| Volver | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Written by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Produced by | Esther García |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | José Luis Alcaine |
| Edited by | José Salcedo |
| Music by | Alberto Iglesias |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Entertainment España |
Release date |
|
Running time | 121 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
| Budget | $9.4 million |
| Box office | $87.2 million |
Volver (Spanish pronunciation:[bolˈβeɾ];lit. 'To return') is a 2006 Spanishcomedy-drama[1][2] film written and directed byPedro Almodóvar. The film features anensemble cast that includesPenélope Cruz,Carmen Maura,Lola Dueñas,Blanca Portillo,Yohana Cobo, andChus Lampreave. Revolving around an eccentric family of women from a wind-swept region south ofMadrid, Cruz stars as Raimunda, a working-class woman forced to go to great lengths to protect her 14-year-old daughter Paula. To top off the family crisis, her mother Irene returns from the dead to tie up loose ends.
The plot originates in Almodóvar's earlier filmThe Flower of My Secret (1995), where it features as a novel which is rejected for publication but is stolen to form the screenplay of a film namedThe Freezer. Drawing inspiration from theItalian neorealism of the late 1940s to early 1950s and the work of pioneering directors such asFederico Fellini,Luchino Visconti, andPier Paolo Pasolini,Volver addresses themes like sexual abuse, loneliness and death, mixing the genres offarce,tragedy,melodrama, andmagic realism. Set in theLa Mancha region, Almodóvar's place of birth, the filmmaker cited his upbringing as a major influence on many aspects of the plot and the characters.
Volver premiered at the2006 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for thePalme d'Or. It received critical acclaim and ultimately won two awards at the festival, forBest Actress (shared by the six main actresses) andBest Screenplay.[3] The film's Spanish premiere was held on 10 March 2006 inPuertollano, where the filming had taken place. It was selected as the Spanish entry for theBest Foreign Language Oscar for the79th Academy Awards, making the January shortlist. Cruz was nominated for the 2006Academy Award for Best Actress, making her thefirst Spanish woman ever to be nominated in that category.[4]
Raimunda, her sister Sole and Raimunda's daughter Paula are visiting the small village of Alcanfor de las Infantas, inLa Mancha region of Spain. Though they both now live inMadrid, the sisters grew up in the village. The three have returned to take care of the gravesite of their parents, who died in a fire a few years previous, and to visit their ailing,dementia-impaired aunt, also named Paula. They also call on Agustina, a next door neighbor who looks in on their aunt every day.
Raimunda and Paula live with Raimunda's husband, Paco, who Paula believes is her father. When Paco attempts to rape Paula, saying that he is not really her father, Paula stabs him to death in self-defense. Claiming her husband has run off, Raimunda hides his corpse in the deep-freezer of a shut-down nearby restaurant she is minding for the absent owner, Emilio. When members of a film crew come to the restaurant to cater a week's meals, the resourceful Raimunda strikes a deal to earn much needed money in her husband's absence.
Meanwhile, Sole returns to the village upon hearing that Aunt Paula has passed. At Aunt Paula's wake Agustina confesses to Sole that she heard Paula talking to the ghost of Sole's and Raimunda's mother, Irene. Encountering her mother's ghost herself in Aunt Paula's house, upon returning to Madrid, Sole finds that the ghost was stowed away in the trunk of her car. Sole lets Irene stay with her to assist at the illicit hair salon Sole operates out of her apartment, posing as a Russian immigrant who doesn't speak Spanish. The two conceal Irene's presence from Raimunda, who hates her mother.
Raimunda reveals to Paula that Paco was not her biological father, promising to tell her the whole story later. Leaving Paula with Sole, with the help of two paid suitably unquestioning female neighbors, Raimunda rents a van and transports the freezer containing the body to a spot by the riverJúcar, where they bury it.
Meanwhile, diagnosed with terminal cancer, Agustina comes to Madrid for treatment. When Raimunda visits her in the hospital, Agustina asks Raimunda if she has seen her mother's ghost; Raimunda fears that Agustina too is exhibiting dementia. Agustina hopes the ghost will be able to tell her about her own mother, who disappeared three years before. While staying in Sole's apartment, Paula meets her grandmother's ghost, growing close to her. The next night, Agustina comes to the restaurant and reveals two startling secrets: her mother and Raimunda's father were having an affair, and her mother disappeared on the same day that Raimunda's parents died.
