UNITED KINGDOM: Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and his leading lady, Penelope Cruz, attend the UK premiere of their latest collaboration; 'Volver'

Record ID: 220129

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and his leading lady, Penelope Cruz, attend the UK premiere of their latest collaboration; 'Volver'
  • Date: 10th August 2006
  • Summary: TILT UP FROM FEET TO PENELOPE CRUZ'S BOTTOM
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAEU8LCNSC229R2O289LYZS1YAW
  • Story Text: Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and his leading lady, Penelope Cruz, brought their latest collaboration, 'Volver' to London on Thursday (August 3).
    The film, which opened to much acclaim at this year's Cannes Film Festival, re-unites the renowned director and Cruz for the third time.
    Cruz, who made her debut in the sexually explicit 'Jamon, Jamon' at the age of 17, has previously starred in Almodovar's 'All About My Mother' and 'Carne Tremula' ('Live Flesh').
    The 32-year-old actress said 'Volver', which in English means 'to come back' was a return for her in more ways than one. In addition to it being a return to working with Almodovar after six years, it was the first film she made back in her native Spain in four years.
    The actress, who together with her fellow cast members was awarded for 'Best Actress' for their performance in the film in Cannes, said the role was an emotionally difficult one.
    "It was very tough, very demanding and challenging but that's what I look for, I want that kind of characters. To arrive home completely exhausted but feeling that you have something there that deserves (you) to give it your all, you know, a hundred per cent. With him (Almodovar) everything was very easy because he is stubborn, he is very honest, he tells you when things are going well or when things are not working but I love that truth and I respect him so much," she said.
    But the role also demanded certain physical changes, that Almodovar believed would make the character appear more realistic.
    "I gained a few kilos for the character, I haven't lost all of them but I prefer that. And the character has a fake butt. And I know everyone loves talking about that. But we needed that for her," Cruz explained.
    'Volver' tells the story of Raimunda (Cruz), whose life, shadowed by past events, takes a turn when her husband is killed and the spirit of her mother returns. With many twists and turns, the film looks at the different returns Raimunda, her mother, played by veteran actress Carmen Maura, sister (Lola Duenas) and 15-year-old daughter (Yohana Cobo) go through.
    Almodovar himself has described the film as a 'meeting of 'Mildred Pierce' and 'Arsenic and Old Lace'. The film is set in a working class neighbourhood of Madrid, where immigrants from the Spanish provinces, like Raimunda and her sister, live through the ups and downs of city life.
    But, as in many of Almodovar's previous films, the life left behind in the villages and towns forces its way back to the women's lives, prompting a return to the village where they grew up and where their mother's spirit is said to have returned, to sort out unfinished family business.
    "The movie includes a lot of coming backs. I mean, I came back to work with Carmen Maura for example and also with Penelope. I also return to make a movie about female universe after 'La Mala Education' that was about male characters. But the most important thing is that I return to my roots, I go back to the village that I was born (in) to shoot, like the fifty per cent of the movie, and that was the main, I mean not the main, but that was very important for me, I couldn't imagine that it would be so moving just to be in the same places," explained Almodovar.
    As if to prove that the director had indeed come a long way from the simple village life, the premiere of his new film attracted a host of celebrities to the rather small Mayfair cinema.
    The starry guest list for the London premiere included various British actors, eighties icon Siouxsie Sioux and Hollywood star, Cate Blanchett who is currently based in the UK to film the new 'Elizabeth' movie. Asked if she was a fan of Almodovar's, Blanchett simply replied 'Huge', before stepping away from the cameras and leaving the limelight for Cruz and Almodovar.
    And as the talk was on returns, it was apt time to ask, Cruz, who has starred in Spanish, English, Italian and French films, and whose major Hollywood titles include 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin', 'Vanilla Sky' and 'Blow', whether there was any truth in rumours that she was preparing to re-unite with 'Sahara' co-star and recent boyfriend Matthew McConaughey in a new film, 'The Loop'.
    "No, we are not sure that we are going to do that movie. We were never sure about it, we like it, but we don't know if we will do it for sure," Cruz said.
    'Volver' opens in the United Kingdom on August 25.
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