TheWrap Oscar magazine: “The idea of arriving at a moment where I can no longer make movies worries me,” Oscar-winning Spanish director says
A version of this story about Pedro Almodóvar and “Pain and Glory” first appeared in the International Film issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.
When Pedro Almodóvar sat down to talk about his Spanish Oscar entry “Pain and Glory,” he looked trim and well-rested. That’s a relief, since the semiautobiographical film is about filmmaker Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), whose physical and mental travails have blocked him from what he loves most — making movies.
(This interview was conducted in Spanish and translated into English.)
You’re looking well. I’m sure with your interviews for this film, everyone starts with, “Are you OK? How are you feeling?”
It’s true, that’s the first question I get from a lot of people. “Are you all right?” Yes, I’m doing much better than the Antonio Banderas character.
There’s an animated segment early on showing us everything wrong with Salvador’s aging body. Is this the first time you’ve used animation outside of the titles?
Yes, and I chose it to get the point across in the least amount of time. I’m introducing a character with multiple pains and afflictions, and that’s no fun to direct or to discuss. Pains aren’t very cinematic, unless they’re tied up with action, but to show headaches or backaches, there aren’t a lot of ways to shoot that in an interesting way. So I made a list of all the character’s aches, and I gave it to Alberto (Iglesias) to set it to music, and once I had the music, I gave it to (graphic designer) Juan Gatti to animate it. At first, it was a whim; it amused me to go from the characters to animated drawings. I was amused by the narrative risk. But on the other hand, as I usually do, I appreciated how practical it was — the viewer learns what they need to very quickly, and it’s visually interesting.
And after a certain age — I’ve seen this happen in my own family — that’s the first conversation you have with people. “What pains do you have? How’ve you been?”
There’s definitely an age where the question, “How are you?” becomes something you really mean. It’s not rhetorical anymore.
This film seems to be part of a moment where we’re seeing more film and TV shows that are talking about the act of aging. The fragility of the body, the regrets we sometimes have later in life, and that seems to be a topic movies have tended to avoid.
I’m not conscious of that. But in Spain, where we don’t talk that much about this stage of life, deaths are far outnumbering births. The Spanish citizenry is aging, Spanish society gets older every day, and there’s no renewal among the population. We’re the majority, in Spain at least, those of us who are aging and having problems with aging.
What I didn’t want to do in this movie was to present a character who was complaining about his aches and pains or about his inability to work, mainly because — unless you’re Philip Roth, and this idea is the crux of the work — it needs to be part of the narrative. Characters age, and they have problems they didn’t have before. Or their circumstances are different. And I think it’s great that those topics are included, mixed in as part of the story.
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