PAIN AND GLORY
*****
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Principal cast:
Antonio Banderas
Leonardo Sbaraglia
Asier Etxeandia
Penélope Cruz
Nora Naves
Asier Flores
Country: Spain
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 114 mins.
Australian release date: 7 November 2019
Previewed at: Universal Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 4 November 2019.
From the first moments of the opening titles of Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodóvar takes his audience on a stunning, kaleidoscopic, intensely personal journey into the past of a film director and writer whose memories have formulated both his best work and his present writer’s block. Magnificently played by Antonio Banderas, who won the Best Actor Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for the role, this is a portrait of an artistic man who has lost the will to create, his fundamental raison d’être. In a series of flashbacks to his childhood in the 1960s and his early success in the ‘80s, we see key events in his life unfold, culminating in an epiphany that appears to restore his creativity. “I think that this is Antonio’s best work since Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,” says Almodóvar. “Pain and Glory is, in my opinion, his rebirth as an actor and the start of a new era. I hope that no one misunderstands me. Antonio is still one of the actors who is best at listening to and looking at his companions in a shot, but on this occasion the fire in his eyes comes from deeper. All of us who witnessed his performance, day by day, were moved. …the spirit of the character is the opposite to the bravura of the characters he has played to date. Profound, subtle, with a very varied gallery of minute gestures, he has pulled off a very difficult character, full of risks.” For his part, when speaking of the auteur director with whom he’s now collaborated eight times, Banderas explains, “The feelings I had in the ‘80s [when they made five films together], and had again, is that he's pushing you to the limits: that you are on the verge of a cliff. You are in a situation of vertigo.”
When we first meet Salvador Mallo (Banderas), he’s sitting underwater on the bottom of a swimming pool, remembering an event from his childhood (a glorious performance by young Asier Flores), watching as his doting mother Jacinta (Penélope Cruz) and other women from his poor village sing as they wash sheets by the riverside. It’s a scene of sublime beauty and simplicity and one that is obviously treasured by the adult Salvador. And we soon realise why. In his current life, the famous director has become a virtual recluse, wracked with back pain, suffering from tinnitus and migraines, depressed and existing on a daily regimen of analgesics. Pain has stopped him from working and, without his creative juices flowing, his life has almost shut down. His assistant, Mercedes (Nora Naves), tries to get him to respond to some of his many invitations but only one piques his interest, a screening of a restored print of his hit film, Sabor, made 32 years earlier. Considering this, Salvador resolves to make amends with the film’s leading actor, Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), from whom he’s been famously estranged ever since, and this, in turn, leads to a meeting with Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), his great love from the 1980s when he was at the height of his success, and who he hasn’t seen since. These key events in his life drive Salvador deeper into his reveries and self-reflection, culminating in a dramatic revelation.
As is the norm, many of Almodóvar’s regular crew worked on this title. Alberto Iglesias was once again the composer of the gorgeous score, which was written for string sextet plus piano and clarinet. Its use is spare but it’s all the more powerful for it and it is augmented by traditional and popular songs from the director’s past. Deservedly, Iglesias won the award for Best Soundtrack at Cannes. José Luis Alcane has also returned for cinematographic duty and his lens has captured both the darkness of the subject’s current life and the colour and light of Salvador’s village childhood and his life in Madrid in the ‘80s, when possibilities seemed endless with the return of democracy to Spain.
Almodóvar has acknowledged that the genesis of his script was autobiographical, saying that, “At first, I took myself as a reference but, once you start writing, fiction lays down its rules and makes itself independent of the origin, as has always happened to me when I’ve dealt with other themes with real references. Reality provides me with the first lines, but I have to invent the rest.” He has, indeed, had back surgery and does suffer from migraines and tinnitus; he also wanted Banderas to look similar to him and to wear his style of clothing and the crew used his house and chattels for Salvador’s but he states, “I remember that during rehearsals I said to Antonio: ‘If you think that in any sequence it’ll help if you imitate me, you can do it.’ Antonio said no, that it wasn’t necessary. And he was right, his character wasn’t me, but it was inside me.” Certainly, Banderas’ gaunt face and the haunted look in his eyes are his alone, even if his character’s demeanour is a reflection of Almodovar's.
For anyone who lives with constant pain and the depression that can accompany it, Pain and Glory could be confronting but, hopefully, they will find it comforting because Salvador finds a way to use his mind to overcome those negatives. Certainly, the denouement of the film is uplifting and an acknowledgement of the power of art to transform lives. Pain and Glory is the work of a director at the height of his abilities. And don’t worry, although it may feel like it, it is not a farewell to Almodóvar’s career - the filmmaker is already working on future projects.
