
Pain and Glory
2019

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.
Gael García BernalÁngel / Juan / Zahara
Fele MartínezEnrique Goded
Daniel Giménez CachoPadre Manolo
Lluís HomarSr. Berenguer
Francisco MaestrePadre José
Francisco BoiraIgnacio
Juan FernándezMartín
Nacho PérezYoung Ignacio
Javier CámaraPaca / Paquito
Alberto FerreiroEnrique Serrano
Petra MartínezMadre
Roberto HoyasCamarero
Agustín AlmodóvarLimpiador Piscina (uncredited)
Robert ForcadellMan in Public (uncredited)
Pol MonenNiño (uncredited)
Sara MontielSoledad (archive footage) (uncredited)
Pau PochNiño (uncredited)









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This film treads the fine line between providing an entertaining and sexy piece of cinema with the identification of the serious issues of sexual abuse committed if not always by the clergy, then certainly under their auspices, in Franco's Spain. The story centres around aspiring actor "Angel" (Gael Garciá Bernal) who turns up, unannounced, at the door of his former schoolfriend. This man "Enrique" (Fele Martinez) has gone on to become a successful film director and, perhaps optimistically, "Angel" hopes that the unfinished manuscript he has brought might turn out to be his ticket to success. It transpires that these men have not seen each other since school (some 16 years earlier) and that this document is semi-autobiographical - it takes both back to their childhood where, under the supervision of "Fr. Manolo" (Daniel Giménez Cacho) they attended a catholic school where they had sexual encounters with each other and with others with varying degrees willingness. The story is dark, certainly, but here is plenty of humour and shagging as the story unfolds. We are deliberately left to judge the extent to which "Angel" is being truthful, fanciful or just plain enthusiastic, and we are also offered a fairly unique take on how vengeance might be applied. The narrative is complex, the timelines and characters shift making it quite a thought provoking film to both watch and begin to understand. Well worth it, though!

2019

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