![]() All About My Mother presents a situation in which the male body is all but erased. While what I propose with regards to the body and its relationship to pain is meant to be a gender-neutral observation, it is worth noting that All About My Mother emphasizes the female form while Pain and Glory showcases the male body. My thematically-loaded analysis of the relationship between an individual and their body is meant to be a commentary on all human beings and to encompass all gender identities. Pain and Glory may very well be Pedro’s most personal film, but it also holds a mirror to that collective reality of all of us- made even more palpable by COVID-our impotence before pain, aging, and death. Finally, by discussing some reviewers’ impressions of the film as well as Almodóvar’s writings about his own time in quarantine, I wish to foster an appreciation of Almodóvar’s 21st film in the broader context of “COVID culture” in which isolation, anxiety, and a dramatic increase in the dependence on the internet for most social interaction have become the norm. My hope is that, through a careful study of this intertextuality, we as viewers will better understand what Almodóvar is telling us about the powers and the limitations of the body as it relates to the shared human experiences of memory, desire, triumph, and loss. I will also analyze the movie’s themes of illness, addiction, desirability, and authenticity that are introduced largely through Pedro’s trademark technique of metatextual referencing. This paper will focus on the concept of pain as it is depicted in Pain and Glory and explore an individual’s ability or, better stated, inability to control the body. I will argue that Pain and Glory completes much of what is postulated in All About My Mother about the cost of constructing an authentic 2 physical self. However, my point of comparison between these two Almodóvar classics is more much more thematic. In truth, it is Pain and Glory that presents a much more direct and detailed description of someone’s mom, both from the perspective of a young child as well as that of an adult caregiver. Though maternal figures abound in All About My Mother, it is not about his mother but rather about his father that young Esteban hungers for even the smallest tidbit of information. ![]() In some ways, the pairing of All About My Mother with Pain and Glory is an obvious one as much of the plot of Pain and Glory revolves around the protagonist’s sharing with the audience recollections that are literally all about his mother. ![]() I contend that Pain and Glory can also be seen as a companion piece to the 1999 Oscar Winner All About My Mother. ![]() (Dargis “Almdodóvar’s Dazzling Art”) While the filmmaker’s statement that the work is a reflection of his own life is an illuminating admission, I hope to analyze Pain and Glory through a very different lens. As it is an intensely self-referential film, many critics and even Almodóvar himself describe Pain and Glory as the final film in an autobiographical trilogy along with Law of Desire and Bad Education. Garnering universal praise and numerous awards in various categories, the movie also allowed Antonio Banderas to earn his first ever Oscar nomination in his 40-year career. Pedro Almodóvar’s 2019 Pain and Glory is his most highly acclaimed work in over a decade and only the third Almodóvar film to be Spain’s official submission to the Academy Awards in the last 20 years. Zulema(Cecilia Roth) to Salvador (Antonio Banderas) in Pain and Glory. It is your eyes that changed honey, the movie is the same. Son tus ojos los que han cambiado cariño, la película es la misma. × Current About Archive Submit Editorial Board Salisbury University Creating and Controlling the Mythologies of Our Bodies: Life Lessons from All About My Mother, Pain and Glory, and the Age of COVID-19 Viki Zavales Eggert (Goucher College)
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