Volver (Spanish pronunciation: [bol'?e?], meaning "to go back") is a 2006 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Headed by actress Penélope Cruz, the film features an ensemble cast also starring Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave. Revolving around an eccentric family of women from a wind-swept region south of Madrid, Cruz plays Raimunda, a working-class woman forced to go to great lengths to protect her 14-year-old daughter Paula. To top off the family crisis, her mother Irene comes back from the dead to tie up loose ends.
The plot originates in Almodóvar's earlier film The Flower of My Secret (1995), where it features as a novel which is rejected for publication but is stolen to form the screenplay of a film named The Freezer. Drawing inspiration from the Italian neorealism of the late 1940s to early 1950s and the work of pioneering directors such as Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, Volver addresses themes like sexual abuse, loneliness and death, mixing the genres of farce, tragedy, melodrama, and magic realism. Set in the La Mancha region, Almodovar's place of birth, the filmmaker cited his upbringing as a major influence on many aspects of the plot and the characters.
Volver premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It received critical acclaim and ultimately won two awards at the festival, for Best Actress (shared by the six main actresses) and Best Screenplay. The film's Spanish premiere was held on March 10, 2006, in Puertollano, Spain, where the filming had taken place. Cruz was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first Spanish woman ever to be nominated in that category.
Video Volver
Plot
Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas) are sisters who grew up in Alcanfor de las Infantas, a small village in La Mancha, but now both live in Madrid. Their parents had died in a fire three years before.
Sole returns for the funeral of her elderly, dementia-stricken Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave). Aunt Paula's neighbour Agustina (Blanca Portillo) confesses to Sole that she has heard Paula talking to the ghost of their mother Irene (Carmen Maura). Sole encounters the ghost herself, and when she returns to Madrid, she discovers that the ghost has stowed away in the trunk of her car. Sole agrees to let Irene stay with her: Sole operates a hair salon in her apartment, and Irene will assist her. Irene says that she wants to know why Raimunda hates her, and why she herself is afraid to reveal herself to Raimunda.
Meanwhile, Raimunda and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) have a different death to cope with. Paula's father Paco (Antonio de la Torre) attempts to rape her, claiming that he is not really her father, and Paula stabs him in self-defense. Raimunda hides the corpse in the deep-freezer of a nearby restaurant with an absent owner, Emilio (Carlos Blanco). When members of a film crew happen upon the restaurant, Raimunda strikes a deal to cater for them, and finds herself back in the restaurant business.
Raimunda reveals to Paula that Paco was not her biological father, and promises to tell her the whole story later. Agustina is diagnosed with terminal cancer and goes to Madrid for treatment. Raimunda visits her in the hospital. Agustina asks Raimunda if she has seen her mother's ghost. Agustina hopes that the ghost will be able to tell her about her own mother, who disappeared three years before. Raimunda leaves Paula with Sole, rents a van and transports the freezer to a convenient spot by the river Júcar. While staying in Sole's apartment, Paula meets her grandmother's ghost and grows close to her. The next night, Agustina comes to the restaurant, and Raimunda reveals two startling secrets: her father and Agustina's mother were having an affair, and Agustina's mother disappeared on the same day that Raimunda's parents died.
Sole tells Raimunda that she has seen their mother's ghost, who is in the next room with Paula. Irene admits that she did not, in fact, die in the fire, and reveals the whole truth. The reason for Raimunda and Irene's estrangement is that Raimunda's father sexually abused her, resulting in the birth of Paula; thus, Paula is Raimunda's daughter and her sister. Irene tells Raimunda that she did not know about the abuse until Aunt Paula told her about it, and never forgave herself for failing to stop it.
Irene explains that she found her husband in bed with another woman and started the fire that killed them both. The ashes that had been presumed to be Irene's were, in fact, the ashes of Agustina's mother, the woman with whom Irene's husband was having an affair. After the fire, Irene wandered for several days in the countryside, until she decided that she wanted to turn herself in. But first, she wanted to say goodbye to Paula, who had lost the ability to look after herself and with whom Irene had been living prior to setting the fire. Paula welcomed Irene home as if nothing had happened, and Irene stayed, caring for her sister and expecting that the police would come soon to arrest her. Due to the superstitious and closed nature of the community, however, the police never came and the residents, accustomed to tales of the dead returning, explained the rare sightings of Irene as "un fantasma", a ghost.
