Volver (DVD)

Volver (To Return) is the most recent film by Spain’s most well known and successful film director, Pedro Almodovar. I am a fan of almost all of Almodovar’s films, and even decided to do my A Level Spanish oral presentation on his life and films. I did my exam about him today, and so I decided that now would be a good time to review my favourite of his many films.


*Synopsis*

Volver is the story of the women in ...
...*My opinion*

Volver is my favourite film by Almodovar, although I love the majority of his work. I just thought that the storyline of this film was fantastic, and that the actors really helped to make the film as amazing as it could be. The fact that this is the only one of his films that I have seen on the big screen in a cinema probably helped, as this added to the atmosphere the first time I saw it. If you have seen any others of ... more

Volver (To Return) is the most recent film by Spain’s most well known and successful film director, Pedro Almodovar. I am a fan of almost all of Almodovar’s films, and even decided to do my A Level Spanish oral presentation on his life and films. I did my exam about him today, and so I decided that now would be a good time to review my favourite of his many films.

*Synopsis*

Volver is the story of the women in a small family living in Spain in the present day, both in the capital city Madrid, and in a village in Castilla la Mancha. The story starts with sisters Raimunda and Sole, and Raimunda’s daughter Paula, scrubbing their mother’s grave, who died only a few years ago along with their father in a house fire. Not long after this, their Aunt Paula dies, and after attending the funeral Sole finds the ghost of her mother in the boot of her car, who demands that she comes and lives with her. Unsure whether she is imagining this or not, Sole is reluctant to tell Raimunda that their dead mother is living with her, especially as Raimunda and her mother had unresolved issues from the past.

I don’t want to give much more of the storyline away, as this is a really amazing film in my opinion, and you will enjoy watching it better if you don’t know what happens further on.

*The Director*

As I said earlier, I have done my A level Spanish presentation on the director of this film, so I feel qualified to tell you about his life and work.

Pedro Almodovar lived in the province of Castilla la Mancha when he was a child, and was part of a moderately poor family. Parts of ‘Volver’ take place in the area where he grew up, as the village in the film is in Castilla la Mancha in rural Spain. Pedro was very much a mother’s boy, and while she was alive, featured in several of his films, though only as minor parts. However his father worked a lot when Pedro was young, and so they never really got along as much as he did with his mother. Almodovar also has a good relationship with his brother Augustin, who apart from starring in many of Pedro’s films, has directing many of them also, including ‘Volver’.

‘Volver’ is only the most recent in a long string of successful films directed by Almodovar, the first being ‘Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del monton’ from the year 1980. Other films that he has made include: Laberinto de Pasiones, Entre Tinieblas, El Ley del Deseo, Matador, Kika, El Flor de mi Secreto, ¿Que he hecho yo para merecer esto?, Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, Carne Tremula, Hable con Ella, Atame, La Mala Educaccion, and Todo Sobre Mi Madre. For the majority of you who don’t speak Spanish, the titles of these films in English are: Labyrinth of Passions, Dark Habits, The Law of Desire, Matador, Kika, The Flower of my Secret, What have I done to deserve this?, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Live Flesh, Talk to Her, Tie me up Tie me down, Bad Education, and All about my Mother. You may have heard of a couple of these, especially as All about my Mother and Talk to Her received Oscars in the respective years that they were released.

The main star of the majority of Almodovar’s films is Carmen Maura, who plays the ghost of the mother in Volver, but has also had leading roles in his films since his very first in 1980. They met in a theatre group not long after the death of the Spanish dictator, General Franco, who died in the year 1975, thus ending his facist regime in Spain. The years after his death were a time of change in Spain, as the country was finally given the chance to express themselves, and become more up to date with the rest of the modern western world. In Almodovar’s early years of film making, his films were all meant to shock and make an impact on conservative Spain, which they certainly did. His first film Pepi, Luci, Bom, for example, included lots of sex, a main character who is a masochist, and even starts with a rape scene. All through his career the majority of his male leading characters have been homosexual, or at least willing to experiment with their sexuality, which was also a shock in post-Franco Spain. Carmen Maura has had many controversial roles in her career in the films of Almodovar, as a main character in Pepi, Luci, Bom, a murderer in several other films, as well as playing many characters who sleep around. Considering that these films were made in the 80s and early 90s, these types of roles were more controversial and rarer than they are nowadays. However, between her starring in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Volver, Carmen didn’t have a part in any of Almodovar’s films, as they had a fight and fell out after going to the Oscars for the former film when Carmen was sat far from Pedro in an inferior part of the theatre, and blamed Pedro for this. This sounds petty I know, but now they are working together again and all is well.

Other actors who you will almost definitely know who often have roles in Almodovar’s films are Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderes. Apart from being the main character in Volver, Penelope had a leading role in All about my Mother, and was also in Live Flesh for a few moments, as the women giving birth in the bus at the start of the film. She is also currently working on Almodovar’s new film ‘La Piel que Habito’ (The skin I inhabit) which will be released in 2008. Antonio Banderes was also in many of Almodovar’s early films, such as ‘The Law of Desire’, ‘Matador’, and my favourite of his roles was in ‘Tie me up, Tie me down’, when he played a man who, after leaving a mental institute, kidnaps a porn star who he once had sex with until she falls in love with him. In my opinion, both of these actors are better acting in their own language, and the films by Almodovar are by far superior to the Hollywood films they have taken part in. Another actress who is in most of his films is Chus Lampreave, who I think is amazing, even though she usually only has very small parts, such as the aunt who dies in Volver.

*The actors*

Although I have already mentioned some of the actresses who played in Volver, I felt that all of them deserved a mention as they all gave a brilliant performance. Lola Dueñas is fantastic as Raimunda’s (Cruz) sister, and is just as impressive an actress as Penelope Cruz. Yohana Cobo played Raimunda’s teenage daughter, although she is only 11 years younger than Cruz, and was actually 20 years old when she played the role. However since she is 5’1” tall, she didn’t look too old for the part, and in fact I was surprised to find out that she was as old as this. She also gives an amazing performance, especially in a scene where she has to appear genuinely distressed, which she does very convincingly.

*My opinion*

Volver is my favourite film by Almodovar, although I love the majority of his work. I just thought that the storyline of this film was fantastic, and that the actors really helped to make the film as amazing as it could be. The fact that this is the only one of his films that I have seen on the big screen in a cinema probably helped, as this added to the atmosphere the first time I saw it. If you have seen any others of Almodovar’s films you will probably like this one, though like his most recent films it is fairly traditional, and different to his earlier controversial ones. I also like the fact that this films is in spanish with english subtitles as I am trying to learn Spanish, but also need the subtitles to be able to understand everything.

I will almost definitely be reviewing more of Almodovar’s films in the future, because as a result of doing a project on him, I have around 15 of his films that I have watched, and I loved the majority.

Information about Almodovar is available in Spanish on request :P 

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