‘Ghosts Don’t Cry’ : State of Exception and the Mother(land) in Pedro Almodóvar’s Live Flesh (1997) and Volver (2006)

Camino Maroto, Mercedes (2024) ‘Ghosts Don’t Cry’ : State of Exception and the Mother(land) in Pedro Almodóvar’s Live Flesh (1997) and Volver (2006). Studies in European Cinema, 21 (2). pp. 128-155. ISSN 1741-1548

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Abstract

Volver and Live Flesh present the contradictions inherent in celebrating assertive motherhood through the ‘costumbrista’ tradition that Almodóvar has adapted and adopted throughout his career. Nostalgic yearning for a ‘return’ to the mother(land) is filtered in these films through a view of women projected through casting, costume, as well as the segregation of cinematic space. This results in a projection of exteriors as the masculine domain and assigning women largely to interiors, as in melodrama. Howe.