amazon.co.ukFilm Study: Volver (Almodóvar, 2006)
A* revision on Volver: plot without retelling, the women/death/secrets themes, Almodóvar's camera technique, La Mancha context and 40-mark essay frames for AQA and Edexcel.
🎯 Learning Objectives
- Summarise Volver's plot accurately in under a minute, using it as evidence rather than narration (AQA 7692/2X; Edexcel 9SP0 Paper 2)
- Analyse the themes of women, death, family secrets and guilt through named scenes (AO2)
- Evaluate Almodóvar's technique: colour, camera movement, framing, sound and homage (AO2)
- Connect the film to its context: post-Franco Spain, La Mancha, Almodóvar's biography (AO1)
- Build top-band essay paragraphs integrating theme, scene and judgement
📋 Key Definitions and Core Concepts
la madre muerta que vuelve: Irene's return after four years supposedly dead — the film's ghost-motif that turns out to be literal
el viento: the recurring wind of La Mancha, associated with the return of the dead — Almodóvar's magic-realist touch
la limpieza de las tumbas: the village women's ritual cleaning of graves: death as domestic routine, the film's cultural spine
la solidaridad entre mujeres: the female network (Raimunda, Paula, Agustina, las vecinas) that does all the film's work — women's solidarity
el incesto: the buried secret: Raimunda was abused by her own father, and her mother's fire killed him — the film's darkest revelation
el congelador del bar: the freezer where Raimunda hides Paco's body — the film's black-comedy engine
el tango «Volver»: the Gardel/Le Pera tango sung by Estrella Morente in the film — the title's double meaning of return
el neorrealismo: the realist style of hardship and everyday heroism that Almodóvar says inspired Raimunda's character
Argumento y contexto: nunca contar la trama, usarla
Pedro Almodóvar — born in Calzada de Calatrava, in La Mancha, whose landscapes and women he returns to here — made Volver (2006) at the height of his maturity, with Penélope Cruz (Cannes Best Actress, Oscar-nominated) as Raimunda and Carmen Maura as Irene, the mother thought dead. Almodóvar's biography is examinable context: his post-Franco Movida origins, his matriarchal childhood among women, and his return in this film to the region and the religion of his childhood with affection instead of rebellion.
The plot in evidence form: Raimunda's daughter Paula kills her stepfather Paco defending herself from his attempted abuse; Raimunda hides the body in el congelador del bar and takes over the restaurant, cooking for a film crew. Her mother Irene — supposedly dead four years — returns «as a ghost», borne on el viento. The buried secret unwinds: Irene's fire killed Raimunda's father and the lover who had left him (Agustina's mother); Irene then hid for years in the house of the dying aunt Paula. Raimunda was abused by her own father — the incest secret — which explains both her hostility to her mother and the cycle of abuse the film exposes. The resolution: Raimunda tells her daughter the truth (tu padre está enterrado junto al río), Irene stays with the cancer-stricken neighbour Agustina, and the household of women closes its own circle.
Exam rule: never narrate. Every plot fact must be deployed as evidence inside an argument — la escena del congelador demuestra que Raimunda administra la muerte como administra la vida: con pragmatismo. Plot retelling is the single biggest mark-killer in AQA and Edexcel essays.
The film's reception is examinable: it won los Premios Goya (Best Film and Best Actress, 2007) alongside Penélope Cruz's Cannes prize, and it was produced by El Deseo, the company Almodóvar runs with his brother Agustín — the auteur-as-producer model that lets him keep final cut. Carmen Maura carries biographical weight: she was Almodóvar's leading lady in the 1980s (Pepi, Luci, Bom, 1980) and they did not speak for years; Volver was their reconciliation on screen, so the casting itself is a statement about forgiveness — a detail examiners rarely see and essays rarely miss. Box-office context: a European hit on a modest budget, confirming Almodóvar as Spain's most exportable director. Exam rule extension: attach every production fact to meaning — the El Deseo model explains the film's controlled vision; the Maura reunion explains why Irene's return is written as affection, not reproach. Context earns marks only when it analyses.
Temas: mujeres, muerte y secretos familiares
Las mujeres. The film is a matriarchy: every function — economic (Raimunda's cleaning and restaurant), emotional (Irene's guilt), communal (las vecinas, the tango) — is female, while men are absent, useless or violent (Paco dead, the lecherous bar owner, Rubén away working). The women's solidarity is the film's engine: la solidaridad entre mujeres replaces the family that men have broken. Cruz's Raimunda consciously revives Sophia Loren's neorealist women (el neorrealismo: hardship and everyday heroism) — a homage worth citing.
La muerte. Almodóvar inverts Spanish gravity: the film opens with the village women cleaning graves as domestic routine — la limpieza de las tumbas is closer to housework than to mourning — and treats death as manageable, even domestic (the freezer). The ghost-motif is gentle: Irene returns on the wind, and Agustina sees her dead mother too, so death is a presence, not a void. Yet the film's actual deaths are the darkest — incest, fire, cancer — so the comedy is the surface and the tragedy the structure.
