Fotografías rotas y función paterna: análisis textual de Todo sobre mi madre (1999), Hable con ella (2002) y Dolor y gloria (2019)de Pedro Almodóvar

Abstract

This article analyzes the motif of the cut photograph in Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography, with special attention to All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002), and Pain and Glory (2019). Drawing on a textual analysis approach, it examines how family photographs—particularly when they appear split, fragmented, or reframed—function as narrative devices that articulate the presence and absence of the paternal figure. The hypothesis argues that the broken photograph constitutes a structural core of Almodóvar’s universe: the images reinforce the centrality of the maternal imago and reveal the fragility or disappearance of the father. The comparative study outlines three positions of the father and their effects on the subjectivity of the children: absence in All About My Mother (psychosis), disavowal in Talk to Her (perversion), and partial inscription in Pain and Glory (neurosis). In this way, the analysis sheds light on how the use of photographs in Almodóvar’s cinema thematizes the fragility of filiation while simultaneously mapping the subjective structures described by psychoanalysis.