Volver

Last Friday I saw 'Volver' in Madrid. This is Almodóvar at his best - he is the master of turning the most amazing fictional scripts into real life stories.

This one feels a bit more real than 'La Mala Educación' for instance maybe because it's closer to the director's heart and feelings - the movie and characters are based in Castilla La Mancha, Spain's heart and Almodóvar's homeland.

Penélope Cruz is amazing in the movie looking as beautiful and sensual as Sophia Loren. (She should definitely return to Spain, she is at lost in Hollywood). Together with Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave they have scoped the Award for Best Actresses at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Pedro Almodóvar won the Award for Best Screenplay.

The soundtrack composed by Alberto Iglesias is also stunning as usual and merges itself perfectly in the movie scenes.

Here is the synopsis of the movie written by Almodóvar himself:

Three generations of women survive easterly wind, fire, madness, superstition and even death through goodness, lies and an unlimited vitality.

They are: Raimunda (Penélope Cruz), married to an unemployed worker, and her teenager daughter (Yohana Cobo). Sole (Lola Dueñas), her sister, who earns her living as hairdresser. And their mother (Carmen Maura), dead in a fire, with her husband. This character comes as an apparition first to her sister (Chus Lampreave) and then to Sole, even though the ones she had unsettled affairs with are Raimunda and her village neighbour, Agustina (Blanca Portillo).

‘Volver’ is not a surreal comedy, though it might seem so at times. The living and the dead live together with no problem, provoking hilarious situations and others full of deep and genuine emotion. It is a movie about the culture of death in my native region, La Mancha. My folks there live it in astonishing simplicity. The way in which the dead are still present in their lifes, the richness and humanity of their rites makes it possible for the dead to never really die.

‘Volver’ shatters all clichés of a dark Spain and shows a Spain that is as real as it is opposed. A Spain white, spontaneous, fun, fearless, fair and with solidarity