Volver (I) (2006)

After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life.

Director:

Pedro Almodóvar

Writer:

Pedro Almodóvar

Stars:

Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 54 wins & 53 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Penélope Cruz	...	Raimunda
Carmen Maura	...	Irene
Lola Dueñas	...	Sole
Blanca Portillo	...	Agustina
Yohana Cobo	...	Paula
Chus Lampreave	...	Tía Paula
Antonio de la Torre	...	Paco
Carlos Blanco	...	Emilio
María Isabel Díaz	...	Regina (as Mª Isabel Díaz)
Neus Sanz	...	Inés
Leandro Rivera	...	Auxiliar Producción
Pepa Aniorte	...	Vecina
Yolanda Ramos	...	Presentadora TV
Elvira Cuadrupani	...	Vecina
María Alfonsa Rosso	...	Vecina (as Alfonsa Rosso)

Storyline

Raimunda, her daughter Paula and her sister Sole travel from Madrid to the windy and superstitious village of Alcanfor de las Infantas to visit the grave of their mother and aunt Irene, who died years ago in a fire with her husband. Then they visit Irene's sister Paula, an old senile aunt that raised Raimunda after the death of her parents that insists to tell them that Irene is alive and living with her; later, they go to the house of her neighbor and friend Agustina, who gives a support to Paula. They return to Madrid, and after a hard day of work, Raimunda meets her daughter completely distraught at the bus stop waiting for her. When they arrive home, Paula tells that she killed her unemployed father Paco, who was completely drunk and tried to rape her. While Raimunda is hiding his body, Sole calls her to tell that their beloved aunt Paula had died. On the next morning, Sole travels alone to the funeral, and when she returns to Madrid, she finds her mother hidden in the trunk of ...

---

Plot Keywords:

village | return | fire | death | neighbor | 

---

Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexual content and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [es] Official site [it]

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

26 January 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

To Return

Filming Locations:

Almagro, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$276,140 (Brazil) (10 November 2006)

Gross:

$12,899,702 (USA) (18 May 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+ España, El Deseo S.A., Ministerio de Cultura

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Penélope Cruz became the first Spanish actress ever to be nominated for Best Lead Actress at the Oscars.

---

Quotes

Raimunda: [to self] It smells of... farts, my mother's farts.

---

Connections

Featured in 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2007)

---

Soundtracks

"Volver"
Music by Carlos Gardel
Lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera
Performed by Estrella Morente

User Reviews

Wonderful, warm and touching!

Rare are the movies who celebrate everything that life offers. Joy and despair, love and hate, living and dying, strength and weakness, good and bad. While many movies reduce life to either good or bad, painting a very simple picture of human relationships, Almodovars movies display a wide range of emotions, where a person is a Saint and a Whore, where people laugh and cry at the same time, achieving a sense of truth that other movies seldom touch.

An everlasting wind soughs around a small village in La Mancha and the cemetery, where women are cleaning the graves of their dear ones, fighting the winds destruction of their work. This opening scene already sets the tone of the rest of the movie. There are few scenes with men present, the most prominent dies within the first half hour of the movie. In Almodovars universe the women take care of everything, they are hardworking, caring, difficult and solidarity, sharing their intimate moments with each other.

As usual there are plenty of weird, funny and tragic moments in this story (which makes it almost impossible to give a summary of the incidents). The Return from the title is true in many respects, like in all his movies it has multiple meanings. But unlike his early efforts the story here is less over the top, rings truer and is leaving a big emotional impact on you. It's impossible not to be touched by this film.

As always he assembles plenty of highly talented actresses. The biggest surprise here is Penelope Cruz, who finally fulfills the promise she displayed already in "All about my mother". While her performances in American movies were often rather bleak, here she's a force of nature, strong, full of endless energy, a wide range of emotions constantly on her face. This doesn't mean, that any of the other actresses stand back. They are so perfectly cast that it's easy to see why they were all given an acting award at Cannes.