Sole reveals to a skeptical Raimunda that she has seen their mother's ghost, who is in the next room with Paula. Revealing the whole truth, Irene admits that she did not die in the fire. The reason for Raimunda and her estrangement, Irene has come to realize, is that Raimunda's fathersexually abused Raimunda, resulting in the birth of Paula. Thus, Paula is Raimunda's daughter and her sister. Unaware of Raimunda's sexual abuse until Aunt Paula told her about it, Irene has never forgiven herself for being oblivious to it and believing Raimunda's pregnancy due to promiscuity. Finding her husband asleep in bed with another woman, Irene started the fire that killed them both. The ashes presumed to be Irene's were the ashes of Agustina's mother, the woman with whom Irene's husband was having an affair.
After the fire, Irene wandered for several days in the countryside until deciding to turn herself in. First, however, she wanted to say goodbye to Aunt Paula, with whom Irene had been living prior to setting the fire and who had lost the ability to look after herself. Paula welcomed Irene home as if nothing had happened, and Irene stayed, caring for her sister and expecting that the police would come soon to arrest her. Due to the closed nature of the superstitious community, however, the police never came. Accustomed to tales of the dead returning, the residents explained the rare sightings of Irene as ghost sightings.
The family reunites at Aunt Paula's house. Irene reveals her presence to Agustina, who continues to believe her to be a ghost. As penance, Irene pledges to stay in the village and care for Agustina as her cancer worsens, saying to Raimunda that it is the least she can do after killing Agustina's mother. Raimunda and her mother embrace and promise to repair their relationship, with Raimunda regularly visiting her mother at Agustina's house.
Volver was first developed by Pedro Almodóvar, based on a story actressMarisa Paredes told him during the production of their 1995 filmThe Flower of My Secret, another film set in theLa Mancha region.[5] The story revolved around a heartbrokenPuerto Rican man who opts to kill his mother-in-law in hopes of reuniting with his beloved wife, who left him and broke off contact, at her mother's funeral. Owning a restaurant, he leaves it in his neighbour's care, when he is about to kill his victim.[5] Fascinated by the story and its background, Almodóvar decided on incorporating elements of it into the screenplay ofThe Flower of My Secret, making it the plot of a movie-within-the-movie based on the main character's novel in the film.[5] While working on the script forVolver, he would however settle on outlining the role of the neighbour Raimunda, as the film's central character, while Emilio, the Puerto Rican, eventually became a supporting role only.[6]
Almodóvar says of the story that "it is precisely about death...More than about death itself, the screenplay talks about the rich culture that surrounds death in the region of La Mancha, where I was born. It is about the way (not tragic at all) in which various female characters, of different generations, deal with this culture".[7]
Penélope Cruz was the first reported to have landed one of the starring roles inVolver, having previously worked with Almodóvar on his filmsLive Flesh (1997) andAll About My Mother (1999).[8] In preparing for her role, the actress watchedItalian neorealism films from the 1950s, many of them starringSophia Loren andClaudia Cardinale, to study "the Italianmaggiorate" that Almodóvar envisioned for her performance in the film.[5] Cruz, who had to wear a prosthetic bottom while filming, noted the role of Raimunda as "the best gift an actress can get".[9]
Carmen Maura, the star of Almodóvar's debutPepi, Luci, Bom (1980) and five additional films with the director, was the first to be cast in the film alongside Cruz.[8] Her engagement marked her first collaboration with Almodóvar after a period of 18 years and a reported fallout during the production ofWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1989).[10] Maura commented on the "borderline character" of Irene as a "very complicated [role to play]".[10]
Shooting locations includedAlmagro.[11]
The tango "Volver" byCarlos Gardel with lyrics byAlfredo Le Pera is converted toflamenco and is sung in the movie with the voice ofEstrella Morente andlip synced by Penélope Cruz. The dance tune playing at the party prior to Raimunda's lip syncing is called "Good Thing" by the British three-piece indie-dance comboSaint Etienne.
In the US alone, the film had made $12,897,993 (15.4% of the total) at the box office after 26.4 weeks of release in 689 theatres. The box office figure from the rest of the world is somewhere in the region of $71,123,059 (84.6% of the total) according toBox Office Mojo. The total worldwide gross is estimated at $84,021,052.[12]
As of 22 January 2007 the film had grossed $12,241,181 at the Spanish box office.[13]
Fotogramas, Spain's top film magazine, gave it a five-star rating.[14] Upon its US release,A. O. Scott made it an "NYT Critics' Pick" and wrote:[15]
To relate the details of the narrative—death, cancer, betrayal, parental abandonment, more death—would create an impression of dreariness and woe. But nothing could be further from the spirit ofVolver which is buoyant without being flip, and consoling without ever becoming maudlin. Mr. Almodóvar acknowledges misfortune—and takes it seriously—from a perspective that is essentially comic. Very few filmmakers have managed to smile so convincingly in the face of misery and fatality: Jean Renoir and Billy Wilder come immediately to mind, and Mr. Almodóvar, if he is not yet their equal, surely belongs in their company.Volver is often dazzling in its artifice—José Luis Alcaine's ripe cinematography, Alberto Iglesias's suave, heart-tugging score— but it is never false. It draws you in, invites you to linger and makes you eager to return.
