Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Share your own customer images

Volver (Almodovar) [DVD]

Penelope Cruz (Actor), Carmen Maura (Actor), Pedro Almodovar (Director) | Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over | Format: DVD
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Learn about LOVEFiLM
Amazon’s film and TV subscription service with unlimited access to thousands of titles to watch instantly, many in HD at no extra cost. Go to LOVEFiLM for title availability. Enjoy a 30-day free trial and watch across many devices including the Kindle Fire. Learn more at LOVEFiLM.com

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Actors: Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo
  • Directors: Pedro Almodovar
  • Format: Anamorphic, PAL
  • Language: Spanish
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 12 Feb 2007
  • Run Time: 121 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000KF0WXA
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 6,699 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

Spanish for "Coming Back," Volver is a return to the all-female format of All About My Mother. Unlike Pedro Almodóvar's previous two pictures, the story revolves around a group of women in Madrid and his native La Mancha. (The cast received a collective best actress award at Cannes.) Raimunda (a zaftig Penélope Cruz) is the engine powering this heartfelt, yet humorous vehicle. When husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) is murdered, Raimunda makes like Mildred Pierce to deflect attention away from daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). After telling everyone the lout has left, she struggles to conceal his body. The other women in her life all have secrets of their own. Her sister, Sole (Lola Dueñas), for instance, has taken in their mother, Irene (a sprightly Carmen Maura). Since Irene perished in a fire, is this person a ghost or simply a woman who looks like her? Then there's their childhood friend, Agustina (Blanca Portillo), who is desperate to find out why her mother disappeared after the blaze. Was she responsible? Almodóvar deftly blends the ghost story with the murder mystery in his tribute to the Italian neo-realist films of the 1950s. The resilient Raimunda is a throwback to the earthy heroines of Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. The latter appears in Luchino Visconti's Bellissima, which shows up on Sole's television one night (thus confirming the link). If Almodóvar’s 16th feature lacks the emotional punch of the more audacious Talk to Her, it's less heavy-handed than Bad Education and Cruz is a revelation. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

Director Pedro Almodovar's acclaimed supernatural-themed comedy starring Penelope Cruz. Cruz plays a Madrid mother and housewife of a drunk husband. She and her hairdressing sister are orphans by dint of a house fire back home in rural LaMancha. When their sole surviving relative there - their mum's sister - passes on, her past habit of talking to the girls' mother as if she were still on the mortal plane takes on a new and chilling significance.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars ensemble excellence 4 Nov 2007
By William Rycroft
Format:DVD
I believe this is the third time that Penelope Cruz has worked with Pedro Almodovar and whilst she may have given some terrible performances in English (and been eclipsed for a while by the media nightmare that is a relationship with the other Cruise) she proves herself to be a quite exceptional actress in Volver.

Meaning 'The Return' Volver begins in the village of Alcanfor de las Infantas; a superstitious place, where it is said that the East Wind drives many inhabitants insane. Raimunda (Cruz), her daughter and her sister Soledad have come to visit the grave of their mother who was killed in a fire with her husband. Whilst there they visit their aunt Paula who, a little senile and through milk-bottle glasses, tells them that their mother is alive and living with her. Back home in Madrid, Raimunda comes home from work one day to find her daughter looking disturbed. She has stabbed the man she thought to be her father after he drunkenly tried to rape her. Whilst she deals with this Raimunda is called by her sister to be told their aunt has died. It is when returning from the funeral on her own that Soledad hears the voice of her mother calling her from the boot of the car.

The performances are all exceptional (the six actresses shared the Best Actress award at Cannes in 2006) but Cruz really shines in her role. When her drunken husband masturbates beside her in bed, after she has shrugged off his advances, we see her look of surprise, disgust and sadness as a tear wells in her eye. Later in the film she sings the song Volver to a restaurant filled by a film crew wrap party and whilst she may only be lip syncing her performance had me doubting.

Almodovar has said that the film 'is precisely about death...... Read more ›
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly surprised 10 Mar 2007
By H. M. Kingston
Format:DVD
This was the first Pedro Almodavar film we'd seen and had only seen Penelope Cruz once before in the undemanding role she had in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. For the first fifteen minutes or so we thought it be the equivalent of a novel in the 'magic realism' mode or somesuch and my heart sank. But no, it took off and really gripped us. Cruz was great in her role which let her take all 'certain' events that befell her family in her stride with pragmatism and even humour. Excellent movie.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Film by a Great Director!!! 10 July 2007
By nmollo VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Volver" is a beautiful film. Unique in its construction and emotionally riveting in its delivery. From the very first frame it is abundantly clear that a master director with a peerless cast is at work.

All the performances are excellent and very naturalistic. Naturalistic for Southern Spain that is and Penélope Cruz is simply incredible. I had never really rated her as a great dramatic actress. The only other time she had impressed me was in a small part as a Mother giving birth on a bus in another Almodóvar Film. She proved to me she could be extraordinary. So I am left with the question why she never received the award for best actress at the Oscars. It only goes to show what a travesty that Award has become.

