Volver - Almodovar (1 Viewer)

[northen_sky]

Pedro Almodovar never portray an real life, Is a kind of life that he s got into his mind with a weird kind of women, (In all his films most of the women have the same behaviour, i ve got a lot of Pedro´s films) I think that almodovar´s film are like observe the neighbourd from the window and imagine uncommon stories while a folckoric spanish music are sound but is enjoyable...

– The plot of life is full of holes too

I like your sentece... and your friend Nieztche too

I have a question... is the film in Ireland in original version?

 

[northen_sky]

A little note...
today Mercedes Samprieto, the cinema academy president in spain, announced that "volver" compete with "Salvador" and "the capitán Ala triste" (Ala Triste Captain)for represent Spain in the Academy award in the best foreing languague category....

"Salvador" is about the life of Salvador Puig Antich a Catalan anarchit, born in Barcelona, and active during the 1960s. he was executed by the authorities of Spain, then under control of Franco. In some part of Europe, demanding the commutation of the execution but Franco estayed firm and did not concede.

For me the plot of this film and the story is most interesting, maybe for my little anarchist heart...

And "the captain Ala Triste" is like a Spanish Musketeer....based in Arturo Perez Reverte books....

Who won...?????

 

[hermie]

a friend of mine says 'The Sea Inside' is the best ever spanish film.i must check that one out.does he tell a lie?

 

[northen_sky]

a friend of mine says 'The Sea Inside' is the best ever spanish film.i must check that one out.does he tell a lie?

Hermie "Mar adentro" sorry, "The Sea Inside" for my is the best Alejandro Amenabar´s film, about Ramón Sampedro life,the film is great... so poetic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramón_Sampedro

But we have a lot of good film, from spanish directors
"my life without me" and "the secret life of words" from Isabel coixet
"the lover of the Artic Circle" and "Sex and Lucia" from julio Medem

I find a reliable top ten from "versión española" a very good films program...

• 1.- Todo Sobre Mi Madre (Pedro Almodóvar)
• All about my mother
• 2.- Tesis (Alejandro Amenábar)
• thesis
• 3.- Martín Hache (Adolfo Aristarain)
• 4.- Los Amantes Del Círculo Polar (Julio Médem)
• the lovers of the Artic Circle
• 5.- Solas (Benito Zambrano)
• Alone
• 6.- La Buena Estrella (Ricardo Franco)
• the good star
• 7.- Abre Los Ojos (Alejandro Amenábar)
• open your eyes (the remake is vanilla sky)
• 8.- Barrio (Fernando León)
• Area
• 9.- El Día De La Bestia (Alex De La Iglesia)
• the beast day
• 10.- Nadie Hablará De Nosotras Cuando Hayamos Muerto (Agustín Díaz Yanes)
• nobody will talk about us when we will have died

bufff... I m lost in translation

 

[Dktr. Faustus]

Is that some list of the best Spanish directors' movies? If so, it's not half reliable - there are no Buñuel films. None. Nada. So wrong...

 

[hermie]

actually my life without me is canadian, just almodovar co-produced it.good film.sex and lucia is good; lots of sex always helps

 

[northen_sky]

Is that some list of the best Spanish directors' movies? If so, it's not half reliable - there are no Buñuel films. None. Nada. So wrong...

Hi Faustus, I wrote the best film, in this moment for the spanish people...I know that Buñuel was a great director, And "The andalusian dog" is the best surealist reference.

http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?p=615726#post615726

But the last Buñuel film is "That Obscure Object of Desire" made in 1977....
Now 29 years later you can enjoy with another films and new directors.

