I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 27 years and still don’t know a lick of Spanish.
Sure, I can get by with the occasional gracias or muy bien, but that’s about it. Yet, despite my foolish ignorance in learning the language in a city with an enormous Latin population, I’m still drawn to Spanish cinema, specifically the work of the country’s most influential director, Pedro Almodovar.
It’s impossible to be a cineaste and not appreciate the work of Almodovar, who grew up in the poor area of La Mancha and began directing films as a 25-year-old in 1974 — he was also a part-time actor then, and still occasionally makes guest appearances in his own productions — and, over the past 20 years, has seen his popularity move way beyond Spain to become a global icon.
His latest and one of his best movies, “Volver,” is a great starting point for anyone unfamiliar with Almodovar’s immense body of work. If foreign-language titles scare you away, be not afraid. Almodovar’s films are similar to reading a great book, both tragic and funny at the same time, yet with colorful and vibrant pictures to accompany the text.
And what beautiful pictures they are. “Volver” stars Penelope Cruz, one of Almodovar’s stable of Spanish actresses he uses on a rotating basis (more on that later). The film captures both Cruz’s sculptured beauty and her movie-star qualities. There may not be a more gorgeous woman on the planet than Cruz, and her performance here is certainly Oscar worthy.
Cruz plays Raimunda, married to a louse of a husband with a teenage daughter. When her morally devoid spouse makes a sexually threatening gesture against the girl, the event turns tragic and Cruz’s instincts as a protective mother kick in immediately, doing whatever it takes to protect her daughter.
Death becomes life-affirmingLike a majority of Almodovar’s films, “Volver” tackles death, but in complex ways — much more than just sorrow and tears. He examines how dying affects the lives of those close to the deceased — and, somehow, turns it into a life-affirming event.
Almodovar uses loss of life in “Volver” — Cruz’s mother has passed away but her sister believes Mom has come back from the great beyond and is able to blend in and interact with her children as if she never left — as a way to emotionally reconnect with those still living. For Almodovar, death is a device to find out what makes his lead protagonist tick — and one that has brought him great success.
Says Almodovar: “The living and the dead co-exist without any discord, causing situations that are either hilarious or filled with deep, genuine emotion.” So, basically, we’re not sure whether to laugh or cry, but however we feel, those emotions are sure to be turned upside-down by the movie’s end.
As for the mother of Cruz’s character in “Volver,” who had been dead for some time but suddenly reappears, Almodovar says that premise goes back to his childhood, when he would see adults speak to the dead, either at cemeteries or openly in the streets. He wasn’t sure what to make of it then but seems better suited to figure it out now in his films.
“It’s a tribute to the social rites practiced by the people of my village with regard to death and the dead. The dead never die. I have always admired and envied the naturalness with which my neighbors talk of the dead, cultivate their memory and tend their graves constantly. I have the optimistic feeling that I have been impregnated with all that and that some of it has stayed with me.”
“Talk to Her,” the 2002 film that brought Almodovar his Oscar for best screenplay, is hovered by death. In it, two women lie in comas, unable to communicate with those who watch over them.
In 1999’s Oscar-winning “All About My Mother,” the handsome son of longtime Spanish actress Cecilia Roth is killed in a car accident. When she moves from Madrid to Barcelona to try and make sense of the tragedy, she encounters a series of women — housewives, actresses, nuns, prostitutes — that enter her world and find new meaning for themselves.
Great roles for womenThis might be the filmmaker’s greatest strength. There may be no greater lover of women than Almodovar. He makes no judgments, no condemnations of how these women conduct themselves, make a living or survive in an often unstable family structure. Almodovar embraces the camaraderie of women. He finds their ability to bond with each other in the most dire of circumstances extremely moving.
“The characters in my films are assassins, rapists and so on, but I don’t treat them as criminals. I talk about their humanity,” he explains.
In both “Mother” and “Volver,” there are several women who sell their bodies on the streets for either cash or drugs. The director, however, doesn’t cast them as lowlifes or unworthy. Rather, he sees them as supporting themselves by any means necessary.
And the actresses who play these women have a special bonding with Almodovar as well. With Cruz — their initial pairing was 1997’s “Live Flesh” — who went on to become better known to American audiences in films such as “Vanilla Sky” (she played the same role in the Spanish version “Abre los Ojos”), she can thank the director for utilizing her as so many diverse characters and helping her blossom as a big-screen star.
The aforementioned Cecilia Roth has had eight collaborations with Almodovar, and, for the actors, Spanish standouts Javier Bardem (“The Sea Inside”) and Antonio Banderas each had parts in Almodovar’s magnificent “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” The 1988 film captured not only an Academy Award nomination for best foreign film but a staggering 16 Goya Award nominations (the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars), ultimately winning five, including for best picture and screenplay.
Looking over all the awards Almodovar has won emphasizes what he has accomplished on a global scale. The director-screenwriter-producer has won the highest film honors in Spain, the U.S., Britain, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, France, Italy and Canada, including major trophies at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Toronto film festivals.
The hugely entertaining “Volver” should only add to the list of treasures Almodovar has given worldwide audiences. They’ll be happy to explain how much they adore him. In any language.
Stuart Levine is a senior editor at Variety. He can be reached at stuart.levine@variety.com.