MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - Spanish director Pedro Almodovar said Tuesday he had gasped for air and sobbed upon hearing that his latest quirky film, Talk to Her, had received an Oscar nomination.
The 52-year-old was nominated for best director and the Spanish language film was named as a contender for best original screenplay.
"I was there with my eyelashes stuck to the TV. ... I leaped back, like in the comics, and I fell, as it happened, in a sofa, a very comfortable sofa, and then I couldn't breathe ... and then I had this sobbing attack, I just wasn't in control of my emotions," Almodovar told reporters in Madrid.
Almodovar won his first Oscar for best foreign language film in 2000 for All About my Mother. At the ceremony the eccentric director's acceptance speech ran on for more than five minutes before fellow Spaniards Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz dragged him offstage.
Talk to Her centers on a nurse in love with his comatose patient and the friendship he strikes up with the boyfriend of another comatose patient -- an injured woman matador.
The thought-provoking drama, principally about loneliness, has sparked controversy for its sympathetic portrayal of a rapist.
The Oscars will be presented on March 23.
© 2003 Reuters