Rossy de Palma: From Palma to Almodóvar
You might know Rossy de Palma from an Almodóvar film, a Jean Paul Gaultier runway or a photograph that made you stop scrolling. The Picasso comparison has followed her for years. We’d start with one of her films, though. Watch what she does with a pause or a look, and you’ll see how much of her presence comes down to timing.
Born Rosa Elena García Echave in Palma in 1964, she kept her birthplace in the name she took on stage. By the time Pedro Almodóvar spotted her in Madrid, she was already singing and dancing with the band Peor Imposible. The city’s Movida was in full swing, with musicians, filmmakers and artists trying things that would have been harder to imagine under Franco. De Palma found an audience on that scene before she found one on screen.
The Almodóvar years
Her first role for Almodóvar was in Law of Desire. In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, she plays Marisa, who comes to view a flat and helps herself to a glass of gazpacho. If you’ve ever seen the film, you’ll probably remember what was in it. It’s a wonderfully silly set-up, and de Palma plays it with the seriousness of someone who has simply turned up to look at a flat.
For a different side of her, watch The Flower of My Secret. She plays Blanca, the sister of Marisa Paredes’s character, and the scenes with their mother have the rhythm of a family argument that’s been going on for years. De Palma went on to appear in Julieta and Parallel Mothers, part of a collaboration that has lasted across decades of Spanish cinema.
From the runway to the Cannes jury
Jean Paul Gaultier put her on the runway alongside Björk in 1994. You can also spot her in George Michael’s video for Too Funky, among the supermodels of the day. And when the Centre Pompidou invited her to present The Flower of My Secret at its Almodóvar retrospective, she talked about her own interest in surrealism and Dada. She works in sculpture and photography herself.
At Cannes, de Palma sat on the feature-film jury in 2015 and returned in 2022 to chair the Caméra d’Or jury, which gives its award to a first feature. If you’re choosing a film to start with, We’d put Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown on first. Then try The Flower of My Secret and see what she does when the comedy gets closer to home.
This is the first profile in People of Mallorca. Who from the island would you like us to write about next?
Further reading: Festival de Cannes and Centre Pompidou.
Read next: Catalina Homar, the woman who ran S’Estaca.
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