  Volver star and Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz knows very well the sweet smell of success.
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Penelope Cruz is just weeks away from her first Oscar nomination. Guaranteed!
The 32-year-old actress, variously known as the Spanish Enchantress and the Madonna of Madrid, will become the first best-actress nominee ever who garnered her honour starring an all-Spanish language film.
Cruz is expected to be vying for the golden statuette with the likes of English veteran Helen Mirren, who portrays Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen.
Cruz's Spanish film is Pedro Almodovar's acclaimed tragi-comic drama Volver (which means "Return"). That performance already has won her a share of the best-actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival last May and a best-actress nomination from the European Film Awards.
But Oscar beckons.
A Hollywood nomination would help balance the scales of her career with her three past Goya nominations, and one win, in her native Spain.
Cruz herself is the last one to acknowledge that any of her growing accolades are deserved. Even for a film as powerful and elegant as Volver; even though it would make her transition to international movie star complete; and even though it would confirm her as a major actress, and not just as a full-bodied sex siren who serial-dates famous men.
"It is very rare for me to be happy with what I did because I am the toughest judge on myself," Cruz said in an interview during the Toronto film festival, where Volver played as a gala.
In Almodovar's unique flamboyant style, the film blends violence, despair, pathos, whimsy, slapstick, gourmet food and sexy playfulness. Cruz plays the flawed heroine.
Her Raimunda is a single mother in Madrid obliged to return to her family home in La Mancha after the violent death of her husband. Back home, old emotional wounds are reopened. Meanwhile, people believe Raimunda's mother has returned as a ghost. Add in the twists and turns of Raimunda's relationship with her own daughter and there are generations of complications to sort out. Life is bittersweet and the film delves into critical, serious issues.
It is widely accepted that Cruz has crafted her finest career performance in Almodovar's biggest triumph.
"I have done 35 movies and there are only four that I would say, 'Okay! I am not going to go home and torture myself about what I did!' I only really like four or five out of 35. And all I can say (about Volver) is that I was very happy when I saw this movie. I was very happy with everything and I didn't torture myself. And that is a big, big thing for me. And I felt respected and loved by the director."
Almodovar, whose 1999 masterwork All About My Mother propelled Cruz into prominence outside of Spain, is crucial in Cruz's career, both as a filmmaker and as a friend. He had first cast her in 1997 in his controversial Live Flesh.
Now Cruz believes Almodovar has reached a new pinnacle of quality with Volver, although she has found herself feeling awkward about praising him too much.
"When I saw the movie, I felt nervous about saying that because I am the biggest fan of Pedro. I don't think nobody can love him more than I do. That's what I feel.
"(Yet), in my opinion as a member of the audience -- because, you know, I can separate myself from it -- this is his best movie."
Almodovar gives Cruz far more complex roles than she gets in American movies, which include Sahara (2005) with former boyfriend Matthew McConaughey, Vanilla Sky (2001) with former boyfriend Tom Cruise, and All The Pretty Horses (2000) with rumoured former boyfriend Matt Damon.
Vanilla Sky was an awkward remake of an earlier, more punchy Spanish film, Open Your Eyes, also starring Cruz in the same role.
Cruz, who speaks and acts in Spanish, Italian and French as well as in English, says it is only natural that she gets the better roles in European films compared to Hollywood films. "I feel that, in Europe, I have been working for 16 years and, in America only for five years."
Her math is a little fuzzy, even if you don't count her 1992 TV movie Framed with Timothy Dalton, because she had a role in the 1998 American film The Hi-Lo Country, and Pretty Horses was shot in 1999.
Nevertheless, she established herself in Spain early in the 1990s, first in music videos and then in TV series. She segued into Spanish movies, both dramas and comedies. Jamon, Jamon -- shot when she was still a teen -- pushed her into nudity and extreme sexual situations. She grew up fast.
"So, in a way," Cruz says, "it is normal to get the most demanding, difficult characters in Europe instead of America. I think being in movies (such as Volver) might give me the possibility to get that kind of character in English."
PENELOPE CRUZ FILE
Penelope Cruz's best European work is deeper, more complex, more challenging than even her best Hollywood work. A quick comparison of her major roles:
EURO FILMS:
- Jamon, Jamon (1992)
- Belle Epoque (1992)
- Live Flesh (1997)
- Open Your Eyes (1997)
- The Girl Of Your Dreams (1998)
- All About My Mother (1999)
- Fanfan La Tulipe (2003)
- Don't Move (2004)
- Volver (2006)
HOLLYWOOD FILMS:
- The Hi-Lo Country (1998)
- Woman On Top (2000)
- All The Pretty Horses (2000)
- Blow (2001)
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
- Vanilla Sky (2001)
- Waking Up In Reno (2002)
- Gothika (2003)
- Head In The Clouds (2004)
- Sahara (2005)
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