The family reunites at Aunt Paula's house. Irene reveals her presence to Agustina, who believes her to be a ghost. Irene pledges to stay in the village and care for Agustina as her cancer worsens, saying to Raimunda that it was the least that she could do after killing Agustina's mother. Raimunda visits her mother at Agustina's house, and the two embrace and promise to repair their relationship.
Maps Volver
Cast
- Penélope Cruz as Raimunda, a mother living in Madrid's suburbs
- Carmen Maura as Irene, the mother of Raimunda and Sole
- Yohana Cobo as Paula
- Blanca Portillo as Agustina
- Lola Dueñas as Soledad ("Sole")
- Chus Lampreave as Aunt Paula
- Antonio de la Torre as Paco
- María Isabel Díaz as Regina
- Carlos Blanco as Emilio
- Neus Sanz as Inés
- Leandro Rivera as Auxiliar Producción
- Yolanda Ramos as Presentadora TV
Production
Origins
Volver was first developed by Pedro Almodóvar, based on a story actress Marisa Paredes told him during the production of their 1995 film The Flower of My Secret, another film set in the La Mancha region. The story revolved around a heartbroken Puerto Rican man who opts to kill his mother-in-law in hopes of reuniting with his beloved wife, who left him and broke off contact, at her mother's funeral. Owning a restaurant, he leaves it in his neighbour's care, when he is about to kill his victim. Fascinated by the story and its background, Almodóvar decided on incorporating elements of it into the screenplay of The Flower of My Secret, making it the plot of a movie-within-the-movie based on the main character's novel in the film. While working on the script for Volver, he would however settle on outlining the role of the neighbour Raimunda, as the film's central character, while Emilio, the Puerto Rican, eventually became a supporting role only.
Almodóvar says of the story that "it is precisely about death...More than about death itself, the screenplay talks about the rich culture that surrounds death in the region of La Mancha, where I was born. It is about the way (not tragic at all) in which various female characters, of different generations, deal with this culture".
Casting
Penélope Cruz was the first reported to have landed one of the starring roles in Volver, having previously worked with Almodóvar on his films Live Flesh (1997) and All About My Mother (1999). In preparing for her role, the actress watched Italian neorealism films from the 1950s, many of them starring Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale, to study "the Italian maggiorate" that Almodóvar envisioned for her performance in the film. Cruz, who had to wear a prosthetic bottom while filming, noted the role of Raimunda as "the best gift an actress can get".
Carmen Maura, the star of Almodóvar's debut Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980) and five additional films with the director, was the first to be cast in the film alongside Cruz. Her engagement marked her first collaboration with Almodóvar after a period of 18 years and a reported fallout during the production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1989). Maura commented on the "borderline character" of Irene as a "very complicated [role to play]".
Music
The tango "Volver" by Carlos Gardel with lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera is converted to flamenco and is sung in the movie with the voice of Estrella Morente and lip synced by Penélope Cruz. The dance tune playing at the party prior to Raimunda's lip syncing is called "Good Thing" by the British three-piece indie-dance combo Saint Etienne.
Reception
Box office
In the US alone, the film had made $12,897,993 (15.4% of total) at the box office after 26.4 weeks of release in 689 theatres. The box office figure from the rest of the world is somewhere in the region of $71,123,059 (84.6% of total) according to Box Office Mojo. The total worldwide gross is estimated at $84,021,052.
As of January 22, 2007, the film had grossed $12,241,181 at the Spanish box office.
Critical reception
Fotogramas, Spain's top film magazine, gave it a five-star rating. Upon its U.S. release, A. O. Scott made it an "NYT Critics' Pick" and wrote:
To relate the details of the narrative--death, cancer, betrayal, parental abandonment, more death--would create an impression of dreariness and woe. But nothing could be further from the spirit of Volver which is buoyant without being flip, and consoling without ever becoming maudlin. Mr. Almodóvar acknowledges misfortune--and takes it seriously--from a perspective that is essentially comic. Very few filmmakers have managed to smile so convincingly in the face of misery and fatality: Jean Renoir and Billy Wilder come immediately to mind, and Mr. Almodóvar, if he is not yet their equal, surely belongs in their company. Volver is often dazzling in its artifice--José Luis Alcaine's ripe cinematography, Alberto Iglesias's suave, heart-tugging score-- but it is never false. It draws you in, invites you to linger and makes you eager to return.
