Great film, Almodovar is definitely one of my favourite geniuses. I was slightly disappointed at the relative lack of hysterial humour and high-power-energy that this film has compared to the only other one I’ve seen so far, but am reserving judgement on that until having seen a few more.

(It is rather annoying that most seem to be out of DVD print at the moment, hopefully this is temporary.)

Volver is a Gabriel Garcia Lorca style tragedy, but turned around. It has the primal geography-based definition of humanity (the East Wind that drives the turbines, and makes the villagers mad, enables and covers up murder, and provides a general sense of mystery); the madness that is saner than conventional norms (believing in ghosts is humane, while TV shows attack one’s moral core); but in Volver people can also take their life into their own hands and win, in some sense. It’s purgatorial, but it isn’t hellishly devastating.

Also Penelope Cruz’s chest looks very impressive, of course.