He opts instead for a serene, calm and restrained narrative – at times bordering on tedious – which jumps back and forth through time, and from metafiction to autofiction, inviting the viewer into his home in Madrid or into the private world of his family. There is, indeed, far more pain than glory in this new film by this Manchegan filmmaker who, in this instance – as in his previous work, Julieta – sets aside the brilliant humour and unbridled passion which characterise the more joyful and torrential titles of his back-catalogue. Out of resentment? To settle debts with the past? As sort form of therapy or testimonial? Out of a lack of ideas? As an act of reconciliation…? One or more of these might explain why the director has laid himself so intensely, emotionally bare, with all the stubborn sadness that comes from feeling different, misunderstood and out of place, and which pervades Pain and Glory.
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The first few minutes of the film, where we see Banderas mimicry mode – wearing the same brightly coloured clothes, the same dishevelled hair, and imitating the same gestures made by the director of Volver –, baffle the viewer, who wonders why Almodóvar is portraying himself in this way.
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Reality seeps into fiction as Almodóvar is reincarnated as a director in crisis played by Antonio Banderas. But the director has taken things further in his 21st feature film, intitled Pain and Glory, where he offers up aspects of his existence which he has never before spoken of. It would be entirely possible, I imagined, to turn those facts into a film – a serious and respectful documentary even – about Almodóvar’s life, which would help his vast audience to get to know him more intimately and to move beyond the flashes of his life history which we previously glimpsed in Law of Desire and Bad Education.
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Another reference point – Visconti’s Bellissima (1952), starring Anna Magnani – is glimpsed on a TV set.Years ago, while on a trip, the author of this article made the acquaintance of someone who lived in the village where Pedro Almodóvar grew up and listened to the stories this person told (events which he had witnessed), which revealed that the childhood of this two-time Oscar winner wasn’t in fact all that happy. Maura’s character recalls her role in Almodóvar’s What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984). Fusing the hysterical and the mundane with compassion, wit and grace, Volver combines tragedy and farce to the benefit of both. Many other excellent actors round out the almost exclusively female company. Rooted in the filmmaker’s own homeland of La Mancha, the film stars Penélope Cruz as a city girl returning home for a funeral, and former Almodóvar mainstay Carmen Maura as her mother, reappearing long after her apparent death. Volver is one of the supreme instances of the latter, a beautiful tale of mothers and daughters, family secrets, storytelling and forgiveness. Pedro Almodóvar has suggested that his films can be divided into ‘male’ or ‘female’ stories – the former dealing predominantly with desire and revenge, the latter with reconciliation and perseverance. It’s a tenuous proposition, but not unexpected from a director whose acclaim greatly depends on his penchant for sisterly idealisation.”
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“Volver includes a brace of fart jokes, pointing up the moral that women are happier with their bodily functions than men.