It has just caught my eye that Pedro Almodóvar has at last won something in Spain for Bad Education. Spain has a habit of not recognizing cinematic talent when it's staring it in the face: a more recent example is the somewhat Almodóvar-ish Ramón Salazar, whose 20 centímetros, a transgendered musical, is a lot of fun but which has so far failed to make a dent in the box office Top 10. As per the Guardian article, it's not strictly true that Bad Education was "panned" in Spain: it's just that they didn't automatically call it a masterpiece, which seems to be Pedro's fate these days. Next week PdS Blog will be going to the press conference about his next film, Volver. The image above, from the diary of the shoot, shows Penélope Cruz (any excuse) and Carmen Maura reading the script. Apparently.