Volver a Carmen

Pedro Almodóvar is known for his intense creative collaborations with actors across the course of multiple films, with Antonio Banderas and Pénelope Cruz among his muses, but the first of these relationships which set the pattern for all others to follow was with Madrid-born Carmen Maura—their partnership the subject of this series. After appearing in Almodóvar’s punky, puckish shot-on-16mm debut feature Pepi, Luci, Bom in 1980, Maura was a staple of his cinematic output through the decade, her roles including a nun in the order of the Humiliated Redeemers in  Dark Habits, a harried housewife in What Have I Done to Deserve This?, and a struggling transgender actress in The Law of Desire. Made in 1988, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown seemed to spell an end to Almodóvar and Maura’s fruitful alliance—until, that is, 2006’s Volver, which featured Maura in an ensemble cast chock-a-block with “Almodóvar Girls” like Cruz and Chus Lampreave. The film’s title, aptly, means “To return”… and with an actress of Maura’s range and caliber, it’s little wonder Almodóvar couldn’t stay away.