Douleur et gloire

It is a slow film, similar to life. I really enjoyed this movie, no one is clear what it is about until about and hour in. In simple terms is is film director who had lost his mojo because of the death of his mother and a back operations. He also begins to look back on his career and pivotal moments in his childhood. The flashback shots are perfectly and wonderfully capture the atmosphere of his young life while seamlessly interwoven with moments of present day.

Pain and glory is painful and glorious, as you'd except from a director who lives, suffers, enjoys and jogs his memory to find the small and grand moments of his human existence.

The acting of everyone was brilliant but limited so no Oscar here, Almodovar and Banderas are such a good match, the boy and the painter is such a delicate combination & the mother and the son in different moments of their lives, but mainly in the end, when they are both old. the dialogues are very meaningful, but movie as a whole had some profundity and was ravishingly shot as usual.

After having seen this film, I overheard the conversation of the couple next to me while the end credits rolled over the screen. 'So beautiful! And so much red!'. It was exactly what I was thinking. Red is the colour of this film. The scenes without anything red in it, are sparse. The abundance of the colour red proves how meticulously Pedro Almodovar has taken care of every small detail in this film. The result is a feast for the eyes. But the film is not only very stylish, it is also very emotional - as is often the case in Almodovar's work. The story is about a film director looking back on his work and his life, in which pain and glory each play a part. His life is miserable, his body is in pain and his career seems to be in decline. But when a film museum asks him to discuss a film he made 30 years ago, he learns to see things in a different perspective. He resolves a bitter conflict, meets a long lost former lover and reflects on the death of his mother. The themes are tied together by a clever script, with long flashbacks. It's interesting to know to what extend this story was inspired by Aldomovar's own life and career. When an acclaimed film maker makes a film about an acclaimed film maker, this is an inevitable question. The imaginary masterpiece from 30 years ago, with a poster showing a tongue sensually licking the lips, could very well have been one of Almodovar's own exuberant movies from his early period. Some typical Almodovar-themes are present in this film, like the mother-son relation, and the catholic faith. Also, the two leads, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, are present in the casts of several of his films. In every aspect, this is a quintessential Almodovar movie.

(Antonio Banderas won Best Actor award at the Cannes festival because he played Almodóvar).

I know there are tons of autobiographical films about a painful past and unfinished business (in Hollywood), but Almodóvar reflects his own past very well.

Almodóvar's "Pain and Glory" is very beautifully shot and well-described autobiographical film about emptiness, recollection of the past and most importantly, about salvation. The film also describes well pain, sadness, self discovery, forgiveness, regret, all these feelings that the director is going through.

Without spoiling anything, the story is about a known Spanish director, Salvador Mallo, who reflects his choices made in his life (from his childhood to his cinema career) as past and present come crashing around him.

Almodóvar wanted to represent his life and memories from his life, bathred boundless desire to live and love that guide us to forgiveness with oneself and others. He's entering the stage where he's no longer have inspiration, but he uses his life as a cinema fiction. Almodóvar reflects mostly to his past as something painful and unfinished. Only with the return of ourselves, with coping with the painful past, we have the possibility to rehabilitate ourselves. As I mentioned, Antonio gives a great performance as a reconstructed fella with a passion.

I think whoever watched Almodóvar's previous pieces would enjoy from his new personal film about a person's valuable soul.

I. Short review:

Half autobiographic, half fiction, Almodóvar's most intimate work is an european drama carved with humor and intense emotions you wouldn't want to miss, Antonio Banderas is a tour de force.

II. Full review:

Since this year's Cannes Film Festival celebration in which Pain and Glory competed for the Palm d'Or for best picture and supposedly the favorite to win, I took quite interest in Almodóvar's new film, also my personal experiences with two of his films that I've seen, 'Talk to Her' (which I think is an absolute masterpiece), and the very creative thriller 'The Skin I Live In' (also starring Antonio Banderas), were strong factors of that interest.

The film tells the story of a depressed and aching director that reconnects with old friends and people he used to care about, at the time that he reflects on his humble but enlightning past in several ways, all from the perspective of his gloomy and lonesome present.

Pain and Glory escalates in a ladder of triumphs, since its mesmerizing soundtrack by Alberto Iglesias (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), an astonishing cinematography by José Luis Alcaine, a masterful direction and gripping script by Pedro Almodóvar, to its top and greatest gift of all: a colossal performance by Antonio Banderas, which justifies his award for best actor in Cannes 2019.

As Salvador (exquisitely played by Antonio Banderas) says in the movie "A great actor is not the one who cries, but the one who knows how to contain the tears" and I think that describes the movie perfectly, you feel the pain in every scene but never get the chance to let that emotion overcome, it's a beautiful and raw portrayal of life in a way we've never seen Almodóvar do before, the film breathes a diaphanous simplicity and spontaneity, far from what we're used to see from the filmmaker. Every aspect of this movie felt very personal and intimate, almost like reading someone's diary while it's being written or someone sharing a part of their soul, i'm sure this movie wasn't easy to make.

This is a story about pain, sadness, solitude, self discovery, forgiveness and regret but most of all, it's a movie about overcoming and I honestly feel this is one of his best works in recent years.