★★★★
A film director reflects on the choices he's made in life as past and present come crashing down around him.
Classification: 15
Through a deeply personal and emotional autobiographical tale, Antonio Banderas delivers the performance of his career with Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory. Seemingly inspired by his own experiences as a child and a filmmaker, Almodóvar's direction is incredibly intimate there is never a moment of inauthenticity as memory and reality blend into a beautiful cinematic language. Through a story of a man in reflection of his life, the film explores themes of family, artistry, love and sexuality, an overall perception of what it means to exist in the world as Banderas's character of Salvador Mallo faces his faults and insecurities. Mallo is a deeply empathetic character who allows Banderas to dig deep into his soul to bring the character's humanity to life rather than rely on conventional dramatic stereotypes or prose. Through organic scenes of dialogue, minimal exposition and well-crafted flashbacks, the history and experiences of Mallo are genuine, Almodóvar crafts the films verisimilitude with such care that at times viewing these memories and intimate scenes can feel intrusive, that a film is longer being played before you but an actual life itself.
The artistry of Pain and Glory comes from this level of intense realism, the cinematography captures the simple beauties of the environments and the people within them. José Luis Alcaine's camera work allows for intimate framing as Mallo confronts he has wronged and loved but also allowing for vibrancy from the colours of the sets and in the blocking of the actors. A scene of two characters sitting and speaking becomes more visually engaging as reds and whites pop, never distracting from the realism but allowing artistry to inform the audience through subtle details concerning Mallo's journey. In his flashbacks, Mallo is shown to live in a village where homes consisted of underground caves, Antxón Gómez's production design combined with the cinematography has the walls young Mallo is confined in shine white. The innocent unmarred colour surrounding Mallo in his youth as his mother wishes for him to join and be educated by the rectory, where he experiences his first sexual desire with a man and soon becomes the environment he wishes to escape through filmmaking.
Banderas's as the adult Salvador Mallo no longer lives in a white-walled cave, instead an apartment with bright red cabinets, a far more complicated and colourful world. Through amusing narrated animated sequences Mallo explains how over the years faults with his biology has left him in chronic pain and he begins to seek more extreme methods to alleviate his suffering. Mallo's journey to reflect on his life leads him to smoke heroin and write "confessionals" of his memories both positive and negative and facing the ugly truths of how he is. The innocence seen in the child of the flashbacks is gone, as it leaves all of us who matures and what Banderas brings forth in his performance is both melancholic and soulful. He's a man lost, unable to escape from the feeling of helplessness he has become trapped by due to his guilt concerning his relationships with his mother, lovers, and friends but also from the physical pain he can't escape from. It is only through this self-searching journey of memory, writing and amends that Mallo can begin to find any form of catharsis as Almodóvar's script leads to these emotional revelations with a loving temperament. There is never a moment of melodramatic flair or unrealistic dramatic posturing, the drama always remains intimate and comes from an essential place of character development and history established within the script.
Almodóvar's script is tightly plotted and every scene forms a beautiful tapestry that doesn't just allow him to reflect upon events on his whole but creates scenes for the audience to empathise with and possibly acknowledge their own personal issues through the film. The resolution doesn't necessarily come from physical conflict, Pain and Glory acknowledges that any path to self-betterment can come from any type of confrontation and Almodóvar doesn't allow his characters to fall into a trap of punching Mallo for realisations. The film's most beautiful sequence is between Banderas and Leonardo Sbaraglia, reunited former lovers, decades since they last saw each other, reminiscing and learning about each other. The scene has Mallo confront his past through the context of his present while simultaneously addressing the consequences of his writings and drug use. Almodóvar ditches convention at every turn, his direction keeps the pacing and development of the story fresh and original and combined with Banderas's exceptional performance makes Salvador Mallo an astonishing depiction of introspection.
The dramatic payoffs Pain and Glory can execute are the results of a singular vision as Almodóvar personal approach to this film elevates the material. With a beautiful score from Alberto Iglesias, the experience of watching the film can feel like drifting through a dream. While flashback and present can blur at certain points making the timeline of the narrative slightly confusing, everything remains grounded by Mallo's character development. Similar to Cinema Paradiso, this is a film putting memory, nostalgia and sentimentality of a filmmakers origins into reflection but Pain and Glory's meta components allow for a more personal examination. Nobody's perfect, Salvador Mallo has faults but he shouldn't be punished for them, the pain he experiences both physical and emotional serves as a challenge for an artist to rediscover who he is and begin to live again. An inspiringly emotional story that is fearless in exploring its characters passions and flaws and displays a real beauty that still exists within humanity.
Director: #PedroAlmodóvar
Cast: #AntonioBanderas, #AsierEtxeandia, #LeonardoSbaraglia, #NoraNavas, #JulietaSerrano, #PenélopeCruz
Release Date: August 23rd 2019
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Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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