Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, known for strange, eccentric comedies set in modern Spain, returns to a subject he loves in his latest movie: women.
Volver, which means "to return," in Spanish, is a story of troubled relations between a woman, her mother and her teenage daughter.
So problematic is their relationship that the grandmother, played by Spanish actress Carmen Maura, comes back from the dead to resolve issues with Raimunda, a beautiful and feisty character played by Penelope Cruz.
PHOTO: EPA
The reunion takes place after Raimunda and her daughter travel from Madrid to their old village in La Mancha, the conservative region in central Spain where Almodovar grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, to visit the grandmother's grave.
Almodovar is often described as a woman's director because many of his films have strong, sympathetic female characters who he has described as ``more amusing'' than men.
Almodovar's All About My Mother won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 1999, and Talk to Her won the Oscar for best original screenplay in 2003.
Almodovar addresses other pet obsessions in his new movie, such as death, women's loneliness and being a mother.
The film is full of the beautiful scenery of La Mancha.
``I hardly ever go back because ... I still feel like a little boy [there],'' he says.
Volver is expected to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival this year. (AP)
西班牙的奧斯卡金像獎導演培卓．阿莫多瓦以現代西班牙的奇異荒誕喜劇名聞遐邇，他帶著最新電影回來了，主題是他喜愛的「女性」。
新片「Volver」在西班牙文意指「歸來」，故事描述一名女子與她的母親和正值青少年的女兒之間的惱人關係。
她們的關係充滿問題，所以西班牙女星卡門穆拉所飾演的祖母遂從陰間返回人世，解決美麗又好強的瑞慕妲之困境。後者的角色由潘妮洛普．克魯茲飾演。
瑞慕妲帶女兒從馬德里回到家鄉拉曼恰，前往外婆的墳墓後，三人團聚。拉曼恰是西班牙中部民風保守的地區，阿莫多瓦在一九五○、六○年代成長於此。
阿莫多瓦經常被描述為女性導演，因為他許多電影裡都有堅強、容易感同身受的女性角色。他認為她們比男性「更有趣」。
阿莫多瓦的「我的母親」拿下一九九九年奧斯卡金像獎最佳外語片，「悄悄告訴她」則贏得二○○三年奧斯卡最佳原創劇本獎。
阿莫多瓦在新片中也談到他所偏愛的其他常見主題，諸如死亡、女性的孤寂與母親角色。
這部電影充滿阿莫多瓦成長地拉曼恰的美景。
他說：「我很少回去，因為?（在那裡）我仍然感覺自己是個小男孩。」
「Volver」可望參加今年的坎城影展。
（美聯社／翻譯：賴美君）
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