The feminine characters created by Almodovar are not mere inventions, they are constructed and inspired by the memory of his childhood surroundings and conversations overheard in his infancy between his mother, his sisters his grandmother and his neighbors. His infancy, his childhood and his youth were highly influenced by the women surrounding him. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the importance of the roles of both motherhood and sisterhood within Almodovar’s film ‘Volver’. Almodovar’s filmography always revolves around the feminine universe, and women of all types can relate and identify with at least one of his characters. How does he represent the mother characters and how does he represent the sister characters within the film ‘Volver’? By answering this question, following an analysis of the film, I will be able to describe the roles played by these two key elements, motherhood, and sisterhood in this film.
Almodovar has stated that “the root of all my films and of all the stories that I like stem from a group of women talking”, and it is because of this all his films, including ‘Volver’, reflect a feminine world where everything revolves around sensations and emotions. The women in Almodovar’s films and especially in ‘Volver’ fulfil specific roles. Ever-present is the idea of overcoming pain and transforming a miserable life.
Almodovar arrived in Madrid from La Mancha to study in the Official School of Cinema, which was closed by Franco in 1969 due to his belief that it was a communist creation. Despite this, Almodovar’s dream of creating cinema remained intact and he used his experiences in Madrid to do so. Using his own experiences as references, he created a completely unique form of film making. His films broke with tradition, and instead of remembering the grey past of the Franco regime, he filled his films with color, eccentricity, and comedy, and at a time when the feminist movement was awakening. Born into a lower middle-class family, his mother was one of the few literate women in his hometown. Neighbors got her to read them their letters, and instead of simply reading the letters, Almodovar’s mother read to them what she thought they wanted to hear – pure invention – but great story telling. Pedro enjoyed endless hours listening to his mother and to the chit chat that went on between the women.
The film ‘Volver’ can be considered autobiographical, where Almodovar goes back to his birthplace La Mancha to portray the different traditions and customs of his hometown Calzada de Calatrava.
His inspiration comes from women, the way they talk, think and act. The feminine universe created by Almodovar is a mirror image of his own feminine universe filled with his own mother, sisters, and his neighbors. His analysis of their behavior and psychology when there were no men present served him as valuable material for his films. Men are always shadowed by the power of the women in his films, who are always trying to resolve a crisis.
‘Volver’ literally means to return or to come back and this film is about Almodovar and his characters returning home. Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) is a hard-working woman with a teenage daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo), and a lazy waste of time husband. Raimunda attends to the graves of her dead parents with her sister Sole (Lola Duenas) and visits her poorly Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave), who is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s. Raimunda’s life is shattered by the murder of her husband by her daughter. There is also a secret about her late mother Irene (Carmen Maura), which surfaces when Irene returns from the grave to make contact with her astonished daughters. It turns out that Irene killed her own husband and his lover after finding out that he had raped his daughter Raimunda. It is a case of history repeating itself with Irene killing her husband, and later her granddaughter killing her father.
Carmen Maura, who interprets Irene the mother figure, must overcome a life where she has to pretend that she is a ghost in order to face the murder of her husband, who has sexually abused one of her daughters. The desperate situation of each character is unique, whether it be rape, loss of a lover or maternal repression, Almodovar’s women are always oppressed by their circumstances. His characters are brave and strong and face life against all odds, and because of this, strong bonds of sisterhood, motherhood and friendship tie his characters together as their lives are intertwined throughout the film ‘Volver’.
Almodovar’s favourite role is that of motherhood, where he relates directly with the relationship held between him and his mother and how he was marked by the stories and tales told by her to her feminine audience in the patios of his hometown.
Almodovar tells a story inspired on the matriarchal world of the women of the town, with their secrets and their alliances, women who are friends but at the same time rivals and neighbors, always ready to help each other out in difficult times. This women’s world, which Almodovar puts on stage in his feature film ‘Volver’ from 2006, constitutes the central theme. Almodovar portrays the women as fighters trying to overcome problems and tragedies they face. The film shows how every woman has secrets and problems that they try to hide and fix to survive. The film is all about relationships, between men and women and among women. It also shows how the women in the town although they are rivals and neighbors, they are always willing to help each other out no matter what.
Almodovar uses symbolism of color that plays a dramatic function in the scene building and of the sentiments, passions, and emotions of his characters. He uses the color red to portray pain and passion. Raimunda wears red when she sings the tango ‘Volver’, and the freezer is red where the body of her dead husband is hidden, having been killed by her daughter. Even the carriage they ride in is red.
