It wasn't that long ago, well maybe it was 20 years, when for many of us moviegoers Spanish cinema was synonymous with the work of Pedro Almodovar. And vice versa. His films were irreverent, often dark, sexy and funny, and he was prolific. There were gender-bending, taboo-breaking melodramas like High Heels and Live Flesh that seemed to lead the way out of the last vestiges of the political repression and social conformity of Spain's post-fascist era. Audiences loved him for it.