Cannes: Pedro's "Pain and Glory" is a hit at Cannes
Monday, May 20, 2019 at 8:00AM
NATHANIEL R in Antonio Banderas, Best International Film, Cannes, Movies About Movies, Oscars (19), Pain & Glory, Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz, biopics

by Nathaniel R

Antonio, Penelope, and Pedro together once again.

Hang this photo in the Louvre, s'il vous plaît. Loyal readers know that Pedro Almodóvar is my favourite living director so I bring you glorious news from Cannes -- Pedro's latest, Pain and Glory, starring his only real male muse Antonio Banderas and featuring his current female muse Penélope Cruz, is winning reviews that are much closer to glorious than painful. It could well be in contention for prizes with the jury...

The film is a self-reflective drama about a filmmaker named Salvador Mallo (basically a version of Pedro himself) reflecting on the choice's he's made in life. Naturally it's being compared to Fellini's 8 1/2. Spain has always had a tense relationship with their most famous auteur so we can't count on the country submitting Pain & Glory for Best International Feature but regardless of whether or not they do, Sony Pictures Classics is reportedly planning a big push in the fall (It opens in the US on October 4th) having had Oscar and box office success with Pedro before.

As for the stars, Banderas is winning uniformly excellent reviews. He's now made 8 pictures with Pedro and Penelope has made 6 but the only time they've actually worked together within Pedro's movies was their joint cameo in I'm So Excited (2013). Cruz plays Banderas's mother in flashbacks to his childhood here.

Despite the overall kind reviews the BBC doesn't like it much calling it self-indulgent and "not painful, but not glorious, either." The Guardian fell hard saying "this movie was running so smoothly and so seductively that it could have gone on for another five hours". IndieWire calls it Pedro's best in years and adds "in the pantheon of the films-about-filmmaking genre, it’s a paragon of the form". Variety loves it too calling it "a mature work of meticulously tuned metafiction" and describing it as subtle and authentic even while "erupting with so many of the director’s signature touches — bold colors, passionate embraces, and copious references to his cinematic inspirations..."

The StarsSupporting Roles in Pain & Glory: Asler Etxeandla, Nora Navas, and Leonardo Sbaraglia are all newbies to the Pedro filmography

Almodóvar doesn't always compete at Cannes but when he does prizes have followed half the time. Pain & Glory is his sixth film in the main competition but the Palme d'Or has always eluded him. Here are the times he competed or won prizes at the A list festivals (or was submitted at the Oscars).

CANNES 

BERLINALE 

VENICE

TORONTO 

OSCARS

HOW DO YOU SUSPECT PAIN & GLORY WILL FARE AT CANNES AND WITH THE OSCARS?

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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