motherly journey. Historical memory trip. Future trip. healing journey. Youth trip. of hugs Of perfect potato tortillas. Of donuts and waffles. Theatrical. With Lorca. In parallel mothers, the new movie Pedro Almodovar (Theatrical release October 8) there are many trips. It is an interior journey. Of closed spaces that only breathe fresh air when he returns to town. Always to the people. Beginning and end of the trip.
Penelope Cruz she becomes her traveling companion again. In a role, Janis, a photographer, accidental and vocational mother, who has already won her a well-deserved award at the last Venice Festival. There are also other regular women in his movies: Rossy de Palma and Julieta Serrano. And new names for the director: Milena Smith, in his second film (after You will not kill with Goya revelation); and veterans Aitana Sánchez Gijón and Israel Elejalde.
Pedro Almodóvar and Milena Smit at the town house.
Parallel Mothers is, once again, a contained journey. Like in pain and glory or in Juliet. But it's still colorful. And very warm. It is a journey of familiar physical places and intense emotional spaces. It is a trip full of stops and viewpoints to stop at.
Madrid. First stop. The journey of Parallel Mothers begins where Pedro Almodóvar's entire filmography has passed. The city he moved to with no ambition to stay forever, but where he stayed. Where he was born and raised as an author and director. He has toured and taught many Madrid different that always share something: They are free. But really free.
Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit and a potato omelette.
Madrid is the main setting for his latest film. And, as always, also a Madrid recognizable. Janis (Cruz) lives in full Comendadoras Square, one of the most beautiful squares, alive and lived in Madrid. Her enviable apartment with her patio is in the doorway next to the Modern Cafe. Daytime and evening meeting point. There she begins to work Ana (Milena Smit).
Other streets of Madrid. Continuation of the trip. Janis moves throughout the center of Madrid. In her work as a photographer. But it is a central Madrid, central, not far from the Comendadoras. For him Barcelo Market, for instance. A Madrid of traditional taverns: how Angel Sierra's on Calle Gravina, where you can meet up with friends and hear good news. With a cool wine. And also a Madrid of always pleasant hotels, like the ursus, for very private conversations. Or cocktails to close the night with joy: in the Hemingway Cocktail Bar at Casa Sweden. It is the route of Janis and Arturo (Elejalde).
Israel Elejalde and Penelope Cruz at the Hotel Urso.
Two mothers. Two Spains. Two Madrid. It is seen only from the inside. But if the characters of Penelope Cruz and Aitana Sanchez Gijon They represent two ways of understanding motherhood. Also two ways of seeing and having lived Spain. They are two neighborhoods of Madrid. We don't know where Aitana's house is (who plays Ana's mother), but it seems to be in a classic and higher level neighborhood.
Federico Garcia Lorca. It's a stop in itself in this movie. Or the whole trip. The character of Aitana Sánchez Gijón is a mature and frustrated actress that she finds in Doña Rosita the single the opportunity she had been waiting for all her life. Lorca is a figure that also flies over the entire film. Almodovar wanted talk about historical memory, about the urgent need to open mass graves, of not trying to close wounds that cannot or heal if they do not heal. Lorca is still the great disappeared. And like him thousands and thousands.
Milena, Penelope and little Luna.
The village. end stop. And the beginning. Janis was born in the town, a town not defined or located, raised by her grandmother Cecilia de Ella. The town where her great-grandfather was killed along with others and left on the outskirts. That grave that Janis wants to open today with Arturo's help. They return to that town. to the pit To give peace to her great-grandfather. To her grandmother. To various generations past, present and future.
We speak of a town in Almodóvar's filmography and we immediately think of La Mancha. However, this time they shot in Torrelaguna, Madrid. In its square, its streets and inside some of its houses. Also in its surroundings.
The memory, finally, found.
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