5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
'LIKE' The Rogovoy Report on Facebook
Click 'LIKE' to Receive Facebook feeds from The Rogovoy Report
5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
|
[FILM REVIEW] Volver
1.26.07
VOLVER
directed by Pedro Almodovar
Starring Penelope Cruz
Review by SETH ROGOVOY, editor-in-chief and critic-at-large, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
Mancha is a a small town full of betrayals, adultery, illness, lust, ghosts, child abuse, crimes of passion, fraud, and murder. In VOLVER Pedro Almodovar has crafted a vibrant, colorful black comedy and a paean to women, really, about the power of women to overcome all the societal ills that men wreak.
At the center of it all lies the heroine, Penelope Cruz -- but not the Americanized version whom we've seen in recent years as eye candy in films like VANILLA SKY or CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN -- but rather back in her rightful position as one of Spain and Europe's leading ladies. As A.O. Scott wrote of her performance in his NEW YORK TIMES review, "Ms. Cruz inscribes her name near the top of any credible list of present-day flesh-and-blood screen goddesses, in no small part because she manages to be earthy, unpretentious and a little vulgar without shedding an ounce of her natural glamour," and you might have heard that she goes into the Oscars this year with a Best Actress
nomination.
In a movie that opens with a comic scene of women scrubbing their husbands gravestones, Almodovar weaves a magical realist tale of a town where people may or may not return from the dead to finish up work they left undone here on earth, a town where EVERYONE is harboring at least one life-rocking secret, and mostly, a world where sisters are doin' it for themselves.
At some level, VOLVER is merely another chick-flick. But it's one that's shot gorgeously, in typical Almodovar style, with lush, vivid primary colors; obsessive details crammed into every frame; and a whimsical camera that goes wherever it wants in order to get the best view -- whether it's of someone hiding underneath a bed or of Penelope Cruz's considerable cleavage, which Almodovar practically turns into a character of its own in this wild, wacky, yet very serious film.
|
...sites that work