Pedro Almodóvar breathless over Oscar nominations (7746)

Out Spanish director Pedro Almodovar said Tuesday that he gasped for air and sobbed upon hearing that his latest quirky film, Talk to Her, had received two Oscar nominations. The 51-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," Almodovar told reporters in Madrid. "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 won his first Oscar for best foreign language film of 1999 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 Oscars will be presented on March 23 in Los Angeles.