I Finally Saw Volver

Just got back from seeing Volver.

It's a well crafted, well acted, very melodramatic picture.

To call it a 'women's picture' wouldn't be an insult, and shouldn't scare any men away from seeing it.

Penelope Cruz is a fantastic actress in Spanish, in English . . . not so much.

She deserves serious consideration for her performance come awards time, as does Carmen Maura in a pitch perfect supporting role.

You are unlikely to see better performances this year from any other actors in any other language.

Not to slight all the other actresses who enliven this tale, they're all excellent, but Carmen and Penelope really stand out.

Pedro Almodovar is one of the best directors around, and he's in his prime, even if he seems to return to the same themes over and over again.

As far as the picture, there's really nothing I can say beyond all the positive reviews (shockingly, at least to me, this film has an even better percentage of good reviews) that would convince you to see this if you weren't already convinced, so I won't try.

But, one thing that puzzles me, this film deserves a wider release. In the United States we have a plethora of native Spanish speakers, and their first generation offspring, who would eat this stuff up with a spoon if it was sold to them the right way. The Spanish speaking community in the United States is large enough, wealthy enough, and diverse enough to support a few quality "art house" movies each year. That companies like Sony Picture Classics don't figure out a way to sell these kinds of pictures to those kinds of folks is incomprehensible to me.

Possibly they are doing the NYC/LA thing until they get their expected nominations, then they'll give it a wider release hoping the awards buzz will expand the market.

If it seems at all intriguing to you, then go see it when it hits your town, and even if it looks like the kind of soapy mush you can't stand, don't let that stop you, this film transcends the genre that gave it birth.

I've Only Just Begun to Pimp . . .

previous Volver posts, here and here

Volver opens Friday in LA/NYC, and I'm excited about the prospect of getting to finally see Pedro Almodóvar's latest film.

In today's LAT there's a big feature article on Penélope Cruz. Read it already. Obviously, she's as talented and intelligent as she is beautiful. Too bad she seems to have awful taste in men.

Also, the writer lucky enough to interview Ms. Cruz is someone familiar to me. Prof. Josh Kun taught in the English Dept. at UC Riverside while I attended (he's since left, but here's an LAist.com interview from last year). He was quite popular, but I never got a chance to take any of his courses, but those that I know that did, regarded him highly.

Getting All Hot and Bothered About Volver

MY PAST VOLVER POST HERE

Callimachus at Done With Mirrors mentions a post regarding Almodovar's forthcoming film Volver, and another website's speculation around wordplay.

Cal's post is a good 'un, full of etymological tastiness. The article he links is more speculative.

I agree with him that the speculation is decidedly 'over-determined' and highly unlikely to have been an intentional double entendre.

However, Sony Classics did decide to not change the title as they so often do with Almodovar films. Sometimes the title changes screw up the meaning of the title, sometimes the title changes are of no consequence. Maybe they plan on marketing the film to both English speaking and more upscale Spanish speaking audiences in the United States (given the vast and growing spanish speaking audience in the US of A, the possibility of a 'Spanish language art house' crowd large enough to support quality films from Spain, South America and Mexico grows, also).

I prefer when foreign films keep their foreign titles, though if a film gets released here with an English title, it gets to be a little pretentious to insistently refer to the film by its original title.

Breathless, oh you mean A Bout de Souffle, well yes that is a good film (I would love to see a Canadian made film revolving around a plucky group of chefs in Edmonton or Toronto titled About the Souffle)

Seven Samurai, oh you mean Shichinin no samurai, well yes, that may be one of the greatest films ever (though the Roger Corman made Space Opera rip-off (buried in this lengthy slagging off of Lucas committed by John Scalzi is an appreciation of Battle Beyond the Stars) of the John Sturges made Western rip-off might be a more enjoyable flick).

Back to Volver, only a few weeks away till it will be shown here in Los Angeles, Woohoo!

I'll be there opening weekend, on that you could wager with confidence.

The trailer below for your enjoyment.

Also, the poster for the film.

When this film hits your town, go see it already.