The motherhood role in the film is represented in two characters, Raimunda and Irene. These two women share the characteristics of being loving and protecting towards their children, and who justify their actions with the argument that they will protect them against any situation that might harm or danger them. For this reason, Irene even pretends to be a ghost following the death of her husband, so that they think she is dead also, and to avoid them suffering on finding out that it was she who had killed her husband together with his lover, in a fire. In the same way that Irene assumes the responsibility to protect her children, her own daughter Raimunda assumes the responsibility of the death of her husband Paco, when in fact it was her daughter Paula who killed him when he tried to rape her. Raimunda will go to all lengths to avoid Paula having any sense of guilt or fault for what she did. While the mother role is the same in both women. In the case of Raimunda, the film starts with her role being mother to an adolescent being shared with the role of housewife and wife to a lazy husband. Her role as a wife exhausts her and she hates it. In the case of Irene, the role of motherhood is intertwined with the role of being an independent woman, confident in herself and dedicated to recuperating her daughters after years of living a lie in order to avoid prison and avoid her daughters suffering for what she did. The mother role of Raimunda grows as the film moves on to when she discovers her daughter has killed Paco, Raimunda’s husband and Paula’s father. Her mother instinct intensifies so much so that in order to protect her she takes the blame for the murder. From this point loyalty, confidence and complicity between mother and daughter create an even stronger mother daughter bond. The complicity and loyalty are evidenced even more as Paula stands guard outside the restaurant while her mother moves the body.
Since the death of her husband, and to simulate her own disappearance in the fire, Irene has been living with her elderly sister Aunt Paula, who suffers dementia. Raimunda’s sister Sole has to attend the funeral of Aunt Paula on her own, as Raimunda is busy cleaning up the murder of Paco. Following the death of Aunt Paula, Irene is forced to appear to her daughter Sole as a ghost and carries on with this ruse even to the extent of travelling back to Madrid in the boot of Sole’s car after the funeral. Irene’s role as a mother is totally resumed by the emotion and affection with which she hugs Sole as she gets out of the back of the car to take up residency with her daughter. The strong mother daughter bond between Irene and Sole, even though Sole still believes her mother to be a ghost, is evident as Sole slips into bed with her mother seeking comfort. The complicity between mother and daughter is further accentuated by the fact that Sole keeps it a secret from her sister Raimunda. Meanwhile, Raimunda keeps protecting her daughter Paula and confesses to her that Paco was not her real father and that she did the right thing by defending herself.
When finally, there is a confrontation between Irene and Raimunda, Irene confesses to Raimunda that the same day she found out about her husband raping her daughter, that same day she set fire to her husband and his lover and disappeared in order to prevent them from finding out the truth about what she had done. This came as a revelation to Raimunda who had always held her mother responsible for not having helped her against her father, so it was a relief for her to find out Irene had not known. Irene had in fact sacrificed her life as she knew it to become a ghost hidden in the house of her sister. The course of the film shows the re-bonding of all the female characters, mothers and daughters and sisters. Towards the end of the film, the four principal characters, Irene, Raimunda, Paula and Sole, come full circle when they travel back to their hometown together, stopping by the river where Pacos body is buried and with a promise between Raimunda and Paula to never mention him again. The bonds between the four women are stronger than ever.
The role of the mother figure in ‘Volver’ is that of the mother capable of giving her life for her children, and this is what she does throughout the film. The Manchego tradition of the dead coming back to pay their debts is present with Carmen Maura redeeming herself with her neighbor Augustina and to improve her mother daughter relationship with Raimunda. Pedro Almodovar himself says that ‘Volver’ is a “dramatic comedy” that “imitates life itself”.
The sisterhood role is shared by Raimunda and Sole, and while Sole is in fact older than Raimunda, Raimunda adopts the role of older sister exercising authority over Sole. The familiarity between them is clear in the way they speak, but at the same time, Sole’s attitude is always that of respect towards Raimunda as if she was the younger of the two. Throughout the film, the sisterhood relationship between Sole and Raimunda consolidates itself, and the friendship can be seen between them during their conversations. The older sister role that has been assumed by Raimunda is apparent when she instructs her sister Sole on how to behave at their aunt Paula’s funeral. Even though Raimunda will not attend, she is still controlling the situation. At the same time, Sole assumes the role of younger sister seeking Raimunda’s support and admitting funerals scare her, whilst trying to manipulate her sister into going to the aunt’s funeral. Later in the film, following the return of Irene into the life of Sole when she moves in with her, Sole and Raimunda continue with their reversed roles of older and younger sister. When Sole accepts being told off by Raimunda and accused of stealing things from the house of Aunt Paula, she is still incapable of telling her sister that she sees Irene. This proves that the mother daughter bond between Sole and Irene is stronger than the sister bond between Sole and Raimunda.
In the words of Almodovar, the film talks about “three generations of women, who survive the east wind, fire, madness, superstition and even death on the basis of goodness, lies and a limitless vitality”.
In conclusion, in Almodovar’s ‘Volver’, the roles of motherhood and sisterhood are the mirrored reflections of Pedro’s own experiences and early life. They are the shared experiences with his own mother and sisters and neighbors creating the characters and portraying these key roles he has lived with and loved during his youth. They are the roles of the strong but doting mother and the loyal and confiding sister. They are the extreme roles of protection, emotion, love, lies, loyalty, and devotion. His roles of motherhood and sisterhood are in fact simply a reflection of society as he sees it.