Pain and glory - from the present to the past

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

When the peak of fame is over, and life begins to annoy, like a useless medicine, it's time to remember the past and meet old friends. A series of meetings of the aging director Salvador Mallo with the ghosts of the past is shown in the film Pain and Glory (2019), after its release, the film received positive reviews from film critics and interested viewers, because the film really has something to steal from. Release date in Russia - June 12, 2019.

Film review - or the anatomy of pain

Salvador Maglio (Antonio Banderas) talks about his past and creative endeavors. Now he is an elderly retired director who does not make films, because this is hard physical labor, and his health does not allow. Mallo did not immediately recognize the anatomy of pain, but pain became his friend, enemy and tormentor:

Anatomy. My brain is the source of endless pain. Pain in the head, lower back, lungs, ringing in the ears. Mental pains … Such as panic and anxiety. Depression. When there is only one pain - I am an atheist, when I am tormented by several at once - I pray

Pills help to cope with headaches, but psychotropic substances help with the foggy state into which Maliot plunged due to creative stagnation. They take the man back to childhood memories, where he has not yet experienced either mental or physical torment.

But the pain did not come immediately, at first there was success, travel and creative takeoff:

Geography. My knowledge of the world expanded with the growth of the success of my paintings. I have traveled across countries presenting my films and expanding my geography

This is a very personal picture, and the director makes it clear by introducing us to the story of Maglio and his first lover. Men meet after many years, and this meeting reminds El Salvador of what it is like to feel life within yourself. He decides to put an end to heroin, not to run away from pain anymore, to return to reality again, because one day it will all end for him.

The film is excellently designed and furnished - not only with important dialogue scenes and shooting focus, but also with bright colors that even an ordinary Italian apartment turns into a museum. The picture turned out to be both restrained and rich at the same time - every detail is like a work of art: carpets, paintings on the walls, patterns on tiles and the code of heroes.

The picture is extremely calm and measured, even scenes with the use of substances and difficult memories for the hero look restrained and harmonious. In El Salvador, it is difficult to discern its essence, its complexes, doubts and fears interfere. But as we can see, he is still the same boy from childhood. And Malio's last film work will probably be his biopic about his life with the maire, memories of his father and the young artist whom Salvador taught to write as a child.

According to critics and audience reviews, Pain and Glory (2019) has become one of the best films directed by Pedro Almodovar in recent years. Pain and Glory is an opportunity to look back at your youth and career, and look at your life from the outside.