Roger Ebert gave it his top rating of (four stars out of 4), calling it "enchanting, gentle, transgressive" and notes "Almodovar is above all a director who loves women--young, old, professional, amateur, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, dead, alive. Here his cheerful plot combines life after death with the concealment of murder, success in the restaurant business, the launching of daughters and with completely serendipitous solutions to (almost) everyone's problems".
As of 2015, the film has a "Certified Fresh" rating from critics at Rotten Tomatoes, scoring a 92% based on 148 "fresh" reviews out of 161 critics, with the general consensus being "Volver catches director Pedro Almodóvar and star Penélope Cruz at the peak of their respective powers, in service of a layered, thought-provoking film".
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2006.
- 2nd - Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
- 3rd - Glenn Kenny, Premiere
- 3rd - Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
- 3rd - Richard Corliss, Time magazine
- 3rd - Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- 4th - Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
- 4th - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
- 4th - Ray Bennett, The Hollywood Reporter
- 5th - Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
- 6th - Claudia Puig, USA Today
- 6th - Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club
- 7th - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
- 8th - A. O. Scott, The New York Times
- 8th - Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club
- 8th - Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
- 8th - Stephen Holden, The New York Times
- 9th - Shawn Levy, The Oregonian
- 10th - David Ansen, Newsweek
- 10th - Lou Lumenick, New York Post
General top ten
- Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
- Carrie Rickey, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
- Liam Lacey and Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail
Awards and nominations
- (Awards won are in bold)
Volver received a standing ovation when it was screened as part of the official selection at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Best Screenplay award as well as the award for Best Actress -- which was shared by the six stars of the film.
Cruz was nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards. The film won the National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It received two nominations at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress for Penélope Cruz as well as Best Foreign Language Film.
- 19th European Film Awards (4/6):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
- Best Cinematographer (José Luis Alcaine)
- Best Composer (Alberto Iglesias)
- Best Director (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Best Film
- Best Screenwriter (Pedro Almodóvar)
- 59th Cannes Film Festival (2/2):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo and Chus Lampreave)
- Best Screenplay (Pedro Almodóvar)
- 60th British Academy Film Awards (0/2):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 12th Empire Awards (1/1):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
- 79th Academy Awards (0/1):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
- 12th Critics' Choice Awards (0/2):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 19th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (0/2):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 32nd César Awards (0/1):
- Best Foreign Film
- 78th National Board of Review Awards (1/1):
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 11th Satellite Awards (1/4):
- Best Foreign Language Film
- Best Actress - Drama (Penélope Cruz)
- Best Director (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Best Screenplay - Original (Pedro Almodóvar)
- 21st Goya Awards (5/14):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
- Best Director (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Best Film
- Best Original Score (Alberto Iglesias)
- Best Supporting Actress (Carmen Maura)
- Best Cinematography (José Luis Alcaine)
- Best Costume Design (Sabine Daigeler)
- Best Make-Up and Hairstyles (Massimo Gattabrusi and Ana Lozano)
- Best Production Design (Salvador Parra)
- Best Production Supervision (Toni Novella)
- Best Screenplay - Original (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Best Sound
- Best Supporting Actress (Lola Dueñas)
- Best Supporting Actress (Blanca Portillo)
- 7th Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards (1/1):
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 64th Golden Globe Awards (0/2):
- Best Actress - Drama (Penélope Cruz)
- Best Foreign Language Film
- 13th Screen Actors Guild Awards (0/1):
- Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
References
External links
- Audio and Transcript from a 4 August 2006 interview about Volver with Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz at the National Film Theatre
- Volver on IMDb
- Volver at AllMovie
- Volver at Rotten Tomatoes
- Volver at Metacritic
- "Volver". sonyclassics.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-16.
- Volver Production Notes from moviegrande.com
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments