OT: "Volver", Pedro Almodovar's new movie: A MUST SEE

[opinionista]

I just read this in yahoo. It's intersting.

Almodovar says Hollywood "straitjacket" not for him

Fri May 19, 9:58 AM ET

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar said on Friday that Hollywood's "straitjacket" production system held little attraction for him as a filmmaker when compared to the freedom he enjoys in Europe.

The Oscar-winning director, who has won dozens of international awards with his Spanish language movies has returned to his family roots with the bitter-sweet comedy "Volver" at the Cannes Film Festival and said he has yet to see a proposal for a film in English that he'd like to shoot.

"There is always a temptation to shoot in English. But I was never proposed a film that interested me enough," he told reporters in Cannes after the presentation of "Volver."
"I'm afraid that in Hollywood I would not have the same freedoms as in Europe. If I was to shoot in English, it would not be in Hollywood, but elsewhere where there is less of a straitjacket production system," he said, speaking through a translator.

Almodovar said "Volver" ("Returning") took him back to his childhood in Spain's central region of La Mancha and was largely inspired by his sisters and late mother.
Featuring an almost exclusively female cast, the film tells the story of Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), a feisty housewife, and her sister Sole (Lola Duenas), a hairdresser, who are being visited by the very lively ghost of their dead mother.

Almodovar said talk of appearances from dead loved ones was not unusual in his home village, where women cultivated memories of the departed and spent time tending to graves -- often even their own before they are interred.

"Cleaning my grave relaxes me," one cheerful woman says in the film as others around her scrub, brush and polish their family tombstones.

A FARTING GHOST

Although "Volver" deals with death, betrayal and incest, it also has plenty of comedy as in a scene when the sisters' ghostly mother, played by Carmen Maura, requests a new haircut when she sees her image in the mirror.

"I wanted to show a ghost on a daily basis. A ghost that goes to the bathroom, hides under the bed and even farts in the film," Almodovar said.

The film marks Cruz's return to Spanish cinema after spending the last few years establishing an international career in Hollywood. Cruz has already starred in Almodovar's "All About My Mother," which won an Oscar for best foreign language film.

"There is only one Pedro for me," Cruz said. "I wouldn't have been the same one without him ... It's amazing how he knows how we feel and think ... He has a special eye for that."

The film also reunites Almodovar with Maura after a 17-year split. The actress starred in many of the director's films, including his 1987 "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown."

"When we met for the first rehearsal, it was like it always had been," Maura said. "I was astonished because I was not sure whether we could have the same chemistry."

From Yahoo news:

http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/va/20060519/114805792800.html

[JCinNYC2006]

Thanks for posting that.  It reminds me of when he was still kind of a novelty to Americans and was being compared/lumped together with 'outrageous' directors like John Waters.  There was even talk of remaking 'Women on the Verge' in English, I think with Jane Fonda or something.

Juan

[rtprod]

Thanks for posting that.  It reminds me of when he was still kind of a novelty to Americans and was being compared/lumped together with 'outrageous' directors like John Waters.  There was even talk of remaking 'Women on the Verge' in English, I think with Jane Fonda or something.

Juan

I remember talk of that but for some reason I am thinking it was Roseanne who wanted to remake it as a vehicle for herself.  After her brilliant comic turn in "She Devil" who could have argued?  Definitely not an LOL for her work there.  However, Meryl Streep was spot-on brilliant, as always, as Mary Fisher, the brittle romance novelist.

rt

[opinionista]

Thanks for posting that.  It reminds me of when he was still kind of a novelty to Americans and was being compared/lumped together with 'outrageous' directors like John Waters.  There was even talk of remaking 'Women on the Verge' in English, I think with Jane Fonda or something.

Juan

Wow, I didn't know that. But it's a good thing the american version of Women on the Verge was never made. Look what happened with the Hollywood versions of Alejandro Amenabar's movies Abre los Ojos (Vainilla Sky) and Tesis (8 Millimeters). Horrible movies. They're even embarrasing.

[rtprod]

Wow, I didn't know that. But it's a good thing the american version of Women on the Verge was never made. Look what happened with the Hollywood versions of Alejandro Amenabar's movies Abre los Ojos (Vainilla Sky) and Tesis (8 Millimeters). Horrible movies. They're even embarrasing.

Hehe.

I actually liked both of those films very much -- lol.  Vanilla Sky is more accomplished than 8MM, but the latter had some very dark thriller elements that worked for me at least.  I loved the final cemetery show-down between Nicolas Cage and the killer.  Got a real sense of evil there.  It's just a trashy b-movie but fairly well made, at least I thought at the time.  Neither of those is as bad as the remake of The Vanishing, the terrific Dutch thriller that was remade in Hollywood with a new ending--by the SAME DIRECTOR.

To digress, as far as Cameron Crowe goes, Elizabethtown made Vanilla Sky look like a masterpiece.

rt

[JCinNYC2006]

Wow, I didn't know that. But it's a good thing the american version of Women on the Verge was never made. Look what happened with the Hollywood versions of Alejandro Amenabar's movies Abre los Ojos (Vainilla Sky) and Tesis (8 Millimeters). Horrible movies. They're even embarrasing.

Was 8MM based on Tesis?  I haven't seen Tesis yet, but I loved Abre Los Ojos, as strange as it was.  I haven't even seen The Sea Inside yet, I haven't been in the mood to watch something so charged.  But I freakin love anything I've seen Eduardo Noriega in. That's a fine mofo right there!

Juan

[rtprod]

Was 8MM based on Tesis?  I haven't seen Tesis yet, but I loved Abre Los Ojos, as strange as it was.  I haven't even seen The Sea Inside yet, I haven't been in the mood to watch something so charged.  But I freakin love anything I've seen Eduardo Noriega in. That's a fine mofo right there!

Juan

Noriega is always good but Burnt Money was a miss for me.  For all the phony smoldering between them they gave us no sensuality between the two men, only between Leonardo Sarabaglia and a woman.

[JCinNYC2006]

Ultimately yeah, it was a letdown.  I had high expectations based on the opening scene in the men's room, but the climactic shootout was cool.  I don't remember who the director was or if I've seen anything else of his.

Juan

[opinionista]

Was 8MM based on Tesis?  I haven't seen Tesis yet, but I loved Abre Los Ojos, as strange as it was.  I haven't even seen The Sea Inside yet, I haven't been in the mood to watch something so charged.  But I freakin love anything I've seen Eduardo Noriega in. That's a fine mofo right there!

Juan

Yes 8MM is based on Tesis. Funny thing is the school of journalism the leading character of Tesis goes to is the same one I go to. It was filmed in the very same building, so everytime I'm there I remember the film.

Noriega is always good but Burnt Money was a miss for me.  For all the phony smoldering between them they gave us no sensuality between the two men, only between Leonardo Sarabaglia and a woman.

I agree, no chemistry between them in Burnt Money. BTW Leonardo Sbaraglia is so HOT! I used to see him quite often at the pool at community gym (he lives in Madrid, and swims a lot), and I was always drooling. We live in the same neighborhood (or used to). But I haven't come back to that pool, so I haven't seen him in a long time.

[opinionista]

I don't remember who the director was or if I've seen anything else of his.

The director was Marcelo Piñeyro, he's argentinan. He also directed a movie I saw a long time ago, that also features Sbaraglia: Wild Horses. I liked it. He has another movie, El Método it was released last year. I haven't seen it but a friend of mine says it's pretty good.