Pain and Glory

Pain and Glory (Dolor y gloria) is a 2019 Spanish drama film directed and written by Pedro Almodóvar. It stars Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Penélope Cruz, Julieta Serrano and Leonardo Sbaraglia.

The film was released in Spain on 22 March 2019 by Sony Pictures Releasing. It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where Banderas won the award for Best Actor and Alberto Iglesias won the award for Best Soundtrack.

Premise
The film narrates a series of reencounters of Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a film director in his decline. Some of these reencounters are physical, some others are remembered: his childhood in the 1960s, when he emigrated together with his family to Paterna in search of prosperity, the first desire, his first adult love in Madrid in the 1980s, the pain of the breakup of this relationship, writing as a therapy to forget, the premature discovery of cinema, facing the impossibility of continuing filming, etc.

———

A Spanish film director (Banderas) is over his professional zenith and in the middle of a creative crisis, with various physical and mental ailments. He visits the protagonist (Etxeandia) of one of his earlier films, with whom he has not spoken for 30 years due to a quarrel. They reconcile and Etxeandia introduces him to heroin smoking. The intoxicating effect reminds Banderas of some of his childhood experiences: how, as a boy, he moves into a cave-like apartment with his father and mother (Cruz), and how the sight of a naked man becomes the trigger for his later homosexuality. Etxeandia brings a monologue of Banderas' memories to the stage, in which Banderas' homosexual friend (Sbaraglia) is mentioned, who happens to be sitting in the audience. Sbaraglia (who now has a wife and grown-up children) visits (the bachelor) Banderas. After an almost platonic reunion, the two go apart amicably — and probably forever. Banderas seems offended and continues to struggle with heroin and drug addiction. In a memory, his elderly mother accuses him of having left her alone at the time and of not having been a good child at all. Before he can prove his love to her, she dies in the hospital instead of in the country, as she had wished. Banderas undergoes (unproblematic) laryngeal surgery and, probably under the influence of anaesthesia, a final picture of Cruz with him as a boy appears to him. The camera moves back and reveals the view of a sound engineer — Banderas has apparently been able to film his childhood memories, his creative crisis has been overcome.

Cast

 * Antonio Banderas as Salvador Mallo
 * Penélope Cruz as Jacinta
 * Raúl Arévalo as Padre
 * Leonardo Sbaraglia as Federico
 * Asier Etxeandia as Alberto Crespo
 * Kiti Mánver
 * Cecilia Roth
 * Pedro Casablanc
 * Nora Navas
 * Susi Sánchez
 * Julieta Serrano as Madre (old age)
 * Carmelo Gómez
 * Julián López
 * Paqui Horcajo
 * Rosalía
 * Marisol Muriel
 * César Vicente
 * Asier Flores as Salvador niño
 * Neus Alborch

Production
El Deseo announced plans for the new film in April 2018, confirming Antonio Banderas and Asier Etxeandia as leads with Penélope Cruz and Julieta Serrano in supporting roles. The trailer, which was aired on 31 January 2019, revealed Rosalía has a role in the film. In May 2018, Almodóvar was pictured with cinematographer José Luis Alcaine on Twitter, researching locations in the Province of Valencia. The following June, Fotogramas reported that a large part of the filming would take place in Valencia, particularly in the municipality of Paterna. The same month, Agustín Almodóvar posted a photo of his brother, Pedro, on set on Twitter, which were later followed by photos of Banderas, Sbaraglia and Cruz together in screen tests for the film. Agustín Almodóvar, the film producer, announced via Twitter that filming began on 16 July 2018. It concluded after 44 days on 15 September 2018.

Release
The first trailer for Pain and Glory was released online on 31 January 2019. The film's official poster was revealed on 11 February, followed by another trailer on 18 February 2019. The film's stars and Almodóvar himself attended a photo call in Madrid for the film on 12 March 2019, before the premiere of the film took place at the Cine Capitol in Madrid on 13 March 2019. Pain and Glory was released in Spain on 22 March 2019. It will be released in the UK by Pathé on 23 August 2019. It is scheduled to be released in the United States on October 4, 2019, by Sony Pictures Classics.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 87% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.71/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Pain and Glory finds writer-director Pedro Almodóvar drawing on his own life to rewarding effect -- and honoring his craft as only a master filmmaker can." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Initial Spanish critical reception of the film was generally positive. Pain and Glory received an average score of 7.7/10 from 1,448 reviews on FilmAffinity, and an average critical rating of 4.3/5 from 14 critical reviews on Sensacine. Fotogramas gave the film a 5-star review who complimented the director's artistry. El Mundo thought that "Almodóvar gives one of his most intense and balanced films in a full mastery of his own mastery" and also gave the film a rating of 5/5. El Periodico also gave the film five stars, while ABC gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and El Confidencial gave the film 3 out of 5 stars. The film has made a total of €5.3 million at the Spanish box office since its opening.

Box office
The film achieved more than 45,000 spectators in Spain on the Friday it was released, making it the most-viewed film in Spain of that day. It was estimated the film earned €300,000 in its first day, rising to €1.2 million in its first weekend. By 8 April 2019, the film grossed a total of €4 million in Spain, making it the highest-grossing Spanish film at the box office in Spain of the year. The film reached €4.7 million by 22 April 2019.