What did you think of Penelope Cruz as the heroine? I didn't mind her, but I think she lacked that real spark that was so fantastic in Pepa in "Women on the Verge." And I think Carmen Maura stole all her scenes in "Volver," too. I adored her hiding under the bed and laughing about farts.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Leading ladies
What did you think of Penelope Cruz as the heroine? I didn't mind her, but I think she lacked that real spark that was so fantastic in Pepa in "Women on the Verge." And I think Carmen Maura stole all her scenes in "Volver," too. I adored her hiding under the bed and laughing about farts.
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26 comments:
I thought Penelope Cruz was nothing special in this movie. The old woman was much better, as was the woman with the short hair.
I thought Penelope Cruz was great. The other women were possibly better, but I don't know.
I didn't buy Penelope Cruz as a laundress.
I generally like her, and I think she was decent in this movie, even if she was constantly being upstaged by her own breasts.
I'm not one for fart jokes, but I did find that scene very touching — and very funny. Smell is the sense most strongly linked to memory, so it's hilarious that Almodovar plays on this old truism not with the mother's perfume or the scent of her baking, but on something so scatological as her "breaking wind."
I agree with Sara -- Penelope Cruz was great. I was more attuned to the fleeting emotions she worked through, not her breasts. She deserved her Oscar nomination. Her only low point was when they put her through that farce of a voiceover at the café, and I don't know who should be blamed for that.
That said, I don't understand why Almodovar fetishized her breasts or what that brought to the film. I think he did so with Carmen Maura's legs in "Women on the Verge," too. It's as though by praising and sympathizing women in his films, he wants them to be these uber-feminine creatures with played-up features and super-bright attire.
Good to see you, Sara!
Sympathizing with women. Sorry, it's early.
Something Erin and I discussed off-line yesterday sums up perfectly what I think was wrong with Cruz in this movie: In Women on the Verge, Carmen Maura held the whole damn movie together. Penelope Cruz didn't do that here. It was a loose story about some women, not a story about her character and the people who revolved around her.
Hmmm. I didn't think she was great. I felt like all her acting was watery eyes and quivering lips.
I mentioned this on another thread, but Almodovar wanted her to wear butt padding so that she would be more curvy. He wanted her to look kind of like a flamboyant Italian mom, with bright clothes, big hair, lots of cleavage, short skirts, big earrings, etc. And I just didn't feel like the personality matched the outfits.
Yes, to me her personality seemed just too small for this movie.
What did the rest of you think of the woman with the short hair (sorry, I'm terrible with names). Erin told me that she didn't think that actress was that special, but I thought she played her role perfectly and artistically.
Seriously? She was fantastic. That was a hefty role as a woman strugglng to look after her family, make connections with the neighborhood, start a new business, cover up a murder, deal with incest and rape, and blame herself for not seeing history repeat itself -- and that's before she finds out her mother's still alive. That takes a lot of range to pull that off. She was magnificent.
I think that role required a better actress than Cruz has ever been.
Who would you cast instead?
I don't hold Oscar nominations sacrosanct, but Cruz received consistent praise from critics and film groups for her work here. I don't see coming to an agreement on this, but Sara and I aren't coming out of left field, here.
(Sara, you may not feel strongly on this, so I don't mean to burden you with association.)
(And congrats on finishing the bar?)
I agree the role was meaty, and I'm not saying Cruz was terrible. I think she was decent, as kc said. Magnificent, though, I just don't see. I'm aware that she was nominated for an Oscar and that critics liked her. I definitely thought it was better than her previous performances. But I just wasn't totally convinced.
I feel the same as Erin.
And I have no idea whom I would have cast in the role. For one thing, he was using Spanish actresses, and for another, I don't even know the names of most American actresses.
I'm thinking of a couple of possibilities, but I don't know their names.
And I'm not saying it wasn't good. I'm saying it wasn't great. It was a very difficult role to play great, and I think she missed.
I think, again, that a lot was lost in translation here. Almodovar's women are so animated and talk so fast (how much of that gets translated?) and no doubt have a lot of character in their voices and the expressions that they use — and so little of that comes through for someone who doesn't understand Spanish. Think of how often something in a movie is funny because of the WAY it was said and not because of what was said. In this particular movie, I felt constantly torn between reading the subtitles at the bottom of the screen and being able to watch the actresses' faces.
That's an excellent point. It's probably nearly impossible to make some things come across in a subtitled film.
cl, I kind of liked the scene where she sang. I liked that her mom was in the car listening and sobbing. I liked how her first "meeting" with her daughter after her "death" involved only the sense of hearing, as the daughter's involved only the sense of smell. The single-sense experience really engaged their imaginations and emotions.
And I like how she didn't hook up with the cute film guy. It made sense that she would be off men for a while, and Almodovar didn't try the predictable maneuver of immediately replacing the bad guy in her life with a sensitive guy, as though a woman would not be complete without a man.
I was also really glad that nothing came of that flirtation with the film guy. Excellent restraint by Almodovar.
I thought Cruz was great because although she's a big-name star, and I've seen her in a lot of films, after about three minutes I forgot all that and was immersed in the story and the characters. To me, Cruz disappeared. That is the mark of a great performance.
That's a good point, Sara. I sort of forgot whom I was looking at also. Part of that could have been because she wasn't speaking English, but I think most of it was probably because she seemed so at ease in the role.
Regarding Almodovar's restraint with the cute film guy: I was reading something recently about what a breakthrough "feminist" film "Thelma and Louise" was, and I can sort of see that, I guess. But I personally never thought so, mainly because having Geena Davis hook up sexually with the male drifter (even if it was Brad Pitt) almost immediately after she had been sexually brutalized did not ring true to me. Assault victims tend to have trouble relating sexually to others in the aftermath of an assault; that is one of the horrors of rape, having intimacy stolen, and I think the filmmaker just glossed over that (Almodovar didn't). And having the two women die together as the only viable ending (because they couldn't beat the male system) was the coldest comfort.
I understand what you're saying about Cruz the actress disappearing into the role, and you're right that that is good, but I think she should have "reappeared" as a very strong character, and I think she failed at that. As I said before, a good performance, but not great in my book.
Of course, that's just my opinion.
I never saw "Thelma and Louise," so I can't comment on that, but what you're saying makes sense. I really liked Almodovar's restraint, too. Having Cruz hook up with the film guy would have been distracting to the rest of the story.
Also, it worked for me that she wouldn't be interested in anything at that time, but the slight flirtation gave hope that in the future she might have the chance for a relationship that would be more healthy than her previous experiences. Not with the film guy, but with someone else worthwhile who comes along.
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