Pedro Almodóvar is one of the best Directors alive today and that list includes only three names. The other two are Yimou Zhang and Takashi Miike. These three Directors are international. Cutting edge! They are not trapped by their Nationality or by the Hollywood system. They make intelligent films for intelligent people unlike what Hollywood is constantly spewing out into those charmless multiplex factories.

"Volver" should have won the best picture award at the Oscars. Not best foreign film but Best Picture because, to put it simply, it is perfect. The Score, the acting, direction, production design, sound design, the opening credits, the final credits and most importantly the script. They are all perfect.

There is in Southern Spain an extraordinary wealth of Spanish "palabrotas" (swear words and rude phrases) and to really enjoy them a street knowledge of Spanish is recomended.
A Spanish Dictionary is of no use.... Read more ›
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Back from the Dead 30 Aug 2007
By P. C. Reynell
Format:DVD
Right from the opening scene of women in the cemetary it is clear that we are in a woman's world.The murder of the worthless Paco and his disposal in a deep freeze suggests that men are peripheral or hostile. What matters is the delicate web of relationships between the women. The return of the dead mother introduces elements of phantasy and comedy suggesting the we should not be too solemn about it. Penelope Cruz is a formidable screen presence but the over-riding impression is of goodteamwork. A film enjoyable rather than profound.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome Back Carmen Maura 6 Mar 2007
By Mr. S. D. Usher
Format:DVD
I loved this movie. I still rate "All about my mother" as a better film, but this was a very moving, very funny movie. Even with some of the darker subject matter, it still proved very powerful. It was good to see Carmen Maura back on the screen in an Almodovar movie. Cruz was also exceptional. Even the lesser characters such as the woman waiting to have their hair done were good, their dialogue funny.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A pot-pourri of talents,colour and emotions 14 Dec 2007
By Jay
Format:DVD
Rare are the movies who celebrate everything that life offers. Joy and despair, love and hate, living and dying, strength and weakness, good and bad. While many movies reduce life to either good or bad, painting a very simple picture of human relationships, Almodovars movies display a wide range of emotions, where a person is a Saint and a Whore, where people laugh and cry at the same time, achieving a sense of truth that other movies seldom touch.

An everlasting wind soughs around a small village in La Mancha and the cemetery, where women are cleaning the graves of their dear ones, fighting the winds destruction of their work. This opening scene already sets the tone of the rest of the movie. There are few scenes with men present, the most prominent dies within the first half hour of the movie. In Almodovars universe the women take care of everything, they are hardworking, caring, difficult and solidarity, sharing their intimate moments with each other.

As usual there are plenty of weird, funny and tragic moments in this story (which makes it almost impossible to give a summary of the incidents). The Return from the title is true in many respects, like in all his movies it has multiple meanings. But unlike his early efforts the story here is less over the top, rings truer and is leaving a big emotional impact on you. It's impossible not to be touched by this film.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and involving
One of the best movie of Almodovar ever excellent genius fantastic brash lovely truly inspirational beautiful well done a movie that I would see every weekend
Published 1 month ago by Tono
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Almodovar film
Great film. Penelope Cruz in fine form. Very entertaining and a good way to practice Spanish by watching in with and without subtitiles
Published 1 month ago by mt
4.0 out of 5 stars Pedestrian Almodovar is better than most
Penelope Cruz is a gifted actor but the farcical plot of this film was a challenge to watch. Too many story lines which did not convince and for once, Ms Cruz's physical presence... Read more
Published 1 month ago by "Belgo Geordie"
5.0 out of 5 stars Penelope Cruz - What's not to love?
It's a great great film. Penelope Cruz is incredible both in terms of her acting but also in terms of how utterly beautiful she is. Great direction and darkly comical. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Utah
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous movie
DVD arrived quickly, postage resonable, also price. I would use the site again because the quality of the product was good.
Published 2 months ago by meriel darby
5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into Spain & an original plot
The plot was not predictable and the film provides an insight into Spain. The sub-titles help with the fast Spanish. I recommend it.
Published 3 months ago by PurpleSea
3.0 out of 5 stars Sub-title not compatible
The sub-titles were not compatible with UK screen format and were not visible to us despite all attempts with the menu etc.
Published 5 months ago by R. L. Henderson
5.0 out of 5 stars Volver (DVD)
A very touching movie by Almodvar. Like nothing seen before. I will not describe the plot as it has been done before me. Read more
Published 5 months ago by G. Wallen
3.0 out of 5 stars The biggest problem is Penelope Cruz
The opening scene of the movie - a graveyard full of women where the wind howls - is the most unusual and visually arresting and afterwards the film goes into slow decline. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J & K
4.0 out of 5 stars Volvar
Strange film but my daughter needed it for her Spanish course at school so from that point of view it was very useful.
Published 8 months ago by Steve Skarratt
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      zone "Volver" 1 28 May 2010
      › See all discussions...  
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Search Customer Discussions
         
      Related forums

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback