Westport films club screens ‘Pain and Glory’

MAGNETIC Antonio Banderas’s performance in ‘Pain and Glory’ has been tipped for an Oscar.

The final movie of the Westport Film Club’s Autumn/Winter 2019 season will be Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Pain and Glory’ tomorrow evening (Wednesday), December 4, in the W Cinema.
‘Pain and Glory’ (Spanish with English subtitles, rated 16) is an introspective piece from the Spanish master of cinema, with longtime collaborators Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz reflecting and refracting the director’s life and art.
Celebrated film director Salvador Mallo (Banderas) is torn apart by pain, both physically from an unhealed back surgery and emotionally from his mother’s death, and unable to work because of it. A film festival wants to celebrate his early masterpiece, ‘Sabor’, by reuniting him with its lead actor, though the two have not spoken in over 30 years.
Swimming in flashbacks, Salvador floats between the past and present on his way to recovery, with Cruz playing his mother in her younger years.
The film has drawn comparisons to Federico Fellini’s ‘8½’ or Bob Fosse’s ‘All That Jazz’ for its contemplative semi-autobiographical portrait of a veteran director struggling to battle his creative and personal demons.
Almodóvar’s trademark unparalleled use of colour is again on display, from the cinematography to the production design, and Antonio Banderas is being tipped for a Best Actor Oscar nomination for one of his career’s best performances – interior and yet magnetic.
The Westport Film Club will return for their Spring/Summer 2020 season in February.

Tickets can be purchased in the W Cinema from 8.30pm. The screening will start at 8.45pm. Non-members welcome – guests pay €10 entry per film.