What was the significance of the east wind? And the wind turbines? KC made the comment that perhaps they were a Don Quixote reference. I've since read that "Volver" was set in La Mancha. Do you see any connection?
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Almodovar is from La Mancha.
I don't think the turbines were a Don Quixote reference, because I don't know who in the film was "fighting windmills" in the quixotic sense. The problems these women faced were all very real.
I think the turbines were just to emphasize the east wind, which was so well-developed that I consider it a character in the film.
Hmm. I think it's impossible to set a story in La Mancha and depict windmills without there being a Don Quixote reference. It would be like setting a story about two love-struck teenagers in Verona and claiming it's not a Romeo-and-Juliet reference.
It's funny to think of Don Quixote tilting at a rickety windmill in the early 1600s. And then to fast forward to this field of gigantic wind turbines in the 21st century. It's a nice sense of absurdity. At least Don Quixote stood a chance of defeating his windmill-foe, whether real or imaginary.
And Cervantes was writing about imagination and creativity and craziness and the individual's struggle in society (whether to conform to expectations or to create your own life), and I think Almodovar is concerned with similar themes. Certainly, the mother's creation of her own "death" as a way to go on living fits this mold, as does the other women's taking their lives into their own hands, and the absurdity of the body in the freezer and the superstitions of the villagers.
Perhaps part of the point was a contrast with Don Quixote: they were dealing with real giants.
It's an interesting question. I've read that La Mancha really is extremely windy and there are big wind turbines everywhere. The old-style windmills are still there, too. I wonder why we didn't see any of those in the movie.
Maybe showing the old-style windmills would have been too obvious for Almodovar's taste.
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