Word: almodovar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...form of Irene (Carmen Maura). She is the deceased mother of hardworking Raimunda and kind Sole (Lola Duenas), as well as the sister of senile Paula (Chus Lampreave). Irene joins Sole after Aunt Paula’s passing and attempts to address issues left unresolved before her death. Almodovar celebrates women. He is a master at portraying the nuances of the fairer sex, made evident in previous films such as “All About My Mother” (1999) and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (1988). With “Volver...
...Another Gee! Or should I say Zut alors!? For the first time in ages, the foreign-language category boasts five films that not only are quite good but which critics like me have actually seen. I'm sorry that Pedro Almodovar didn't make the finals with Volver, but it's not as if he needs another Oscar. Deepa Mehta certainly deserves some kind of award for Water, which she made despite sabotage and death threats from Indian fundamentalists. And I'm pleased that The Lives of Others was cited: partly because it's a smartly pensive spy thriller, partly...
...This gives Hollywood three films to see and debate, Others may be added: Babel, Dreamgirls, Pedro Almodovar's Volver - maybe the indie hit Little Miss Sunshine. That could be a dark horse like last year's Crash, which all the critics' groups except Chicago's ignored, the better to celebrate Brokeback Mountain. The field's more open this year. In the New York Film Critics' voting, the 12 awards went to 11 different films; only The Queen won two. And though we weren't thinking about it, the 11 films had 10 different distributors; only Warner Bros. had two winners...
...This is the first film in 18 years that Almodovar has made with Maura, the earthy muse of his early years. From his first feature through five more films, culminating with his international hit Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Maura always grounded the director's flights of cinematic and sexual fantasy. But after the breakthrough with Breakdown came a public breakup. After two films with Victoria Abril, Almodovar made five features (all terrific) with five different actresses in the lead roles. Bad Education had no significant female roles at all, as this one has no dominant males...
...actress and the director are back together, for another exploration of women in extremis, and they seem instantly in perfect synch. The last line of the film, which Cruz enunciates with a grand, simple intensity to Maura, could also be Almodovar's testimony to his old friend and star: "I don't know how I've lived all these years without...