 

[northen_sky]

actually my life without me is canadian, just almodovar co-produced it.good film.sex and lucia is good; lots of sex always helps

Hi hermie... I think that, my life without me is a canadian-spanish film...I know that the lenguage is english and is made in Canada..but the director and guionist Isabel Coixet is spanish, and most of the team

well I don´t mind where is made the film, the result is beautiful

 

[hermie]

Hi hermie... I think that, my life without me is a canadian-spanish film...I know that the lenguage is english and is made in Canada..but the director and guionist Isabel Coixet is spanish, and most of the team

well I don´t mind where is made the film, the result is beautiful

fair enough.good film alright

 

[staralfur]

just went to see this in copenhagen. films here aren't dubbed, they have danish subtitles, so I had to use my spanish, no more cheating and peeking at english subtitles.

i enjoyed the film, fantastical as the plot was at times - I especially enjoyed the apparent ease with which a six foot square hole was dug....

I also found the characters more easy to identify with than for example Habla Con Ella, though the plotline was similarly gritty.

I dunno though, like at the end of Talk to her, yer man has killed himself, and this girl is starting to recover her life from a coma, and even though there is a glimmer of what a nice future they could have, it still feels kindof sneaky and creepy at the end.

Volver, while it deals with the subject of death quite a bit, seemed like an altogether more cosy film. However, I realise that this could in part be due to my joy at being able to understand the language. Danish has me stumped.

 

[snakybus]

I finally saw this last night. I liked some of it but it left me cold. I found myself thinking "what was the point of all that?". On reflection, it wasn't such a bad story, really. In fact it had all the elements of a good story that, I could understand and should care about, but didn't. And it occurred to me that even though the acting was not that bad (though the actor playing the daughter was very poor), there was no emotion, really. Also, Penelope Cruz was way too stunning for the rest of the characters.

Then it left me thinking about All About My Mother, and how I was also left cold by that, and then occurred to me that Almodovar is not a great director, really. I mean, there are definitely things that are good. But his direction is too fast, his characters say too much too quickly, and there's a coldness as a result. They're like comic book characters or something. Nice colours though. Nice to look at.

 

[Dktr. Faustus]

How do you perceive the coldness? I mean, his movies are far from cold to me. It's got a different cultural undercurrent. Just as Tarkovski's Stalker isn't cold but most of the hollywood stuff is but someone would say its the opposite. Crash was cold (but not nearly as good as Volver) but in the Oscars it was perceived other way or decided it was "good coldness". I guess that coldness is very subjective and depends on cultural perspective and even then in the end you can always explain that it was meant to be cold to achieve certain goals in the big picture.

 

[snakybus]

Yes, I agree it's all subjective. I think it was supposed to be warm: I mean, I guess it's all about the triumph of love between women in spite of the complexities of their relationships and the distance between them. I think that's supposed to be the reward of the film. It's a human story. You have to buy into the characters, otherwise it's just a bunch of stuff that happens. For example, when Paco dies, Raimonde doesn't seem the least bit sad. I appreciate that he was abusive or whatever but it just seemed to be glossed over. And also, she shows little or no emotion for or connection with her daughter, who has just killed her dad. It all seemed a bit....well, I was waiting for something interesting to happen. Then when Sole meets the mother, she seems a little afraid and then maybe surprised, but there's no warmth between them. And though Raimonde actually does cry for like three seconds when she hears about the aunt dying, she just fires out an excuse for not going to the funeral - the operation - to Sole like it doesn't matter and then gets on with it.

But then you have things like remembering the smell of the mother or her revisiting her days as a singer. Not quite cringey, but not emotionally charged either. Cruz's fault? Maybe. I found it a bit like that film Garden State or, worse still, Elizabethtown (though Volver was way better than either of these). "Insert tag here to identify it as a character-driven film" Overall I think he misses the point, mainly because of the pace. E.g., "Oh by the way I killed your dad and his lover and oh yeah, you were abused too weren't you? NEXT SCENE!" It makes me (probably unfairly) feel that Almodovar doesn't have a lot of humanity. Oh and there's not much humour either. I find it hard to get behind a human film with not a lot of humour, although some directors like Bergman could do it.

I'm being unfair I guess, because there's no doubt the story's worth telling. I just think it falls short.