Almodóvar switches focus to male roles

He is a renowned ladies' man. Most of the leading characters in Pedro Almodóvar's films have been women. Men, in contrast, have tended to be villains or bit-part players.

But with his next film, Broken Embraces, the double Oscar-winning Spanish director is to change tack, giving his male characters stronger roles.

"They always talk about 'my women', but I have worked with major [male] actors like Antonio Banderas," he said. "They don't say much about my male characters except they are symbol of a patriarchal [society]."

But he said in his new film he would give the male characters "more depth".

Broken Embraces, starring Penélope Cruz, will be his 17th movie. "I didn't want to repeat the bastards of Volver," said Almodóvar.

In Volver the protagonist (again Cruz) murders her abusive husband who has also tried to abuse her daughter.

The director's earlier films do men no favours either. In Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Banderas plays a disturbed kidnapper, and in Bad Education one of the main characters is a paedophile priest.

One of his great themes has been sisterhood. The Oscar-winning All About My Mother, starring Cecilia Roth, dealt with the struggles of the female lead.

Lluís Homar, who played the priest in Bad Education and is to return to play Cruz's lover in Broken Embraces, said: "In this new screenplay they show more sides to the male soul. They are deeper, with a wider perspective."