A Nine-Disc Passport To the Land of Almodovar

Gael Garcia Bernal plays a blackmailing drag queen in Pedro Almodovar's "Bad Education." (By Diego Lopez Calvin -- Sony Pictures Classics)

Watching a Pedro Almodovar movie is like seeing a great graphic novel come to life. His camera angles are often inventive, providing the viewer with a telling perspective that reveals more than a character is letting on, or sometimes merely providing a bit of visual comic relief from a dark drama. His stories are populated with over-the-top characters -- junkies, murderers, prostitutes, transvestites, predatory priests, writers, performers, some straight, some gay, all in intriguing situations. It's a surreal world, yet, because of Almodovar's sure touch as a director and his ability to get actors to believe in the lives they're inhabiting, it's a very real world.

The nine-disc "Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Collection" ($117.95) from Sony Pictures Classics is an excellent passport to that witty, campy, involving land. It contains eight of the Spanish director's best films, two of which -- "Law of Desire" and "Matador" -- are new to DVD. All are in Spanish with English subtitles. Three excellent featurettes are included as well: "Experiencing Almodovar," "Viva Pedro" and "Deconstructing Pedro." An added, albeit small, touch is a set of eight well-designed Almodovar postcards.

Perhaps his best-known film, "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" helped bring Almodovar to the attention of audiences in the United States in 1988. Its crisscrossing plots center on a jilted voice actress (played by Carmen Maura) trying to contact her former lover. With mental breakdowns, pregnancies, Shiite terrorists and vengeful exes, it's the stuff of melodrama, but the tone is light, the dialogue arch, the colors bright. There's drama, but it's fun, and not just because of Antonio Banderas's very '80s hair and pants.

Also in the set:

· "Law of Desire," a comedy-drama about Pablo, a movie director in love with the blue-collar Juan, who leaves to think about his life and future. This being an Almodovar story, there are of course additional threads to follow, including Pablo's transsexual sister and Pablo's romance with Antonio (played by Banderas).

· "Talk to Her," an intimate story of two men caring for two women who are in comas and how the foursome's lives are entwined. It won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

· "Matador," a study of perversion, with a matador named Diego and a criminal named Maria, both of whom enjoy violence a little too much. It stars Banderas and Assumpta Serna.

· "All About My Mother," very much a woman's film, with its exploration of female vulnerability and solidarity. It stars Penélope Cruz, Cecilia Roth and Marisa Peredes and won an Oscar as 1999's Best Foreign Language Film.

· "Bad Education," the story of a filmmaker (Fele Martinez) and an old school chum (Gael Garcia Bernal) who has written a book based on their past. In it, a drag performer (also played by Bernal) tries to blackmail a predatory priest. The book provides inspiration for the filmmaker, but then the priest shows up, and the story goes in unexpected directions.

· "The Flower of My Secret," a romantic comedy centering on Leo, a writer with an often absent husband. It stars Peredes and Juan Echanove.

· "Live Flesh," another tale of seemingly random events that prove to be connected. Elena and Victor get into a fight. Two cops respond to the noise. One cop is killed, another paralyzed. The paralyzed cop becomes a wheelchair athlete and marries Elena. Victor ends up in jail, where he plans his revenge.

Of course, merely transcribing the plots of Almodovar's movies renders them less potent. To truly appreciate them, you have to experience them, see them with his eye, feel the whirl of his characters' lives as they scramble to maintain control. What sounds silly or bizarre becomes enlightening and moving in his hands.

As the actress Cruz, who just scored an Oscar nomination this week for her work in Almodovar's "Volver," says in "Deconstructing Pedro": "I love that he never judges his characters. [His movies] are an homage to life."