Post by klep on Oct 28, 2019 8:21:46 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/28: Volver
GUEST ESSAY WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor
'What's wrong with you?'
'I'm at a difficult age.'
'You aren't the only one.'
Volver is a film brimming with love. Love for strong, complicated women and the secrets they hold. Love for families, traditions, and superstitions. Love for food and drink. Love for bright colors and tremendously talented actresses. Love for life itself and its outrageous developments that somehow get folded into the fabric of day-to-day routine.
The film opens with Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), her sister Sole (Lola Dueñas), and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) tending to the family grave stone in a small community in rural Spain. Death looms heavy over these women's lives. Raimunda and Sole's aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave) is rapidly fading. Augustina (Blanca Portillo), a lifelong friend of the women is battling an increasingly grim cancer diagnosis. Soon there is a murder and the return of a ghost from the past: Irene (Carmen Maura), Raimunda and Sole's mother long believed to be deceased. But to describe Volver limits what makes it so special: it's a mystery that isn't interested in giving the audience an easy answer. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain's most acclaimed living director, is more curious about how these characters build their lives around death and reconcile with their pasts.
For a film about death, homicide, and sexual abuse, Volver is a remarkably gentle film. Almodóvar shows his mastery by navigating such thorny material with a deft and witty touch and it is a marvel to watch. I have often said I'm an 'Almodóvar agnostic.' Many of his acclaimed films (All About My Mother, Bad Education, and Talk to Her) have left me either cold or actively irritated. Here though, the humor land perfectly, the melodrama feels honest, and the film has tremendous respect for its characters and their dignity. Like the many mouth-watering dishes Raimunda cooks up, Almodóvar blends so many different ingredients and they all compliment each other beautifully. In one of the film's funniest scenes, there is an overhead shot of Raimunda cleaning a knife as the camera peers down her dress. In lesser hands, such a 'sex and death' shot would be groan-worthy. Here it's Almodóvar playfully setting the mood for how life is a grand tragicomic soap opera.
Much of the film's power comes from its absurdly gifted cast. The female ensemble shared the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival and it was well-deserved. Penelope Cruz, who made history as the first Spanish woman to get a Best Actress nomination, gives the finest performance of her career, a performance that feels all the more satisfying after her previous rut in the Hollywood system. By 2006, it seemed many had written Cruz off as little more than a pretty face; films like Blow, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, and Gothika did not help to change this perception. In Volver, the film offers her a magnificent showcase for her comic and dramatic chops, her boundless charisma, and yes, her stunning beauty. She makes Raimunda a character with a timeless iconic air: a working class mother not solely defined by her appearance or for suffering through a series of outrageous situations. She is clever, witty, caring, passionate, and always striving to help her family.
This love for Raimunda and her family is what truly makes the film sparkle. So much of the non-English language cinema that makes a splash in the English speaking market and is about working-class characters either focuses on the gloom or is presented as a zany cartoon. For all the wit on display, Almodóvar knows what the stakes are for his characters and treats them with respect. Volver in that sense plays like one of the grand melodramas from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Through the film, characters keep saying variations of 'I'll tell you more some day.' The conversations will be messy and painful, and yet there is always the hope these women will grow, heal, and find the success they deserve. 'Volver' means 'to return.' For the characters, the past returns to solve unfinished business. For the audiences, Cruz and Almodóvar return for one of the finest achievements of their careers.
For audiences who love rich, vibrant cinema, it's a most pleasant return to how cinema, at its best, is an enlightened form of escapism.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/4: Kiss Me Deadly
NOIR WEEK!
To celebrate Noirvember we're taking a chance to watch one of the finest noirs ever made in Robert Aldritch's Kiss Me Deadly, adapted from a novel by one of the greats of the literary genre, Micky Spillane. Come join us next week for our discussion!
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/29: Watchmen on HBO
Rather than proceed onto the next pairing, the podcast crew is going to put out a special episode next week looking at the first two episodes of David Lindelof's Watchmen series on HBO. Join us Wednesday for our discussion!
