Pain and Glory
Theatrical release poster
Spanish	Dolor y gloria
Directed by	Pedro Almodóvar
Written by	Pedro Almodóvar
Produced by	Agustín Almodóvar Esther García Ricardo Marco Budé Ignacio Salazar-Simpson
Starring	Antonio Banderas Asier Etxeandia Leonardo Sbaraglia Nora Navas Julieta Serrano Penélope Cruz
Cinematography	José Luis Alcaine
Edited by	Teresa Font
Music by	Alberto Iglesias
Production company	El Deseo
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing International
Release dates	13 March 2019 (2019-03-13) (Madrid) 22 March 2019 (2019-03-22) (Spain)
Running time	114 minutes[1]
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish
Budget	€9.6 million[2]
Box office	$38.1 million[3][4]

Pain and Glory (Spanish: Dolor y gloria) is a 2019 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar.^[5][6] It stars Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Nora Navas, Julieta Serrano, and Penélope Cruz.^[7][8]

The film was released in Spain on 22 March 2019 to positive reviews.^[9] It made its international debut at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or^[10] and won two awards: Banderas for Best Actor and Alberto Iglesias for Best Soundtrack.^[11][12] At the 92nd Academy Awards, Pain and Glory was nominated for Best International Feature Film,^[13][14] and Banderas was nominated for Best Actor. Time magazine chose the film as the best movie of 2019.^[15]

Plot

Spanish film director Salvador Mallo is in decline, both physically and mentally, which has made him reflective. His chronic back pain and headaches, in particular, have kept him from even considering trying to start a new project for several years, and recently he started to experience a persistent and troubling dysphagia.

Flavor, one of Salvador's old films, has just been restored, and he was asked to appear at a screening. He has not seen Alberto Crespo, the lead actor of the film, in 32 years, but he decides to reach out and ask if Alberto will help present Flavor. Their falling-out was centered around Alberto's heroin use during filming, so Alberto, who still smokes heroin, is surprised when Salvador asks for some when he is getting ready to smoke. Under the influence, Salvador remembers moving with his parents into a whitewashed cave-house in Paterna in the 1960s.

When Alberto arrives to take Salvador to the screening, Salvador decides not to go, but the moderator of the planned Q&A gets them to answer audience questions over the phone. Several people ask about the argument between Salvador and Alberto, and Salvador ends up repeating his old criticisms, and blurts out that Alberto took heroin during filming. Although he says he now approves of Alberto's performance, Alberto is enraged and leaves.

Salvador starts to regularly take heroin to manage his pain. He remembers when, as a small boy, his mother arranged for him to teach a young man named Eduardo how to read, write, and do math in exchange for work on the cave, and then used this as evidence of his intelligence to gain him admittance to a seminary. He did not want to leave home or become a priest, but, because they were poor, his mother saw it as the only way for him to get an education.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

To make amends, Salvador agrees to let Alberto stage, as a monologue, a story he wrote about a relationship he had in the early 1980s that fell apart due to his partner's heroin use. Coincidentally, Federico, who the story is about, goes to see the show, and Alberto gives Salvador's contact information to him. When the former lovers meet, Federico says he has been living in Argentina and this is the first time he has come back to Madrid in decades. He reveals that he has a wife, from whom he is separated, and two sons, and he has not dated a man since he broke up with Salvador. On his way out the door, Federico offers to stay the night, but Salvador says they should leave their romantic relationship in the past, and Federico insists Salvador come to Buenos Aires to meet his family.

Once he is alone, Salvador goes to take some heroin, but instead throws it all away. He sees doctors about his pain and dysphagia and admits to his heroin use and that he still has not recovered from either the death of his mother four years earlier or a back surgery two years after that. Salvador remembers when his mother lived with him near the end of her life and relates to his assistant, Mercedes, how she had told him she did not want him to write stories about her and thought he had always blamed her for sending him to the seminary. Although, before his mother died, Salvador was able to apologize for not being the son she wanted, he feels guilty he was not able to take her to her village to die, like he had promised.

Mercedes shows Salvador an invitation to a small art gallery that has a portrait of a small boy on it. He seems to recognize the painting, and, during a CT scan of his neck, remembers when Eduardo started it one day after working at the Mallos' cave-house. Eduardo cleaned himself up before leaving, and Salvador swooned when he went to bring the man a towel and saw Eduardo naked, marking his sexual awakening.^{[lower-alpha 2]}

After being told his dysphagia is being caused by a calcified growth in his neck, which can be removed, Salvador goes to the art gallery and learns that the owner had found Eduardo's portrait of him at a flea market. Salvador buys the painting and discovers a letter written on the back in which Eduardo thanks him for his help with writing and math and gives him an updated address so they can stay in touch.

On the way to have his operation, Salvador muses to Mercedes that his mother must have received the portrait, but never mentioned it to him at school. Mercedes asks if he will try to find Eduardo, but he says too much time has passed and what matters is that the painting finally made its way to him. Before Salvador loses consciousness from the anesthetic, he mentions to his doctor that he has started writing again. He is then seen on a film set directing a scene from his childhood, in a meta-like ending with Penelope Cruz and Asier Flores.

Cast

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.^[16] Rosalía's appearance in the film was revealed by her presence in the trailer, which premiered on 31 January 2019.^[17][18]

In May 2018, Almodóvar was pictured researching locations in the Province of Valencia with cinematographer José Luis Alcaine.^[19] The following June, Fotogramas reported that a large part of the filming would take place in Valencia, particularly in the municipality of Paterna.^[20] The same month, Agustín Almodóvar, the producer of the film,^[21] posted a photo on Twitter of his brother, Pedro, on set, which was later followed by photos of Banderas, Sbaraglia, and Cruz together in screen tests for the film.^[20]

Agustín Almodóvar announced via Twitter that filming began on 16 July 2018.^[22][23] The 44-day shoot concluded on 15 September.^[24]

Release

Pain and Glory was released in Spain on 22 March 2019. It was released in the United Kingdom by Pathé and 20th Century Fox on 23 August,^[25] and received a limited release in the United States from Sony Pictures Classics starting on 4 October.^[26]

Reception

See also

• List of Spanish films of 2019
• List of submissions to the 92nd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
• List of Spanish submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

Notes

References

External links

• Pain and Glory at IMDb