If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Almodóvar’s cinema, it’s that tough love leaves an illuminating and longer-lasting echo. Pedro Almodóvar, now 75, must have found the light in Ingmar Bergman’s work at some point recently. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course.

After all, Bergman came before the filmmakers of Almodóvar’s generation, and frankly, he explored it all: the intricacies of the female psyche (check), the confrontation with inner demons and existential dread (check), and even the psychological unraveling of human struggles led by female characters set in secluded villas deep in the woods (check). On a technical level, we can also credit Bergman for teaching us the subtle art of using bold color to its fullest potential in a shot or perfecting how to fit two faces into a single close-up.

What’s peculiar here is that Almodóvar, a director who has...