Los secretos. The family is held together by what is unsaid; the plot is the slow unsealing of three secrets (Paula's killing, Irene's survival, the incest). The theme maps onto Spanish culture directly: the village that knows everything and says nothing, the graves that are cleaned but not asked about. For the essay, link the three themes into one claim: Volver pregunta qué pasa cuando las mujeres dejan de callar — the moment the women stop keeping the secrets, the cycle of abuse and guilt breaks. That sentence, argued through three scenes, is a top-band thesis.
Scene anchors for each theme, named for exam deployment. Mujeres: the bar tango — Raimunda performing «Volver» for the film crew while the village women watch — is the solidarity thesis in one shot: the community that does the film's work applauds its own. Muerte: the opening cemetery sequence contrasts with the film's dark deaths (fire, incest, cancer) — comedy on the surface, tragedy in the structure; Agustina's cancer also carries guilt (Irene's fire killed her mother, and Agustina asks the question no one answers). Secretos: the final riverside confession — Raimunda telling Paula where her father is buried — breaks the cycle: the silence ends with the youngest woman. Class is the bonus theme: Raimunda's informal economy (cleaning offices, the pop-up restaurant) shows post-industrial precarity — la economía sumergida as survival. Comparative point for A*: Volver and Todo sobre mi madre share the matriarchal structure, but here Almodóvar adds reconciliation with the mother — his own biography written into the plot.
Técnica cinematográfica y el ensayo de 40/32 marcas
Almodóvar's technique is highly examinable because it is visible and nameable:
- El color: the saturated red of Raimunda's clothes, blood and tomatoes — passion, danger and food as the same visual family; the crimson against La Mancha's bare white.
- La cámara: horizontal tracking shots that move door-to-door through the village like an invisible neighbour; mirrors and frames-within-frames that isolate the women; the famous voyeuristic camera that watches without judging.
- El sonido: Estrella Morente's tango «Volver» — Gardel's song of return — sung over Raimunda's lipsync; the wind as the dead's arrival; the score's homage to Bernard Herrmann.
- El montaje circular: the narrative circles back — the film begins with cleaning graves and ends with a grave; begins with a dead mother and ends with a living one.
The essay architecture. AQA (7692/2X): one essay, 40 marks — roughly 30 for knowledge and analysis of the film (AO2/AO4 skills: theme, scene, technique, opinion) and 10 for quality of language. Edexcel (9SP0 Paper 2): a 32-mark essay on the film with the same analytical demands. Top-band logic, both boards:
- Introducción: contexto (Almodóvar, 2006) + tesis de una frase.
- Párrafos PEA: Punto → Escena nombrada → Análisis (qué demuestra la técnica). Three paragraphs, three scenes, no plot summary.
- Contraargumento: otra lectura (e.g. ¿la comedia mina la gravedad del incesto?), refutada.
- Conclusión: juicios matizados, no resumen.
- Lengua: subjuntivo, condicional, conectores de contraste; citas de la película entrecomilladas.
A* move: quote the film in Spanish (e.g. «el viento trae los espíritus»-type scene references) and always attach technique to meaning — la cámara horizontal convierte a la espectadora en vecina: cómplice del silencio del pueblo.
Technique refinements for A*: the film's offscreen space matters — key deaths (Paco's stabbing, the fire) happen offscreen or in flashback, keeping the camera's gaze on consequences, not violence; the long takes in the kitchen sequences (the camera moving with Raimunda as she cooks) bind technique to theme — work and death processed in the same domestic space. The lighting separates realism from magic: the village scenes are naturalistically lit, while Irene's appearances glow slightly — the ghost-motif signalled by light, not effects. The score's Herrmann homage (Almodóvar's tribute to Hitchcock's Vertigo) places the film in the melodrama tradition. Essay technique: match the command word — «analiza» demands technique-plus-meaning; «hasta qué punto» demands a scale; «compara» demands parallel structure across both films. And always quote the film in Spanish with the scene named («la escena del tango en el bar»): named scenes + quoted Spanish + meaning = the three ingredients every top-band paragraph shares.
