Antonio Banderas has worked steadily with director Pedro Almodovar since the early 1980s, and his latest collaboration with the Spanish auteur finds the 58-year-old actor playing a role that appears to be based on Almodovar himself.
In “Pain and Glory”, Banderas plays director Salvador Mallo, seemingly a stand-in for Almodovar, with co-stars including Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Raúl Arévalo, Nora Navas, Julieta Serrano and Penelope Cruz.
“‘Pain & Glory’ tells of a series of re-encounters experienced by Salvador Mallo, a film director in his physical decline,” explains the film’s synopsis. “Some of them in the flesh, others remembered. First loves, second loves, his mother, mortality, an actor with whom the director worked, the ’60s, the ’80s, the present and the emptiness, the immeasurable emptiness at the impossibility of continuing to film.”
In his latest film, Almodovar “talks about creation, about the difficulty of separating it from one’s own life and about the passions that give it meaning and hope. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need he also finds his salvation.”
“Pain & Glory” made its debut at the Cannes Festival, where Banderas’ performance earned him this year’s Best Actor Award.
Ahead of the film’s premiere on Oct. 4, “Pain and Glory” will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, which takes place from Sept. 5 to 15.