Roger Ebert gave it his highest rating of four, calling it "enchanting, gentle, transgressive" and notes "Almodovar is above all a director who loves women—young, old, professional, amateur, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, dead, alive. Here his cheerful plot combines life after death with the concealment of murder, success in the restaurant business, the launching of daughters and with completely serendipitous solutions to (almost) everyone's problems".[16]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has a 91% rating from critics, based on 158 positive reviews out of 173 critics, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's consensus states :"Volver catches director Pedro Almodóvar and star Penélope Cruz at the peak of their respective powers, in service of a layered, thought-provoking film".[17] OnMetacritic, it has aweighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 38 critics.[18]
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2006.[19]
Sight & Sound magazine's critics poll namedVolver the 2nd-best film of 2006.[20] In 2019,The Guardian ranked the film 46th in its 100 best films of the 21st century list.[21] In 2025, the New York Times' "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" rankedVolver at number Eighty.[22] It was also one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of the list, finishing at number 197.[23]
Volver received a standing ovation when it was screened as part of the official selection at the2006 Cannes Film Festival, and won theBest Screenplay award as well as the award forBest Actress — which was shared by the six stars of the film.[3]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 59th Cannes Film Festival | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo and Chus Lampreave | Won | [3] |
| Best Screenplay | Pedro Almodóvar | Won | |||
| 19th European Film Awards | Best Film | Nominated | |||
| Best Director | Pedro Almodóvar | Won | |||
| Best Screenwriter | Pedro Almodóvar | Nominated | |||
| Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Won | |||
| Best Cinematographer | José Luis Alcaine | Won | |||
| Best Composer | Alberto Iglesias | Won | |||
| 11th Satellite Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Won | |||
| Best Actress – Drama | Penélope Cruz | Nominated | |||
| Best Director | Pedro Almodóvar | Nominated | |||
| Best Screenplay – Original | Pedro Almodóvar | Nominated | |||
| 19th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Nominated | ||
| Best Foreign Language Film | Nominated | ||||
| 2007 | 78th National Board of Review Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Won | ||
| 7th Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Won | |||
| 64th Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress – Drama | Penélope Cruz | Nominated | ||
| Best Foreign Language Film | Nominated | ||||
| 12th Critics' Choice Awards | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Nominated | ||
| Best Foreign Language Film | Nominated | ||||
| 5thGolden Eagle Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Won | [24] | ||
| 21st Goya Awards | Best Film | Won | |||
| Best Director | Pedro Almodóvar | Won | |||
| Best Original Screenplay | Pedro Almodóvar | Nominated | |||
| Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Won | |||
| Best Original Score | Alberto Iglesias | Won | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Carmen Maura | Won | |||
| Lola Dueñas | Nominated | ||||
| Blanca Portillo | Nominated | ||||
| Best Cinematography | José Luis Alcaine | Nominated | |||
| Best Costume Design | Sabine Daigeler | Nominated | |||
| Best Make-Up and Hairstyles | Massimo Gattabrusi and Ana Lozano | Nominated | |||
| Best Art Direction | Salvador Parra | Nominated | |||
| Best Production Supervision | Toni Novella | Nominated | |||
| Best Sound | Nominated | ||||
| 13th Screen Actors Guild Awards | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Nominated | ||
| 60th British Academy Film Awards | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Nominated | ||
| Best Foreign Language Film | Nominated | ||||
| 16th Actors and Actresses Union Awards | Best Film Actress in a Leading Role | Penélope Cruz | Won | [25][26] | |
| Best Film Actress in a Secondary Role | Blanca Portillo | Won | |||
| Lola Dueñas | Nominated | ||||
| Carmen Maura | Nominated | ||||
| Best Film Actress in a Minor Role | Chus Lampreave | Won | |||
| 32nd César Awards | Best Foreign Film | Nominated | |||
| 79th Academy Awards | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Nominated | ||
| 12th Empire Awards | Best Actress | Penélope Cruz | Won | ||
| 12thForqué Awards | Best Film | Nominated | [27] | ||
| French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Awards | Best Foreign Film | Won | |||
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Cannes Film Festival Prix du scénario 2006 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
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