Anyone who’s ever seen an Almodóvar
film recognises the luxury of being
immersed in his world; it’s a rare treat to
be savoured like a fleeting taste of
genuine happiness.
The Spanish maestro’s latest offering is
no different. Heftily borrowing from the
Fellini classic, 8½, Pain and Glory looks
at an ageing film director, Salvador, who
reminisces about his childhood in rural
Spain and the life stages that followed: a
passionate youth, a fruitful career and
the beginning of decline which brings us
to his present state: crippled by a writer’s
block as well as his many ailments, and a
Pedro Almodóvar comes back guns
a-blazing with another star-studded,
emotionally loaded masterpiece
dangerously escalating appetite for
heroin. He’s played here resplendently
by Almodóvar’s long-time collaborator,
Antonio Banderas. Arguably in his
greatest role to date, he imbues Salvador
with tenderness and childlike
vulnerability, completely devoid of his
normally inseparable sexuality. One
brief gaze from him is enough to disarm
us: innocent but piercingly perceptive, it
flat out declares that there’s nowhere for
us to hide from life’s painful trials.
It’s a nimbly told and compelling
drama that nevertheless won’t fail to
make you chuckle; the director clearly
hasn’t lost his penchant for self-
deprecation, treating his own descent
into ripe age with wit and good humour,
benevolently inviting us to the same.118 • AUGUST 2019 READERSDIGEST.CO.UK/CULTURE/FILM
© 20TH CENTURY FOXPAIN AND GLORY
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