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Principal cast:
Antonio Banderas
Leonardo Sbaraglia
Asier Etxeandia
Penélope Cruz
Nora Naves
Asier Flores
Country: Spain
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 114 mins.
Australian release date: 7 November 2019
Previewed at: Universal Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 4 November 2019.
From the first moments of the opening titles of Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodóvar takes his audience on a stunning, kaleidoscopic, intensely personal journey into the past of a film director and writer whose memories have formulated both his best work and his present writer’s block. Magnificently played by Antonio Banderas, who won the Best Actor Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for the role, this is a portrait of an artistic man who has lost the will to create, his fundamental raison d’être. In a series of flashbacks to his childhood in the 1960s and his early success in the ‘80s, we see key events in his life unfold, culminating in an epiphany that appears to restore his creativity. “I think that this is Antonio’s best work since Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,” says Almodóvar. “Pain and Glory is, in my opinion, his rebirth as an actor and the start of a new era. I hope that no one misunderstands me. Antonio is still one of the actors who is best at listening to and looking at his companions in a shot, but on this occasion the fire in his eyes comes from deeper. All of us who witnessed his performance, day by day, were moved. …the spirit of the character is the opposite to the bravura of the characters he has played to date. Profound, subtle, with a very varied gallery of minute gestures, he has pulled off a very difficult character, full of risks.” For his part, when speaking of the auteur director with whom he’s now collaborated eight times, Banderas explains, “The feelings I had in the ‘80s [when they made five films together], and had again, is that he's pushing you to the limits: that you are on the verge of a cliff. You are in a situation of vertigo.”
When we first meet Salvador Mallo (Banderas), he’s sitting underwater on the bottom of a swimming pool, remembering an event from his childhood (a glorious performance by young Asier Flores), watching as his doting mother Jacinta (Penélope Cruz) and other women from his poor village sing as they wash sheets by the riverside. It’s a scene of sublime beauty and simplicity and one that is obviously treasured by the adult Salvador. And we soon realise why. In his current life, the famous director has become a virtual recluse, wracked with back pain, suffering from tinnitus and migraines, depressed and existing on a daily regimen of analgesics. Pain has stopped him from working and, without his creative juices flowing, his life has almost shut down. His assistant, Mercedes (Nora Naves), tries to get him to respond to some of his many invitations but only one piques his interest, a screening of a restored print of his hit film, Sabor, made 32 years earlier. Considering this, Salvador resolves to make amends with the film’s leading actor, Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), from whom he’s been famously estranged ever since, and this, in turn, leads to a meeting with Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), his great love from the 1980s when he was at the height of his success, and who he hasn’t seen since. These key events in his life drive Salvador deeper into his reveries and self-reflection, culminating in a dramatic revelation.
As is the norm, many of Almodóvar’s regular crew worked on this title. Alberto Iglesias was once again the composer of the gorgeous score, which was written for string sextet plus piano and clarinet. Its use is spare but it’s all the more powerful for it and it is augmented by traditional and popular songs from the director’s past. Deservedly, Iglesias won the award for Best Soundtrack at Cannes. José Luis Alcane has also returned for cinematographic duty and his lens has captured both the darkness of the subject’s current life and the colour and light of Salvador’s village childhood and his life in Madrid in the ‘80s, when possibilities seemed endless with the return of democracy to Spain.
Almodóvar has acknowledged that the genesis of his script was autobiographical, saying that, “At first, I took myself as a reference but, once you start writing, fiction lays down its rules and makes itself independent of the origin, as has always happened to me when I’ve dealt with other themes with real references. Reality provides me with the first lines, but I have to invent the rest.” He has, indeed, had back surgery and does suffer from migraines and tinnitus; he also wanted Banderas to look similar to him and to wear his style of clothing and the crew used his house and chattels for Salvador’s but he states, “I remember that during rehearsals I said to Antonio: ‘If you think that in any sequence it’ll help if you imitate me, you can do it.’ Antonio said no, that it wasn’t necessary. And he was right, his character wasn’t me, but it was inside me.” Certainly, Banderas’ gaunt face and the haunted look in his eyes are his alone, even if his character’s demeanour is a reflection of Almodovar's.
For anyone who lives with constant pain and the depression that can accompany it, Pain and Glory could be confronting but, hopefully, they will find it comforting because Salvador finds a way to use his mind to overcome those negatives. Certainly, the denouement of the film is uplifting and an acknowledgement of the power of art to transform lives. Pain and Glory is the work of a director at the height of his abilities. And don’t worry, although it may feel like it, it is not a farewell to Almodóvar’s career - the filmmaker is already working on future projects.