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Pen's pals beyond grave
VOLVER
Directed by Pedro Almodvar
Certificate 15
BIZARRE, weird, original and witty: Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has a reputation for making off-beat cinema and Volver is one that will add to his already sparkling back-catalogue.
It is a humane film that focuses on the lives – and deaths – of a family from La Mancha.
The leading characters are two sisters, Raimuda (Penelope Cruz, pictured) and Sole (Lola Duenes), and their recently departed aunt, whose final days were made easier by some nursing provided the ghost of their long-dead mother.
As Raimuda, Penelope Cruz graces her scenes like a ballet dancer. She lives with her daughter Paula in Madrid and works hard as an airport cleaner.
Her husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) is as lazy as they come, and also has a nastier side.
Raimuda’s daily drudgery is turned upside down when her daughter kills Paco while defending herself from being raped. Raimuda stashes the body of the recently deceased in the freezer of a restaurant.
This could be a film in itself, but is merely part of the backdrop.
Sole makes her living as a hairdresser, based in her parlour.
We discover the pair lost their mother Irene in a fire years back, and their aunt Paula, who still lives there, keeps the memory of her sister alive with constant references.
When Aunt Paula dies suddenly, the family travel back home to their village. They are told that Irene’s spirit had returned to help Paula through her final days. It so transpires that Irene returns to live with Sole and even helps out with her hairdressing.
The Spanish Catholic sensibility makes for some interesting systems of mourning – the traditions of wearing black and creating shrines is only one step away from imagining visitations from the deceased.
If the memory of the dead is kept alive by such continuous refreshments (the opening scene shows a graveyard full of relatives frantically scrubbing headstones) and the clerical nature of the society encourages a belief in the afterlife and a non-sceptical viewpoint, then is it a surprise the bereaved imagine the spirit can return, too?
Almodovar makes this point in a graceful way, with the help from characters that hold the attention and provide flashes of humour. |
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