Film - Pain and Glory

Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is a renowned film director who’s retired due to ill health. He’s asked to appear at an anniversary showing of his most famous film and a chance encounter with an old friend prompts him to look up the star of the film. He hasn’t talked to him for a couple of decades after a falling about his performance in the film. Now that they are friends again, he could be deemed a good or bad influence but he does bring some of the funniest scenes in the film.

Said to be semi-autobiographical of the director’s own story, this is another role that Antonio Banderas seems to have been born to play. His character does seem to be modelled on the present-day Paul Young look.

This film could only be Spanish and I loved the colourful flashbacks to his childhood which served to give us the back story bought up in a tiny cave house mainly by his mum (Penelope Cruz). 

The glory bit seems to be limited to his poor but care-free childhood. I’d say the film is 80/20 pain/glory. His adult house is filled with art, which is all he has spent his money on. As a child, he was often left home alone while the family’s gardener/painter/aspiring artist went about his work in exchange for reading and writing lessons from the clever youngster. We see him sit while the gardener paints the young subject and spending time with him seems to have cemented Salvador’s love of both art and men. The sight of him fainting when he sees the naked artist having a wash is revealing.

In the present day, his old actor friend has managed to coax him to let him play the only role in a highly autobiographical and painful play about his one long lost love. And so, another backstory unfolds.

He remains close to his mum as she aged and we learn a bit more about him through eavesdropping on their most private end-of-life conversations. I also love the relationship he has with his assistant/friend who is constantly looking out for him. She even goes to scary doctors appointments with him. Who doesn’t value a friend like that?

There is so much to take from Pain & Glory and it is stunning to look and especially lovely for me having just come back from a visit to Madrid last month.
8/10