GUEST ESSAY WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor
'What's wrong with you?'
'I'm at a difficult age.'
'You aren't the only one.'
Volver is a film brimming with love. Love for strong, complicated women and the secrets they hold. Love for families, traditions, and superstitions. Love for food and drink. Love for bright colors and tremendously talented actresses. Love for life itself and its outrageous developments that somehow get folded into the fabric of day-to-day routine.
The film opens with Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), her sister Sole (Lola Dueñas), and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) tending to the family grave stone in a small community in rural Spain. Death looms heavy over these women's lives. Raimunda and Sole's aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave) is rapidly fading. Augustina (Blanca Portillo), a lifelong friend of the women is battling an increasingly grim cancer diagnosis. Soon there is a murder and the return of a ghost from the past: Irene (Carmen Maura), Raimunda and Sole's mother long believed to be deceased. But to describe Volver limits what makes it so special: it's a mystery that isn't interested in giving the audience an easy answer. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain's most acclaimed living director, is more curious about how these characters build their lives around death and reconcile with their pasts.
For a film about death, homicide, and sexual abuse, Volver is a remarkably gentle film. Almodóvar shows his mastery by navigating such thorny material with a deft and witty touch and it is a marvel to watch. I have often said I'm an 'Almodóvar agnostic.' Many of his acclaimed films (All About My Mother, Bad Education, and Talk to Her) have left me either cold or actively irritated. Here though, the humor land perfectly, the melodrama feels honest, and the film has tremendous respect for its characters and their dignity. Like the many mouth-watering dishes Raimunda cooks up, Almodóvar blends so many different ingredients and they all compliment each other beautifully. In one of the film's funniest scenes, there is an overhead shot of Raimunda cleaning a knife as the camera peers down her dress. In lesser hands, such a 'sex and death' shot would be groan-worthy. Here it's Almodóvar playfully setting the mood for how life is a grand tragicomic soap opera.
Much of the film's power comes from its absurdly gifted cast. The female ensemble shared the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival and it was well-deserved. Penelope Cruz, who made history as the first Spanish woman to get a Best Actress nomination, gives the finest performance of her career, a performance that feels all the more satisfying after her previous rut in the Hollywood system. By 2006, it seemed many had written Cruz off as little more than a pretty face; films like Blow, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, and Gothika did not help to change this perception. In Volver, the film offers her a magnificent showcase for her comic and dramatic chops, her boundless charisma, and yes, her stunning beauty. She makes Raimunda a character with a timeless iconic air: a working class mother not solely defined by her appearance or for suffering through a series of outrageous situations. She is clever, witty, caring, passionate, and always striving to help her family.
This love for Raimunda and her family is what truly makes the film sparkle. So much of the non-English language cinema that makes a splash in the English speaking market and is about working-class characters either focuses on the gloom or is presented as a zany cartoon. For all the wit on display, Almodóvar knows what the stakes are for his characters and treats them with respect. Volver in that sense plays like one of the grand melodramas from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Through the film, characters keep saying variations of 'I'll tell you more some day.' The conversations will be messy and painful, and yet there is always the hope these women will grow, heal, and find the success they deserve. 'Volver' means 'to return.' For the characters, the past returns to solve unfinished business. For the audiences, Cruz and Almodóvar return for one of the finest achievements of their careers.
For audiences who love rich, vibrant cinema, it's a most pleasant return to how cinema, at its best, is an enlightened form of escapism.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/4: Kiss Me Deadly
NOIR WEEK!
To celebrate Noirvember we're taking a chance to watch one of the finest noirs ever made in Robert Aldritch's Kiss Me Deadly, adapted from a novel by one of the greats of the literary genre, Micky Spillane. Come join us next week for our discussion!
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/29: Watchmen on HBO
Rather than proceed onto the next pairing, the podcast crew is going to put out a special episode next week looking at the first two episodes of David Lindelof's Watchmen series on HBO. Join us Wednesday for our discussion!