A group of women deal with death, sexual assault, and possibly ghosts in 2006's Volver. Writer/director Pedro Almodovar continues to explore his fascination with women in this sweet, amusing, and slightly messy portrayal of a community.
I think I'd seen this movie before. Maybe I saw another Almodovar movie starring Penelope Cruz. I'm pretty sure I saw this at the Landmark theatre in Hillcrest, San Diego when it was new. Or maybe not. I sure miss those Landmark movie theatres. Googling just now, I see the Landmark in Hillcrest closed in January this year. I suppose the wonderful indie movie theatre will probably be replaced by another fake sushi restaurant of the kind that replaced the wonderful bookstore in the same neighbourhood or anonymous office space. Or maybe just lie vacant as the owner of the space awaits some soulless entity to fork over an obscene amount of money.
The poster art for Volver is striking and its style is replicated in the animated closing credits which feature coalescing borders of spinning flowers reminiscent of Saul Bass. There is a kind of Hitchcockian quality to some aspects of the film, particularly the sequence in which Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) must hide her husband's corpse. Her daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo), had killed him after he'd tried to rape her. Raimunda stashes the body in the freezer of the restaurant next door. The owner of the restaurant had entrusted Raimunda with the keys while he was out of town. When a film crew spots her coming out of the place, they ask if they could eat there on a regular basis during production. She can't resist the opportunity and borrows food from other women in the community and opens the restaurant to customers.
Meanwhile, Raimunda's sister, Sole (Lola Duenas), hears the voice of their dead mother coming from the trunk of her car. The title of the film means "return" and seems to refer not only to the dead returning but to unresolved issues manifesting anew. Mostly it's a funny, cosy movie.
Volver is available on The Criterion Channel.
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