Volver
Volver, meaning “to return to the place”, is a 2006 film from director Pedro Almodovar. The film competed at Cannes for the Palme d’Or and won two awards at the film festival, one for Best Actress (which was shared by the six main actresses) and one for best screenplay. Volver was filmed in Spain and premiered there in March of 2006. The film faced a limited American release in October of 2007 and Penelope Cruz would wind up being nominated for Best Actress Oscar for her performance. She lost out to Helen Mirren for her performance in The Queen.
Volver is a remarkable film. It is a film about women and their relationships, fundamentally. All of the male characters take a momentous backseat to the activities and the lives of the leading females. The females are written by Almodovar with such elation, liveliness, and zeal for life that the film takes on a life of its own as the result of the screenplay. It helps, of course, that the performances are marvellous and natural. Volver is a film that takes a look at various relationships between women and family, shining a light on all that is right and all that is complex in terms of the relationships between granddaughters and grandmothers, mothers and daughters, and between sisters or friends.
The film stars the striking Penelope Cruz as Raimunda, a woman living in Madrid with her husband Paco and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). Raimunda has a tough life and she is kept busy trying to keep her family afloat and deal with the relationship with her sister, Sole (Lola Duenas). Sole is separated and works as an “illegal” hairdresser out of her home. Sole and Raimunda lost their parents in a fire in their birth village and have clung to one another ever since. As situations change throughout the storyline and the women encounter various difficulties, the past returns and new situations are revealed that change Sole and Raimunda forever.
Without giving away too much, Volver really is about a “return” of sorts and magnificently constructs the relationships to bolster this point. While relying somewhat on a supernatural element that later is explained succinctly, the film captures the doubts and superstitions of the two sisters and their friends with precision and virtue. The characters are arresting and imaginative, fighting their way through their lives through ostensibly impossible situations and encountering thoughts of the afterlife, disease, death, and new life with energy and an optimism that is surely enviable.
Volver is a vivid look at relationships, buoyed exceptionally by Cruz and Duenas’ performances. The other members of the cast are equally exhilarating, from Cobo as Paula to Blanca Portillo as Agustina or Carmen Maura as Irene. These women are fighters and they are filled to the brim with verve and vigour, formulating such vibrant and courageous characterizations so as to completely drive the story almost in spite of of the central notions of the plot. The screenplay assists these immense performances in part, but it is really the instinctive liveliness of the actresses that make Volver such an innovative enchantment.
Cruz works here with a fierceness coupled with a helplessness that throws her right into the annals of great performers, in my view. She’s like a modern day Sophia Loren, channelling visions of infatuation and power while still maintaining a dazzling and expected beauty. Almodovar shoots Cruz with a beauty, too, which is impossible not to do, but his vision of Cruz in this role is more natural and more stunning than any Hollywood glitz could ever accomplish. Within the confines of Volver, Cruz is the natural and gorgeous maternal figure with a mind and drive to work her way through the hardships of life with her head held high and her cleavage ever-present. As a result of this, Cruz channels the modern mother of culture with precision. Almodovar shows us his love for women, old and young, and Cruz plays perfectly within that framework to deliver a commanding performance that I won’t soon forget.
Volver is a remarkable film. It is highly compelling, absorbing, and visually astonishing from frame to frame. Almodovar is a director with whom my own experience is pathetically limited, but he is a director with visualization and an ardour for the realities of women. He captures scenes with exquisiteness and vigour, never skimping on the realities of life and never letting up on the unrefined sensations contained within his rich characters. Volver is a must-see.
Trailer:
