SOLD OUT: VOLVER, PAN'S LABYRINTH w Pedro Almodovar, Guillermo del Toro TBC $8-$10 January 12, 2007

VOLVER (2006, Sony Pictures Classics, 121 min.), directed by Pedro Almodovar. The supposedly deceased mother (Carmen Maura) of adult sisters Raimunda (Pénelope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas) appears to them to resolve family matters and to reveal long term village secrets. But is she a ghost or was it someone else who perished in a fire with her husband? Almovodar returns to his favorite themes of motherhood, women’s relationships and black comedy in this exploration of the culture of death in his native La Mancha where the dead co-exist amongst the living. In Spanish with English subtitles.

PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006, Picturehouse, 119 min.), directed by Guillermo del Toro. In this gothic fairytale, 11-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) travels to a remote rural military outpost (in post WW II Franco Spain) with her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) to join her cruel new step-father Captain Vidal (Seri Lopez). Ofelia’s precious books of fairytales are her solace from the bleak, frightening and lonely circumstances she finds herself in. While Vidal ruthlessly pursues resistance fighters hiding in the woods, Ofelia is approached by magical creatures who lure her into a secret world to perform tasks that they tell her will restore her position as the princess daughter of the King of the Underworld. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Discussion in between films with directors Pedro Almodovar and Guillermo del Toro TBC.

Official Website: http://aerotheatre.com/archive1999/2007/Aero/GoldenGlobe2007.htm#VOLVER