Pedro Almodovar cannot be watched just once. He is like a very, very unique family member who needs to be 'lavished with attention' [hint, this phrase comes from Coppola's "Lost in Translation"].
The Spanish director has a tendency to focus on the concept of 'Mother' a whole lot. He sees the 'Mother' character in everything of significance in the narrative and some would even say that his work lacks a healthy balance between the feminine and the masculine. And I happen to think that this overt femininity is what marks his creations and allows them to permanently land on one's 'reel' memory.
And his latest "Volver" is a tribute to Mother.
If one's in the mood to investigate family dynamics varying from disturbingly strange ones to throughly altruistic samples, it's not a bad idea to get a crash course on Almodovarisms. But while you're at it, stay away from his "Bad Education." He most clearly missed the point there but I can forgive him. Perfect genuines are a total bore. I like my artists to have a healthy knack for screwing up. That makes them more adorable to me. And Almodovar certainly has a good measure of the adorable in him.
Watch "Volver", it, most likely, will not disappoint you.
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2 comments:
don't forget the self-serving, insane mother in what have i done to deserve this?. to paint a mother in such a monstruous fashion, yet still invoke sympathy from the audience and be comedic all the while is something few writers/directors can do. aside from my general appreciation for this film and overall love for almodovar's films, the english subtitle translation in what have i done to deserve this? is hilarious...
Yes, very good piece. I don't know anyone else who captures the complexity of such a social and biological phenomenon, i.e., the 'mother' figure, better than him.
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