Pedro Almodóvar’s 21st movie, Pain and Glory, is auto-fiction, about an ageing gay Spanish film director, Salvador Mallo (a tremendous performance by Antonio Banderas).
Tormented by ill-health, Salvador doubts he will ever make a film again, and has taken to smoking heroin. In reverie, he recalls his relationship with his mother, Jacinta, both when she was young (Penélope Cruz) and in her old age (Julieta Serrano).
He has poignant reunions with people he hasn’t seen for years: the actor in his first hit and, in the finest scene, with his long-lost first lover.
This could have been insufferably self-regarding but Pain and Glory is Almodóvar’s best work for years, marvellously framed and composed, comparatively restrained for him, hugely enjoyable moment by moment.
