Photo: Sony Pictures
Parallel Mothers - Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar introduced himself to the world with outrageous comedies but in recent decades, he’s usually been in a more somber mood. Set in 2016-17, Almodóvar’s latest film, Parallel Mothers, unfolds against the backdrop of Spain’s historical reckoning. At that time, Javier Cercas and other accomplished Spanish authors—usually grandchildren of the Franco era—turned to memoirs and essays that explored the painful legacy of the Spanish Civil War. Parallel Mothers involves a similar quest to find the past.
In his new film, a magazine photographer, Janis (longtime Almodóvar star Penelope Cruz), strikes up a conversation during a photo shoot with forensic archeologist Arturo (Israel Elejalde) about the unmarked but unforgotten gravesite at her family’s village. During the Civil War, Franco’s forces marched 10 of the village men into a field, shot them down and covered their bones. Janis vows to find their remains and reunite them in a proper graveyard with the women and children left behind.
Janis and Arturo have sex. She becomes pregnant and after a long while, the film wheels back around to the archeological dig and the bones of the dead. The consequences of the past cannot be evaded, Parallel Mothers insists, but first, the screenplay applies the lesson of national truth-telling to the particular problems in Janis’ life.
Devotees of classic Hollywood will no doubt recognize Douglas Sirk’s 1950s melodramas—florid and larger than life—as inspiration for what happens next. Janis meets pregnant teenager Ana (Milena Smit) in the maternity ward. Unbeknownst to either mother, their babies are accidently swapped. Arturo doubts that the daughter Janis brings home, Cecile, is his (no family resemblance). They break up (he’s married anyway, and his wife has cancer). Janis does DNA and discovers the awful truth that Ana is the mother. Meanwhile, the daughter Ana brought home succumbs to crib death. Without telling Ana that she’s Cecile’s biological mother, Janis hires the teen as live-in au pair. Desire sparks between them …
Had he worked in midcentury Hollywood, Almodóvar would have been called a director of “women’s pictures.” Like many of his films, Parallel Mothers is shown from the perspective of the female characters. The two protagonists are given pinpoint performances by Cruz and Smit, who bring their characters fully to life through subtle glances and gestures. Parallel Mothers is elegantly composed. Almodóvar’s vivid Velasquez color palette turns to somber shadows in the most dramatic moments, enhanced by astute use of original music (and in one scene, the baroque electric guitar intro to Janis Joplin’s “Summertime”). Parallel Mothers also includes two splendidly enacted erotic scenes—one for Janis and Ana and later one for Janis and Artur. (The encounter that conceived Cecile is just a fast grunt and groan).
Parallel Mothers is screening at the Downer Theater.
