There was a spirited debate in these pages on the merits of Almodovar including a scene showing Penelope Cruz urinating. Zvot felt it was gratuitous titillation, and can one only wonder how he would have reacted if it had been a man, instead glamorous Penelope Cruz. Whatever, I would disagree. Almodovar is a director who seems to have a complete understanding of women, and how they react in stress situations. In the relative scene, he shows perfect understanding of the dilemma of Cruz. When she knocks at the door of her sister's apartment, she cannot understand why her sister is reluctant to let her in. She dismisses her, saying that she has to use the lavatory (her actual words are more earthy), and brushes past her. Her sister is trying to conceal the fact that her "dead" mother is in residence. Meanwhile the scene moves forward & we see Cruz sitting on the lavatory, obviously relieved. She then sniffs the air, in one of the film's best comic scenes, discovering, in the process, that her mother has been in the bathroom, farting, a habit both daughters recall vividly. The scene is hilarious. The sequence is perfect; believable and moves the story into a critical phase, Cruz's discovery that her mother is alive and well. Italian films, in particular those of Vittoria de Sica, regularly depict women stressed by their bladders. The resolution is almost always comic and perfectly in context. I can understand the negative reactions in the USA, where puritanism is still all too prevalent. Yet, even there, they managed,in "Fun with Dick & Jane" to show screen icon, Jane Fonda, sitting on the pot, chatting to George Segal. In this instance, it failed to add to anything to the story line.
Review of Volver
