![]() Raimunda (Cruz) and her sister Sole lost their parents in a tragic fire years ago.or did they? Superstitious villagers claim that the girls' departed mother, Irene (Maura), has been seen wandering around their Aunt Paula's home. A luminous Penélope Cruz leads an ensemble of gifted actresses, including Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). Another reference point – Visconti’s Bellissima (1952), starring Anna Magnani – is glimpsed on a TV set.From two-time Academy Award®-winner Pedro Almodóvar (2003, Best Original Screenplay, Talk to Her 2000, Best Foreign Language Film, All About My Mother) comes Volver, a comedic and compassionate tribute to women and their resilience in the face of life's most outrageous tribulations. Maura’s character recalls her role in Almodóvar’s What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984). ![]() Fusing the hysterical and the mundane with compassion, wit and grace, Volver combines tragedy and farce to the benefit of both. Many other excellent actors round out the almost exclusively female company. Rooted in the filmmaker’s own homeland of La Mancha, the film stars Penélope Cruz as a city girl returning home for a funeral, and former Almodóvar mainstay Carmen Maura as her mother, reappearing long after her apparent death. Volver is one of the supreme instances of the latter, a beautiful tale of mothers and daughters, family secrets, storytelling and forgiveness. ![]() Pedro Almodóvar has suggested that his films can be divided into ‘male’ or ‘female’ stories – the former dealing predominantly with desire and revenge, the latter with reconciliation and perseverance. ![]() It’s a tenuous proposition, but not unexpected from a director whose acclaim greatly depends on his penchant for sisterly idealisation.” ![]() “Volver includes a brace of fart jokes, pointing up the moral that women are happier with their bodily functions than men. ![]()
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January 2023
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