The emotions in Almodovar movies always have one thing in common, that is, guarding. The protagonist in his movie desperately wants to guard his emotions no matter how marginal he is, no matter what taboos need to be broken, no matter how many difficulties need to be overcome. This is also the hottest part of Almodovar's movies. In order to guard, the protagonists often act desperately.
However, in "Pain and Glory", Almodovar seems to be the opposite of the guard, and the hero has lost everything. He has lost his health, and the continuous illness prevents him from focusing on work and can only rely on drugs to get a moment of peace. He has lost his lover and mother, and there is no other way but to remember when facing them. It is this loss that gives "Pain and Glory" a texture that is different from that of Almodovar's previous works. Almodovar is no longer obsessed with showing the difficulties of guarding feelings, nor showing strange things, what he presents is the calmness of looking back on his life. He is not worried about showing his ailing body to the audience, nor is he shy about his frustration and regret in life. So this time, Almodovar, who gave up the use of strange things to attract the audience, can make it easier for the audience to reach his heart, because everything is so calm, without the slightest concealment of exaggeration.
Not only the loss of content, but also the loss of "Pain and Glory" in terms of form. Almodovar no longer inserts a rich and complex narrative structure, no longer deliberately disturbs the chronological order, and even his signature drama part is greatly simplified. In the actor's interpretation of "Addiction," Almodova presents to the audience only a white screen and a red background board. Almodovar did not choose to present the scene in the play directly on the screen, but focused on the monologue of the male actor. The shot was only partly brought to the screen, supplemented by ambient sound. Compared with his previous works, this way of presentation is too "unfaced", but the effect achieved is extremely astonishing. Under such simple conditions, the audience can enter the director's childhood in one second and feel the smell of urine. Screened on summer night with jasmine fragrance. This fully shows that there is no need to directly present the story, but only need to mobilize the atmosphere and artistic conception to also impress the audience. Similarly, Almodovar rarely used the same actor in this movie to interpret different segments of the same role when he was young and old. In particular, instead of having the male protagonist put on a young appearance to interpret the story in "Addiction", he chose to present it with another actor's monologue. This loss of form further enhances the effect of alienation, allowing the audience to stand outside and look back at the director's life. Just like the two shots shown to the audience offstage in the film, the director exited from self-indulgence, exited from strong intervention, and left his regrets for the audience to feel and comment on.
As the title suggests, life has brought the director full of pain, but this pain is also the source of creation, because in the director's view, "life without a movie will be meaningless, and my life is already like this". Therefore, although the whole film is about loss, the overall atmosphere is not blindly sad, but it swings between the complex emotions composed of the beautiful experiences, the regrets of loss, and the reconciliation mood. This subtle and complex atmosphere is completely isomorphic to the director's life-how can there be a simple life? There is only a mixed experience.
The process of watching "Pain and Glory" was a very wonderful experience. As an ordinary viewer, I was able to successfully connect with the private comments of an old director. Behind the work stands a rich and three-dimensional director, a sincere and open heart. His film works are nothing more than him, but are the inner extension of his personal temperament. Here, both technology and content take the second place. The most "human" part that touches people is always the most unique part of Almodovar as a director.
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