Parallel Mothers (Preview)
Reviewed by Josh Heaps

Produced by Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García; directed by Pedro Almodóvar; screenplay by Pedro Almodóvar; cinematography by José Luis Alcaine; edited by Teresa Font; production design by Antxón Gómez; art direction by Alejandra Loiseau; costume design by Paola Torres makeup and hair design by Pablo Iglesias; music by Alberto Iglesias; starring Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma, and Julieta Serrano. Color, Spanish dialogue with English subtitles, 123 min. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

Alongside its tamer plots and characters, the late style of Pedro Almodóvar can be defined by an increased reflexivity. The filmmaker, now in his early seventies, has moved past the rebellious nature of his early work toward a more knowing meditation on his own life, country, and profession. Almodóvar’s highly lauded Pain and Glory (2019), for instance, closes on a sound stage, just as his most recent feature begins in a studio whose on-screen image becomes one of many in a long strip of celluloid. Following this evocative opening sequence, Parallel Mothers widens its scope to explore the relationship between personal and public history, as well as motherhood and motherland. The film—a natural corollary to the autobiographical Pain and Glory—employs Almodóvar’s usual tricks and tropes to confront Spain’s dark past for the very first time. 

In Parallel Mothers, Penélope Cruz returns for her seventh collaboration with Almodóvar. Here she plays Janis—named after Janis Joplin—a successful photographer living in the Almodóvar preferred setting of Madrid. The plot moves quickly: Janis sleeps with a married man, becomes pregnant, and decides to raise their child herself. In the maternity ward, she meets Ana (Milena Smit), a spunky seventeen-year-old whose maternal reticence contrasts with Janis’s own enthusiasm (Janis is approaching forty, though one would never guess it). The pair end up living together, and through a number of none-too-shocking twists—hold for Ana’s radical haircut—the two women form a connection far beyond friendship.  

But don’t jump to conclusions—the intricate ties between Janis, Ana, and their children belie the film’s straightforward title. Parallel Mothers knowingly avoids the simplicity of either sisterhood or romance, preferring instead to exist within Almodóvar’s sweeping melodrama. His is a world ablaze with sex, intrigue, and revelation, as well as the usual modish apartments and familiar faces, including fan-favorite Rossy de Palma who—in Almodóvar’s latest—plays Janis’s cosmopolitan agent and best friend.

What is new to Parallel Mothers is its direct confrontation with the Spanish Civil War, the period between 1936 and 1939, in which General Francisco Franco rose to power. Within the film’s first ten minutes, we learn that Arturo (Israel Elejalde), the soon-to-be father of Janis’s child, works for the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, an organization devoted to collecting the stories of those killed under Franco’s regime. Janis explains that her great-grandfather was executed outside her home village and, just before she and Arturo fall into bed together, he agrees to excavate the site. Franco’s legacy trails Janis through the remainder of the film, often coming between the precarious love triangle involving her, Arturo, and Ana. Old flames and maternity tests—at least four—not only haunt their romances but also connect them with Spain’s tragic past. Just before Janis and Ana have sex for the first time, for instance, photographer Janis recounts her family history—as her namesake plays in the background, she jokes, “it was summertime, and the living wasn’t easy.”

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Cineaste, Vol. XLVII, No. 3