Pain and Glory

Pedro Almodóvar’s 44 day shoot ran from 16 July to 15 September 2018, mostly in Valencia province, particularly Paterna. Two actresses carry the mother: Penélope Cruz the young Jacinta in the flashbacks, Julieta Serrano the elderly one. At the 34th Goya Awards both were nominated for best supporting actress and Serrano took it. The singer Rosalía is one of the flashback laundresses. It went into the Goyas with 16 nominations and won 7: best film, director, actor, supporting actress, original screenplay, editing and original score. Cannes gave it two prizes: best actor for Antonio Banderas and the Cannes Soundtrack award, an independent prize, for Alberto Iglesias. At the European Film Awards Banderas was again best actor, Antxon Gómez best production designer. At the 92nd Academy Awards Banderas was nominated for best actor and the film for international feature, winning neither. On its opening day in Spain it drew more than 45,000 admissions and was the country’s most watched film that day. A good fit if you want the memories of a director who cannot work for pain told as Manohla Dargis put it in The New York Times: a great deal happens, but none of it at top volume. Not for anyone after a plot driven film, who will find a story moving between addiction and childhood slow.