Actress Carmen Maura worked for over a dozen years in film and television in her native Spain before breaking through to international audiences with 1988’s award-winning “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” It was one of eight films in which Maura was directed by Pedro Almodovar and an ideal showcase of her ability to carry a film with commanding presence, raw emotion, and campy wit. She also made a mark for her daring artistic choices, going beyond the taboo of playing a liberated woman to take on risky roles like a transsexual or drug addicted nun. In the 1980s and 1990s, as Spain
