Pedro Almodóvar gets pensive in the Pain & Glory… | Little White Lies

Incoming

Pedro Almod­ó­var gets pen­sive in the Pain & Glo­ry trailer

31 Jan 2019

Words by Charles Bramesco

Man in green jacket, woman in red coat sitting at table
Man in green jacket, woman in red coat sitting at table
Pené­lope Cruz and Anto­nio Ban­deras star in the Span­ish master’s 21st film.

Could Pain & Glo­ry, the first trail­er for which appeared online today, be Pedro Almod­ó­var’s Wild Straw­ber­ries? Like Ing­mar Bergman’s ele­giac mas­ter­piece, the 21st film from Spain’s most wide­ly acclaimed direc­tor trains its focus on a great mind in repose as he looks back on a rich life and the rela­tion­ships he’ll leave behind.

Anto­nio Ban­deras takes the lead role, a film­mak­er not so dif­fer­ent from Almod­ó­var him­self, going through a ​“series of meet­ings” in both his present and flashback.

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

His remem­brances wend through a crowd of women: first and sec­ond loves, mater­nal fig­ures, his col­lab­o­ra­tors and mus­es. (Per­haps Fed­eri­co Fellini’s 8 1⁄2 would be the more appro­pri­ate ref­er­ence point?) One such woman will be played by Almod­ó­var favourite Pené­lope Cruz, who makes a brief appear­ance in the trail­er to flash a sul­try, secre­tive stare.

The trail­er doesn’t include sub­ti­tles for the Span­ish-lan­guage film, though that’s only because it doesn’t need them. Almod­ó­var prefers to let his images do the talk­ing, silent­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ing the long­ing, hurt, and plea­sure that have always defined his cinema.

His films tend to find a wel­com­ing home at the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, but Sony Pic­tures Releas­ing Inter­na­tion­al will let this one loose in Spain on 22 March, 2019.

**Update: 28 Feb­ru­ary, 2019** A UK release date has now been set for 23 August. Watch the offi­cial trail­er below.

You might like

Two men performing on stage, one holding a microphone and the other playing a keyboard. The image uses a blue and white tone.
Incoming

The great biopic brain drain

by Callie Petch

In an age of Walk Hard knock-offs, why are the biopics that con­tin­ue to play it safe the biggest suc­cess stories?
Collage of scenes from various films and media, including characters, settings, and visual elements. Diverse mix of human figures, creatures, and abstract shapes in a variety of colours and compositions.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2025 – part two

by Little White Lies

Here’s the sec­ond half of our annu­al pre­view, fea­tur­ing upcom­ing films from Lynne Ram­say, Bong Joon-ho and many more.
Collage of scenes from various films and TV shows featuring diverse characters and settings.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2025 – part one

by Little White Lies

We’ve put togeth­er our annu­al pre­view of some excit­ing films to look out for in the next year.
A woman with dark hair in a side bun wearing a dark jacket, with a surprised expression on her face.
Incoming

Fancy winning a neon sign used in The Souvenir Part 2?

by Little White Lies

Cin­e­ma for Gaza is host­ing a char­i­ty auc­tion rais­ing funds for Med­ical Aid for Pales­tini­ans (MAP) with incred­i­ble prizes donat­ed by the likes of Til­da Swin­ton, Josh O’Con­nor, Har­ris Dick­in­son, Annie Lennox, Mike Leigh and many, many more.
Collage of scenes from various films, featuring a range of characters, settings, and visual elements.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2024 – part two

by Little White Lies

In the sec­ond half of our pre­view look­ing ahead to 2024’s upcom­ing releas­es, we look at work from David Low­ery, Lynne Ram­say, Mati Diop and many more.
Collage of diverse film stills featuring people in various settings and poses, with a range of colours, moods, and visual styles.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2024 – part one

by Hannah Strong, Charles Bramesco and David Jenkins

New year, new movies! We look ahead to the films com­ing our way in 2024 – includ­ing new projects from Bong Joon-ho, George Miller, Rose Glass and many more.