Pedro and Penelope, Ole!

Volver is the outstanding apex of Manchego director Pedro Almodóvar's body of work and a love song for his home of Calzada de Calatrava, from the dusty villages of La Mancha seen through the eyes of the women that make its windmills churn. Almodovar nails the female archetype from the proud and praire-like heartland of Central Spain, my second home for the last 6 + years. Starring Lola Dueñas, Carmen Maura, and Almodóvar muse Penelope Cruz as three women who trace the secrets of the livng and the dead and the shame of their family's wretched past from the small village that triggers it all to their refuge in the working class neighbourhoods of Vallecas. Almodovar hits every nuance, every idiosyncracy, every palabrota bang on in part by casting locals in roles portraying themselves.

Filmed in Vallecas, Almagro, and Villanueva de los Infantes Almodóvar never names his pueblo but there is no need. It is La Mancha's Everytown. Cruz packed on 15lbs and a prosthetic rear end for her career tour de force as Raimunda. This is Pé at her top top top form earning Cruz Best Actress honours at Cannes. My hope is she boycotts the Hollywood cotton candy forevermore (read All the Pretty Horses, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Sahara) even if it does pay the bills. If Volver sweeps the Oscars, as industry buzz is speculating, it could be the first time since Sophia Loren in Two Women that the prize for Best Actress goes to a foreign language film. Genial.

p.s. Brunched at one of my old university haunts, the Cafe Seven West. It's been more than a fortnight since I graced its church pew seating as a novice scribbler mulling Sartre and Le Devoir over café alongé. It's still open 24/7 and the espresso is exactly the way I remember it.