I saw Volver in theatre soon after it was released and decided it was the best Almodovar experienced so finding that it was being shown on Film Four on Thursday evening I could not. The film has its dark side than previously appreciated although it is rightly branded as a comedy noir. I also enjoyed more of the one liners especially one at the beginning when Penelope and her daughter visit their aunt in the home village. The pay respects at the grave her mother who dies with her father in a fire and mother explains to the daughter that it is the custom in the village to buy a plot for themselves and then tender the spot weekly throughout their lives as if it was a weekend country cottage.
The darkness is the basic story. Penelope regrets that did not have closer contact with her mother before her death having broken relations when she married and moved to Madrid. The reason is that she was raped (effectively) by her father and pregnant had married had severed relations blaming her mother for more realising what had been happening to her. At the beginning the film, unknowing of this background Penelope’s daughter accidentally kills her step father for attempting to sexually her.
Given that the aunt is nearly blind and is suffering from severe memory, Penelope is surprise how the woman is coping although she has the support of a neighbour who has been wrestling with cancer over recent years and whose mother disappeared on the same day as the parents died in the fire. She and her sister have the wish to know what to their mother four years ago. The other sister works for a TV company and in order for the other sister to be sent to the USA for a treatment possible cure she ahs to agree to appear on a programme and reveal the scandal that the husband killed in the fire was a notorious ladies man and that this was an important aspects of the parental disappearance. I cannot remember if she was aware that her mother had been having an affair with the man.
Back in Madrid Penelope has been asked to keep an eye on the restaurant which a neighbour has decided to sell because of the lack of business. Penelope hides her husbands body in the freezer until she can arrange its disposal. Meanwhile a film company is shooting nearby and the crew manager asks if the restaurant can provide refreshment during the day for a two week period which Penelope obliges with the help of friends and this is a great success so much so that Penelope decides to continue with the restaurant negotiating a deal on rent with the owner. She hires a van and with the help of a friend, an illegal immigrant who works as a prostitute she buries her husband in the freezer close to a river which he loved about 180 Kilometres from where she now lives.
The commitment to the business not she has become a single parent prevents her from attending the unreal of her aunt when she dies. But she is represented by her sister who works illegally as a hairdresser from her apartment home. While at the funeral she hears rumours that her mother’s ghost has been appearing and taking care of her aunt and when in the aunt’s house she thinks she has seen her mother who then hitches a ride in the boot of her car giving her a great shock when she arrives back and realises it is not a ghost.
The true story emerges that the mother finding out that her mothers was having an affair and that he had fathered a child by his daughter, causes the fire which kills him and his lover. She then spends the next four years caring for her sister who because of her disease accepts her sister as if she has never been away from the former family home and although she keeps to the house neighbours have heard one sister talking the other and some have seen her from outside the property. Although she is not know where her daughter lives she is passed to the customers as a refugee from Russia who cannot speak Spanish. The grand daughter is the next to meet the deceased woman after being required to be looked after by her mother overnight when she buries her husband. Finally she meets up with her mother and they re reconciled. They return to the village, stopping at the place where the husband is buried and a favourite family picnic spot.
Earlier the woman with cancer has asked Penelope that if she encounters the ghost of her mother to ask her if she knows what happened to her mother and under pressure she decides not raise the matter at the TV show losing the opportunity to go to the Houston USA for a cure. She has an operation in Spain which fails and has only short time to live. Penelope’s mother decides to stay in village and look after the daughter of the woman she burnt to death with her husband.
This is a film where women are the hero’s doing what has to be done to survive and protect their own. The script it witty and sharp, The camera work delicious especially on Penelope.
Just a little word about Herbie goes bananas. Herbie is the Volkswagen Beetle with attitude and a fighting spirit as well as romantic inclinations. It was the fourth and last of the original series until twenty five years later the concept as resurrected in 2005 and short lived. It is aimed at a children family audience but these days the age limit should be five years or over seventies!.
The darkness is the basic story. Penelope regrets that did not have closer contact with her mother before her death having broken relations when she married and moved to Madrid. The reason is that she was raped (effectively) by her father and pregnant had married had severed relations blaming her mother for more realising what had been happening to her. At the beginning the film, unknowing of this background Penelope’s daughter accidentally kills her step father for attempting to sexually her.
Given that the aunt is nearly blind and is suffering from severe memory, Penelope is surprise how the woman is coping although she has the support of a neighbour who has been wrestling with cancer over recent years and whose mother disappeared on the same day as the parents died in the fire. She and her sister have the wish to know what to their mother four years ago. The other sister works for a TV company and in order for the other sister to be sent to the USA for a treatment possible cure she ahs to agree to appear on a programme and reveal the scandal that the husband killed in the fire was a notorious ladies man and that this was an important aspects of the parental disappearance. I cannot remember if she was aware that her mother had been having an affair with the man.
Back in Madrid Penelope has been asked to keep an eye on the restaurant which a neighbour has decided to sell because of the lack of business. Penelope hides her husbands body in the freezer until she can arrange its disposal. Meanwhile a film company is shooting nearby and the crew manager asks if the restaurant can provide refreshment during the day for a two week period which Penelope obliges with the help of friends and this is a great success so much so that Penelope decides to continue with the restaurant negotiating a deal on rent with the owner. She hires a van and with the help of a friend, an illegal immigrant who works as a prostitute she buries her husband in the freezer close to a river which he loved about 180 Kilometres from where she now lives.
The commitment to the business not she has become a single parent prevents her from attending the unreal of her aunt when she dies. But she is represented by her sister who works illegally as a hairdresser from her apartment home. While at the funeral she hears rumours that her mother’s ghost has been appearing and taking care of her aunt and when in the aunt’s house she thinks she has seen her mother who then hitches a ride in the boot of her car giving her a great shock when she arrives back and realises it is not a ghost.
The true story emerges that the mother finding out that her mothers was having an affair and that he had fathered a child by his daughter, causes the fire which kills him and his lover. She then spends the next four years caring for her sister who because of her disease accepts her sister as if she has never been away from the former family home and although she keeps to the house neighbours have heard one sister talking the other and some have seen her from outside the property. Although she is not know where her daughter lives she is passed to the customers as a refugee from Russia who cannot speak Spanish. The grand daughter is the next to meet the deceased woman after being required to be looked after by her mother overnight when she buries her husband. Finally she meets up with her mother and they re reconciled. They return to the village, stopping at the place where the husband is buried and a favourite family picnic spot.
Earlier the woman with cancer has asked Penelope that if she encounters the ghost of her mother to ask her if she knows what happened to her mother and under pressure she decides not raise the matter at the TV show losing the opportunity to go to the Houston USA for a cure. She has an operation in Spain which fails and has only short time to live. Penelope’s mother decides to stay in village and look after the daughter of the woman she burnt to death with her husband.
This is a film where women are the hero’s doing what has to be done to survive and protect their own. The script it witty and sharp, The camera work delicious especially on Penelope.
Just a little word about Herbie goes bananas. Herbie is the Volkswagen Beetle with attitude and a fighting spirit as well as romantic inclinations. It was the fourth and last of the original series until twenty five years later the concept as resurrected in 2005 and short lived. It is aimed at a children family audience but these days the age limit should be five years or over seventies!.
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