New films by Spanish director Pedro Alomodovar tend to be treated with a kind of unquestioning reverence, but truth be told, many of them, particularly in recent years, could seem a little long and overly convoluted.

So Julieta, Alomodovar's 20th film, may have inspired mixed feelings in audiences in the run up to its release.

Thankfully, this proves to be Almodovar's finest film in years, perhaps his best since 2004's Bad Education, and a potent antidote to 2009's rather overblown Broken Embraces.

For a start, it's short. The entire story, of which there's a lot, unfolds in an economical 96 minutes, with barely a dull moment to be noted. Like many of Almodovar's films, it's stitched together through a series of flashbacks, this time shuttling back and forth between contemporary Madrid and the 80s coast, passing through some magnificent 90s hair styles along the way.

Julieta is played by two actresses, each as good as the other. In the contemporary part of the story, Adriana Ugarte plays her as a woman maintaining a fragile control of her life, which is to be shattered by the chance encounter that opens the film.

In the first of a highly atmospheric series of flashbacks, Emma Suarez presents the character as an idealistic young woman in her early 20s, who takes a long, overnight train journey that will change her life.

There are twists, revelations, and characters and situations that appear to have wandered in from the mystery thrillers of the 1940s. Much of the story takes place off screen, only later to be revealed by the characters, which maintains a mysterious, ethereal feel: it's almost as if events were taking place just off our world, out of our reach but still affecting us.

In a conventional sense, the ending may leave some unsatisfied, but looking closer, it's arguably the most emotionally mature way to end this story. Perhaps the key to Julieta's success is its external influence: Almodovar worked from three short stories by Canadian author Alice Munro, and he seems comfortable with the discipline and structure that the tales have given him.

Julieta is another masterpiece from one of Spain's great filmmakers Pedro Almodovar. Debuted at Cannes Film Festival in May 2016 and selected to compete for the Palme d'Or, Julieta, opened to an audience of fans at the Phoenix on Friday evening. This Spanish movie is Almodovar's adaptation of three stories from the 2004 collection called Runaway by Nobel Prize winning Canadian writer Alice Ann Munro. Love, betrayal, grief and forgiveness are the main ingredients for this work.
A quote by Munro on her own writing seems to be apt for this film: 'The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless... Nothing is easy, nothing is simple.' In his interview for BBC in August, Almodovar commented that this, his 20th feature film, is very much the serious work about a mother, her daughter and the guilt that threatens both.

Decor and colour washes over the audience as they try to decipher the intricacies of the relationships and complex psychological drama in this work. Julieta (Emma Suárez) as the narrator is described as being too close to the incidents themselves to recognise the true nature of her own tragedy. Watching the film is like peering over Julieta's shoulders and seeing her most intimate thoughts and emotions unfold in scenes. Julieta journals her thoughts and the audience are present at its reading. Each page unfolds in scenes which are gripping, sensual and sensitively created. From the past to present and back again the audience encounter Julieta's closest relationships. Fidelity issues are rife and add to the complexity and layers of this extraordinary film. Rossy de Palma, a familiar face in other Almodovar's films, features as the housekeeper and holder of the secrets.

Indulging in a break from reading the subtitles creates space in which to appreciate the mystique and powerful images from paintings to sculptures, scenes and countryside, the music and the complexity of the women's portraits and their generational conflicts. Spanish arts reviewer Quim Casas, in the Catalonian morning newspaper El Periodico described Julieta as 'the reinvention of the classic melodrama'. Almodovar engages his team, artistic cinematographer Jean-Claude Larrieu, and composer Alberto Iglesias, who have had a lengthy association with his other projects, to sculpt this latest work into more than just a film: it is a piece of art.