‘Best film of 2019’ on big screen
Perth Film Society is nearly at the halfway point of its season and has a treat lined up for movie fans next week.
‘Pain and Glory’(Spanish - Dolor y gloria) is a 2019 drama written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
The film, which will be shown on Thursday, October 21, reflects on the choices made in the life of a film director, and it is reputedly one of the most autobiographical from Almodóvar’s long career.
Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is facing mid-life and creative crises. He has worrying health issues and an energy-sapping depression hits just as an early, classic film of his is being remastered and re-released.
In desperation, he calls the lead actor Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), to whom he has not spoken for 32 years after a quarrel over heroin use. Crespo has also seen better days, and ‘self-medicates’. Salvador has never once used drugs, but he decides to‘vacation’ with Crespo essentially for pain relief.
What follows is a non-linear mixture of real time reunions and memory flashbacks that revisit parts of his past.
Pain and Glory was chosen by Time magazine as the best film of 2019, the Guardian ranked it as 10th from the 50 best films of 2019, and Sight and Sound magazine named it the sixth best film of the year.
Throughout 2019/20 it gained 49 prestigious nominations, including at the 92nd Academy Awards, before winning 17 awards.
Alberto Iglesias won best soundtrack at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Banderas also won best actor there for what has been described as the performance of his career.
Pain and Glory (Cert 15, 113 mins, Spanish) is on at 7.45pm in the Joan Knight Studio at Perth Theatre on Thursday, October 21.
See https://www.horsecross.co.uk/ whats-on/perth-film-society-pain-andgloryfor tickets.