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2012 - VII: Volver (Pedro Almodovar, 2006)
Feb. 5th, 2012 09:37 pm
I'd thought that I'd fallen off watching Almodovar when I saw La piel que habito
(The Skin I Live In (2011)) in Sheffield, but I caught up with Los abrazos rotos
(Broken Embraces (2009)) late last year on DVD and I did actually see Volver in the cinema. My favourite Almodovar films have always been the ones with Carmen Maura - the Johnny Depp to Almodovar's Tim Burton - and it is great to see her back here, I think for the first time since Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988) (which Los abrazos rotos borrowed from). In twenty years, she's graduated from the strong woman spinning plates to the crazy grandmother, but she is a luminous as ever. I recognise a few other bit players, too.
The Almodovar universe is consistent - here we have the strong central female (Raimunda (Penélope Cruz)) with a waster and abusive husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre), odd sister Soledad (Lola Dueñas) and impressionable daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). The death of Raimunda and Soledad's aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave) in the village where they grew up coincides with Paco's murder in Madrid, and the need for Raimunda to hide his brother. Meanwhile, their mother, Irene (Carmen Maura), presumed dead in a fire with their father some years earlier, starts appearing to Soledad. Raimunda is dealing with ghosts of one kind or another. It's perhaps not as melodramatic as it would have been in 1988 - there are prostitutes but fewer random drug taking incidents, and Raimunda avoids a potential for an affair when a film crew visits her suburb. This is the mature Almodovar, and perhaps I prefer the early comedies. But it is shot beautifully, and Maura I could watch in anything.
(The Skin I Live In (2011)) in Sheffield, but I caught up with Los abrazos rotos
(Broken Embraces (2009)) late last year on DVD and I did actually see Volver in the cinema. My favourite Almodovar films have always been the ones with Carmen Maura - the Johnny Depp to Almodovar's Tim Burton - and it is great to see her back here, I think for the first time since Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988) (which Los abrazos rotos borrowed from). In twenty years, she's graduated from the strong woman spinning plates to the crazy grandmother, but she is a luminous as ever. I recognise a few other bit players, too.
The Almodovar universe is consistent - here we have the strong central female (Raimunda (Penélope Cruz)) with a waster and abusive husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre), odd sister Soledad (Lola Dueñas) and impressionable daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). The death of Raimunda and Soledad's aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave) in the village where they grew up coincides with Paco's murder in Madrid, and the need for Raimunda to hide his brother. Meanwhile, their mother, Irene (Carmen Maura), presumed dead in a fire with their father some years earlier, starts appearing to Soledad. Raimunda is dealing with ghosts of one kind or another. It's perhaps not as melodramatic as it would have been in 1988 - there are prostitutes but fewer random drug taking incidents, and Raimunda avoids a potential for an affair when a film crew visits her suburb. This is the mature Almodovar, and perhaps I prefer the early comedies. But it is shot beautifully, and Maura I could watch in anything.
