning to.

In Law of Desire (1987) Carmen Maura's character walks up to a municipal worker and asks him to cool her down in the stifling summer heat: "¡Riégueme! No se corte" ("Hose me down, don't hold back"). It is one of the director's most famous scenes, and it was shot at the Conde Duque barracks, Calle del Conde Duque 9. The film used the nearby Malasaña district as a set.

Visitor guidance: The old barracks building at Calle del Conde Duque 9.

Pepa's home in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) is a seventh-floor penthouse at Calle Montalbán 7, with the Gran Vía skyline and the Telefónica building behind it. In the story Pepa rips the phone out of the wall and throws it through the glass doors onto the terrace. The film is a dark comedy from Almodóvar, with Carmen Maura as Pepa.

Almodóvar shot the ending of Live Flesh (1997), based on Ruth Rendell's novel, on Calle del Arenal, taking advantage of the Christmas decorations. He filmed undercover from inside a van, with passers-by mixed in among extras hired for the day. They shot for hours, and when he reviewed the takes he found the same man waiting at a bar door in every one. A man with glasses is briefly visible in the finished ending.

Location precision: The sources name the street but not the exact stretch or bar door; the pin marks a point on Calle del Arenal.

Visitor guidance: A busy pedestrian street in central Madrid.

Home of the Filmoteca Española, the Cine Doré appears twice in Almodóvar's work. In Talk to Her (2002), Benigno, played by Javier Cámara, goes there to watch the short film El amante menguante, which is inserted into the film. Years later it returns in Pain and Glory, where Antonio Banderas, the director's alter ego, is honoured in a hilarious scene.

Visitor guidance: The cinema is the seat of the Filmoteca Española.

In Volver (2006), the adjoining doors of neighbours Paula and Agustina were placed on Calle Federico Relimpio in Almagro, La Mancha. Irene's ghost, played by Carmen Maura, wanders behind the iron gates here. Agustina's house stands next to the Town Hall, close to the Corral de Comedias on the Plaza Mayor. Almodóvar had already filmed scenes of The Flower of My Secret in Almagro in 1995.

Visitor guidance: Calle Federico Relimpio is a short walk from the Plaza Mayor; these are private homes, so look from the street.

A key scene of Broken Embraces (2009) takes place in the Museo Chicote cocktail bar at Gran Vía 12. Fortified by gin and tonics, Blanca Portillo's character finally tells the truth she kept for years. The bar has hosted stars from Spain and abroad, and legend has it that Ava Gardner seduced the bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín here.

Visitor guidance: A cocktail bar at Gran Vía 12.

Much of Parallel Mothers (2021) unfolds in this square in the Conde Duque area, named after the convent of the Comendadoras de Santiago. Penélope Cruz's character, Janis, lives on the square, and the terrace of Café Moderno hosts some of the film's most important conversations. It is a fitting last stop: Almodóvar was named Adoptive Son of the city of Madrid in 2018, and this square shows the neighbourhood life he has filmed there.

Visitor guidance: The Café Moderno terrace on the square.