Volver a empezar

This is the most beautiful movie I have ever watch,I had a story in my life similar to this one,and I remember leaving the theater crying like a baby.After 48 years he found me thru childhood friends,he was divorce and I was going thru a divorce.When I finally stood in front of him,we both cry non stop.We never forgot each other.I was 16 at the time and he was 17.Our first love,that we never forgot.Today we are picking up the pieces,of that beautiful love story that we kept in our heart.You will cry with this movie,but is worth the tears.This movie won an Oscar,the first one that Spain got.The actors are the best,the music,spectacular.The view of the different part of Spain where the story takes pace is magnificent.Don't miss this movie,you will never regret it.

The film is a life reaffirming statement of one man's choice of his final farewell to the people, places and memories that sum up his life's work. The film works well because of how little is actually stated by the principals. The film's focal point appears to be the indirect answer Antonio gives for the reason for his visit. Antonio recounts the story of his colleague, a professor, who during a lecture looks out the window and starts humming a tune from his native country and his youth after which he suffers a heart attack.

When Elena says her goodbyes, it is evident that she knows about Antonio's health condition.

The final scene with the theme music playing in the background simply restates the life reaffirmation.

...and Pachelbel's Canon!!! Yes, if you enjoy these timeless melodies, be sure and not see "Volver a empezar." I assure you, you won't like them anymore. These tunes played over and over and over again until I was thoroughly sick of them. I wonder if that wasn't what was killing Albajara.

To give it some credit, the film did feature attractive landscape photography, and the acting was reasonably accomplished. But the story was utterly generic soap opera and the direction was pedestrian, when it wasn't aiming for sickly sentimentality. (No pun intended)

If you absolutely must watch a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner / soap opera, stick with "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears."

I write this principally in response to the critical comments you print under this title from, "Chuck V", who appears to have missed the point of this film entirely...I have seen "Volver a Empezar"--in parts---both on the Sundance Channel and TVE (the Spanish Television Network). Since then I have been hunting for it high and low here and in Canada so that I could see it from beginning to end, without interruption... It is a brilliant and affecting film, probably best appreciated by mature audiences with some grounding and sensitivity to literature and history and a cinematic background that antedates Cineplexes and four-wall stereophonic sound...It is a brilliant and pointed film, winning the Foreigh Film Oscar for that year...Yes, I love Pachelbel's Canon; and I could hear "begin the Beguine" endlessly--whether it's the Artie Shaw version or Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dancing the hell out of it in "Broadway Melody of 1940...One may care not a whit about the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War, loss of one's love and country and long exile, or, lastly, the illusion of triumphant return and recovery in late middle age, but there has to be admiration for sensitive direction and montage, and graceful and impacting performances by mature actors.

I stumbled upon this film, and was tempted not to watch it when the first minutes were so quiet. However, I was slowly drawn into the life of the characters and the reasons why Antonio had returned to his home town. There was a sensitive balance between what was being communicated in words, and what was being said through the cinematography. This is a film that some will not enjoy. It is a gentle film, where matters of the heart are more important than the acts that made Antonio the remarkable person he is. It is a film full of understatement, with so much being said in so many small ways. The exception is the role of Agustin Gonzalez whose has to be over the top in an old world way and who plays his part to perfection. Have we not all met people like him - obsequious, yet trying so hard to be the perfect concierge? Elena, played by Encarna Paso enters the film out of nowhere for the viewer, but we learn she has been with Antonio for many years, out of sight but not out of mind. Again, playing an understated role to perfection. This is a film for anyone who is in a relationship, and who has a heart for the future.