Pain and Glory 2019

Pain and Glory 2019

A memory piece by Pedro Almodovar which is affecting and moving with a stunning central performance by his long time collaborator Antonio Banderas who was nominated for a best actor Oscar. This is an artist's journey that moves back and forth between the present where Banderas who plays film director Salvador Mallo is in deep pains (both physical and mental) and occasionally travels back in time with the help of drugs to his childhood.

Mallo is visited and visits live ghosts of his past along with the sad old fashioned ones we all have. He is paralyzed with fear and pain and is having major creative blocks which cause him to go further into himself. Emotionally supported by his housekeeper and cook and his assistant played by the wonderful Cecilia Roth who tries to push him back into his creative life without much success.

His life’s failures come back to haunt him, but also to give him a second chance when he makes amends with Alberto played by Asier Etxeandia an actor who he had a creative falling out with nearly 30 years before when working on a film together. Mallo reaches out to the actor and once again they try to collaborate on several projects including a theatrical one person monologue that Mallo after much pushing by Alberto agrees to have it staged but only if his name does not appear on the piece.

Coming like an intermission in the flow of the film, the “play” is a success, and by a perfect Almodovar coincidence a former lover of Mallo’s, Federico played by Leonardo Sbaraglia who is the subject of the piece, is visiting Madrid and happens on to the play which of course moves and shatters him. His visit with Mallo in his apartment is an extraordinary sequence between two former lovers lost in time.

One of the key moments in Mallo’s childhood is when he takes on the task of teaching a beautiful but illiterate young worker, Eduardo played by Casar Vicente who Millo’s mother played in her best Sophia Loren mode by the great Penelope Cruz hires to do some work on their cave like dwelling in exchange for Salvador’s teaching him to read and write . Its a nice cave, all white washed and is of course a good metaphor for their lives lived. One day the young Salvador nicely acted by Asier Flores catches a glimpse of the young man nude as he washes himself and promptly faints.

Filmed on a set that duplicates the real apartment of Almodovar with his art and books, the film can be criticized for being too settled, and lacking the usual outrageous comedy that Almodovar is noted for. However there were parts I still chuckled at, and sat there amazed at how brave and open this marvelous filmmaker is. I once wrote him a fan letter and he sent me a lovely signed photo which I sold, in a way one artist helping another artist. The film is bright, colorful and especially beautiful on Blu Ray. With profound insights into what it is to be an artist, a gay man, and a human being which this director is so good at showing us. It is also sexy in parts. See this one. One of the ten best films of 2019