Is Spanish cinema a victim of Almodovar's success?  Spain's
best-known director says British distributors are to blame for
the paucity of Iberian cinema over here. What do you think?
Pedro Almodovar Pedro Almodovar promotes his most recent film,
Volver at Cannes 2006. Photograph: Francois Guillot/Getty  Your
seats, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, for this week's trial-
by-blog (fingers crossed there'll be another one next Tuesday).
The dispute centres on a recent Guardian article headlined "The
curse of Almodovar", which highlighted the problems faced by
those Spanish exports that are not "un film de Almodovar".  "The
Spanish film industry churns out up to 100 features a year,"
explained the writer, Paul Julian Smith. "Of these we in the UK
get to see perhaps four or five .... Ironically, it seems that
one super-sized name can capsize a national film industry by
monopolising international interest."  This morning the article
prompted an angry response from the super-sized name himself.
Pedro Almodovar wrote