NewYorkFilmFestival's blog

New York Film Festival Press Conference for:

VOLVER
Series: The 44th New York Film Festival [Sept 29 - Oct 15 2006]
Director: Pedro Almodóvar, Country: Spain, Release: 2006, Runtime: 120

Centerpiece

Over the last twenty years, the name Pedro Almodóvar has become virtually synonymous with cinematic pleasure. This latest movie (his seventh to screen at the NYFF) is sheer bliss, a supernatural tale of murder, adultery and family happiness.

A ravishing Penélope Cruz stars as Raimunda, a blue-collar mother who already has a lot on her plate – a disaffected teenage daughter, a troublesome sister, and a dear friend dying of cancer, among other things – when it appears that her dead mother (played by the incomparable Carmen Maura) has come back as a ghost seeking some sort of justice. Such a mad storyline is pure Almodóvar, and the great Spanish filmmaker tells it with effortless humor, generosity and style, winning so many terrific performances that the entire female cast was honored at Cannes for its portrait of three indomitable generations of women.