💡 Worked Example
Exam-style: Analiza cómo Almodóvar presenta el tema de la muerte en Volver. (AQA 7692/2X — ensayo de 40 marcas)
Mark-scheme logic: Mark-scheme logic (40 marcas): (1) TESIS — Almodóvar invierte la gravedad española: la muerte es rutina doméstica, presencia amable y liberación para las mujeres, no tragedia. (2) PÁRRAFO 1 — la limpieza de las tumbas de las escenas iniciales: muerte como faena cotidiana; las mujeres limpian, comen, hablan; el duelo es colectivo. (3) PÁRRAFO 2 — el regreso de Irene con el viento y las apariciones que ve Agustina: muerte como presencia (motivo fantasmal), no vacío; la ironía del título (el tango de Gardel). (4) PÁRRAFO 3 — las muertes oscuras (el incesto, el incendio, el cáncer): la comedia como superficie, la tragedia como estructura; el congelador como símbolo de muerte administrable. (5) CONTRAARGUMENTO — ¿trivializa Almodóvar el incesto con la comedia? No: la comicidad permite hablar de lo innombrable. (6) LENGUA (10 marcas) — subjuntivo («aunque la muerte parezca amable»), citas de escenas, conectores (no obstante, es más, en conclusión) y juicio personal matizado.
❓ Practice Questions & Mark Schemes
«En Volver los hombres sobran.» ¿Hasta qué punto estás de acuerdo? (respuesta completa en español, nivel A*)
Answer: Sustancialmente de acuerdo, pero con un matiz. Los hombres del film son ausentes, inútiles o peligrosos: Paco muere intentando abusar de su hijastra, el dueño del bar acecha a Raimunda, y Rubén, el padre de Paula, nunca aparece; todas las funciones —económicas, emocionales, comunales— las cumplen mujeres. Sin embargo, decir que «sobran» simplifica: la ausencia masculina es el resultado del mundo que Almodóvar construye, no una tesis sobre la humanidad; el film critica a estos hombres concretos, no a los hombres en abstracto. Mi conclusión es que Volver es un matriarcado por necesidad histórica: en La Mancha, como en el cine de Almodóvar, las mujeres sobreviven a los hombres y, al final, hacen todo el trabajo de vivir.
Analiza el significado del viento en Volver.
Answer: El viento es el símbolo más visible del film y funciona en tres niveles. Primero, es el mensajero de los muertos: sopla cuando Irene regresa y cuando Agustina ve a su madre, conectando el realismo del pueblo con un toque de realismo mágico. Segundo, es la fuerza del pasado: el viento de La Mancha arranca lo escondido, como la verdad arranca los secretos de la familia. Tercero, une el paisaje con la trama: Almodóvar, que nació en Calzada de Calatrava, convierte el viento de su infancia manchega en personaje. Para el ensayo, el punto A* es enlazar el viento con el título: ambas fuerzas —el viento y el «volver» del tango— hablan del regreso inevitable de lo que creemos enterrado.
¿Qué papel juegan los secretos familiares en Volver? Justifica con escenas.
Answer: Los secretos son el motor del argumento y el tema más profundo del film. Hay tres: la muerte de Paco a manos de Paula, que Raimunda esconde en el congelador; la supervivencia de Irene, «muerta» durante cuatro años; y el incesto —el abuso que sufrió Raimunda a manos de su propio padre—, que explica la frialdad entre madre e hija. El pueblo entero sabe y nadie dice nada: la limpieza ritual de las tumbas convive con el silencio sobre lo que hay debajo de ellas. El momento decisivo es cuando Raimunda rompe el silencio y le dice a Paula la verdad; solo entonces el ciclo de culpa y abuso se rompe. Mi conclusión: Volver pregunta qué pasa cuando las mujeres dejan de callar, y responde que el silencio, no la verdad, es lo que corrompe a la familia.
Compara la presentación de Raimunda y de Irene. ¿Qué demuestra cada personaje?
Answer: Raimunda es la hija: pragmática, trabajadora, protectora; esconde el cuerpo, monta un restaurante y no llora. Encarna el neorrealismo que Almodóvar admira —la heroína de la vida diaria— y es, en parte, un homenaje a las mujeres de Sophia Loren. Irene es la madre: teatral, culpable, maternal hasta el exceso; su regreso como «fantasma» obliga al pasado a comparecer. La técnica las distingue: la cámara aísla a Raimunda en marcos y espejos —encerrada en su secreto—, mientras Irene aparece rodeada de mujeres, como el pasado que vuelve en comunidad. El análisis A*: las dos mujeres son dos respuestas al mismo trauma —el callar (Raimunda) y el contarlo todo, teatralmente (Irene)—, y el film necesita a las dos para resolver el incesto que las une.
¿Es Volver una comedia, un drama o un melodrama? Discute.
Answer: Es las tres cosas, y esa hibridación es el argumento del ensayo. Comedia: el congelador del bar, la faena colectiva, el tango cantado por las vecinas — el humor mantiene viva la película. Drama: el incesto, el cáncer de Agustina y el ciclo de abuso son material trágico. Melodrama: Almodóvar abraza el género —el color rojo, la música excesiva, las emociones a flor de piel— como en toda su filmografía. La síntesis A*: la comicidad no trivializa el incesto, lo hace pronunciable; en una cultura del silencio, reírse de lo innombrable es la única forma de nombrarlo. Almodóvar melodramatiza para emocionar y hace comedia para permitir, y la mezcla es la firma de su madurez como director.