By Julian Wood
What is it about the prospect of recent Pedro Almodovar films that makes critics salivate? Maybe it’s because the little Spanish maestro has settled so beautifully into his craft. In the early days of Matador and Law Of Desire, Pedro was all about getting as many freaked out, crazy people and situations in one room and having them all go off at once. Now he is comfortable to curb the outrageousness when his story demands it, and the writer/director has consistently come closer to a kind of magical realism with his post-2000 work. He has also blossomed as a gay artist who uses camp and “queer” positions to criticise the straight world, but also as one who puts women at the centre of the caring world.
In his 2006 tour de force, Volver, the great Carmen Maura plays Irene, a mother who tries to fix up in an earthly afterlife the troubles she left behind. Her “return” is very material to her daughters (solid ensemble performances all round), which sets up a tension between them. This is Blithe Spirit territory, but Almodovar uses the premise to really explore the emotional lives of his protagonists to great comic and dramatic effect.
Much of the spotlight will fall on Penelope Cruz (as Maura’s most headstrong daughter), whose sometimes weak choices in Hollywood films may have previously divided her audience. Back in her native Spain, she blossoms once again as a serious talent. With her pushed up cleavage, high heels and even a false bottom (apparently), comparisons with the young Sophia Loren are inevitable. Cruz got the Best Actress Award at Cannes for this richly charismatic turn. “As much as the film is about mortality, it’s also about maternity,” Almodovar has said of Volver. “So I wanted Penelope to be this voluptuous image of maternity. I really wanted her to compete with two images. For me, the greatest images of motherhood on film are Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani in the Italian neo-realist movies of the fifties. These women were really curvaceous. They were also mothers. And they also worked. They showed that a woman can be gorgeous and a poor housewife at the same time. So that’s what I tried to do with Penelope. I shot her with much admiration. I’m gay, but I can tell you that I was completely in love with the body of Penelope, and that I shot her with passion and almost desire. I didn’t try to hide the attraction that I felt for her. She is the best image for me of a Mediterranean mother.”
Volver is a great mix of sentiment, wisdom and mischief, and stands as one of Pedro Almodovar’s most consistent, controlled, and accessible films.
