Word: var
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...traffic congestion and other problems caused by the film's production, "Allen's film is no different than any big budget project," notes Steven Guest, also with the mayor's office. "Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother shut down Ferran Street a couple of years ago, and television shoots close streets every day. The only complaints I've seen have been in the media." For now, Barcelona's relationship with Allen can cool off a bit. On Monday, cast and crew began shooting in Oviedo, the less cosmopolitan capital of the region of Asturias, eight hours...
...single mom (Penélope Cruz, above left) hears rumors that her dead mother (Carmen Maura) is haunting their hometown. This unlocks closets full of family secrets and director Pedro Almodóvar's unique mix of earthy wit and fire. So maybe he's not working at quite the apogee of emotion and cinematic daring of his All About My Mother and Talk to Her. That makes Volver only about the sixth best film of the past decade...
Whatever he says, Almodóvar sounds awfully fatherly when he describes watching Cruz in her first English-language roles. "She was the first Spanish actress invited by Hollywood to come here and make a movie," says Almodóvar. "I felt very proud. And at the same time, I was frightened." Cruz was soon cast in seemingly can't-miss projects: Billy Bob Thornton's first post-- Sling Blade directing effort, a 2000 adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, and Cameron Crowe's 2001 Vanilla Sky, a remake of a Spanish film Cruz had starred in. Forced...
...prison movie starring Halle Berry and Penélope Cruz can't find an audience, well, there's really something wrong. "I think she was not very lucky at the beginning because the projects she chose didn't meet the level of expectation everybody had, including myself," says Almodóvar...
...ungrateful to the opportunities I get here," Cruz says. "But women are still a bit suppressed and invalidated in this industry in this country. I feel like I get healthy when I go back to Europe and work where it's more equal." Which brings us back to Almodóvar's world, one in which women dominate. Volver took Almodóvar six years to write. When he started, he envisioned Cruz in the smaller part of the daughter. As time passed, "I suddenly felt that I wanted something bigger," he says. "I thought, Why not make her the mother...