Unlike other European cinemas, Spanish cinema hasn’t had a major influence on the American audience because of Spain’s directors getting limited exposure in America, until very recently (Last Sunday at the Oscar's recent). Under the positive influence and recognition of Pedro Almodovar, Spanish cinema is now a normally developed cinematic European Nation.
Despite his initial reputation of promoting outrageous and shocking cinema he has become known as an auteur that also has a very sensitive side to his work. He is an iconic reference to his country and the main director in a nation with a limited background in freedom of context of their films. He is the most celebrated and respected of any director in gay cinema.
His growing up in a humble and traditional family, mixed with his flamboyant life style he lived while in Madrid, his double life of postal worker by day and cross dressing stage presence at night, mirrors the duality found in all of his characters. While they might appear very normal or very extravagant they are always both at heart.
Almodovar’s decadence is often a disguise for his sentimental and traditional humanist values. Love and acceptance are very important to all characters and their ability to procure happiness. Humor is another very important element to Pedro’s films as it can transcend a lot of taboos and subversive behavior.
The apparent subversive nature of Almodovar’s films are primarily an exercise in freedom of speech. He feels like it is his duty to help erase the 30 years of repression brought on by Franco’s dictatorship. His films tell a side of a life a lot of us may not be aware of. Much like Truffaut, Almodovar celebrates the majesty of women which is a main focal point in almost all of their films.
Volver opens as Raimunda (Penélope Cruz, Pedro’s 3rd and current muse), her younger sister, Sole (Lola Dueñas), and other women in the village are cleaning and maintaining tombstones. Raimunda’s mother Irene (Carmen Maura, Pedro’s 2nd muse) and father both died 14 years earlier in a fire that engulfed the village they lived in. The events of the fire are only gradually revealed but are central to the story.
Raimunda, a janitor, moved to Madrid and started a family with her husband Paco. Her teenage daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) defends herself from Paco’s advancements after finding out she isn’t his daughter. Raimunda puts it all on her shoulders and hides the truth from everyone.
While returning to La Mancha, because of the death of Raimunda and Sole’s aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave), they learn that the village, and specifically the neighbor Augustina a long time friend of Raimunda, has been seeing visions of their mother Irene for years. Paula’s house is much better kept than someone in her condition could have done alone, and on top of that the women believe the place smells like their mother’s farts. No Lie.
Thematically the film focuses on return, both in the sightings of her dead mother Irene and the return of Pedro to his roots. He was born in La Mancha. This is important because as you follow Pedro’s career you notice that he makes films about the areas in which he lived and the experiences he has had. His first film Labyrinth of Passions, shot on Super 8, was a snap shot of “La Movida” movement he was apart of in Madrid. In this case, Volver celebrates his mother and her death. 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 [he] was born. It is about the way (not tragic at all) in which various female characters, of different generations, deal with this culture.”
Pedro's films have come a long way from dealing with nymphos and drug addicts. While hardly anyone in Volver is a perfect character they all exhibit the traditional Pedro style. They may have a dark side, but overall they are characters who seek out love and wish to be loved. This film ultimately feels like a response to his earlier film High Heels in which a woman is abandoned by her mother and she yearns for that pressence in her life.
Where this film abandons some of Pedro’s transgender traits, it wholeheartedly embraces his stance that art (novels, film, music, etc.) is a source of resurrection. In all of his other films there is a tie in to art that keeps the main character sane or offers them a way out. In Volver it is the film crew who stops by the restaruante, where Raimunda is temporarily keeping her dead husband’s body, that need a place to eat and relax during the shooting of their movie. She is able to break free from her confines as a janitor and finds a new way to develop into a mother who can do what her mother couldn’t do for her. Take care of her daughter when she is in trouble. Raimunda is able to fogive her mother and allow the family to reconnect. The new untraditional family that emerges is not only much stronger and closer than any family they have previously known, but is also one made up completely of women.