CULTURE

Dolor y gloria Trailer: Pedro Almodóvar Finally Unites Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas

Finally.

by Kyle Munzenrieder

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Gather round, Pedro Almodóvar heads, because the Spanish director has finally—finally!—put together two of his most famous muses, Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas to costar in a movie, 22 films into his career. And judging by the trailer of the film, Dolor y gloria (or Pain and Glory, in English), which dropped today, it’s set to be as sexy and stylish as anything the director has created. The union of two of Almodóvar’s most frequent leads also lends itself to the themes of the film. Perhaps semiautobiographical, Dolor y gloria will focus on a film director in his twilight who looks back upon his life, loves, collaborators, and failures through a series of reunions.

Banderas and Almodóvar first worked together back in 1982 on the film Labyrinth of Passion; following numerous collaborations, the pair then shot to international fame together with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Tie Me Up! Time Me Down!. Then Madonna began showing Banderas around Hollywood, he learned to speak English, he met Melanie Griffith, and he was suddenly a household name in America and didn’t work with Almodóvar again for another 21 years. That was fine, as the director soon found his next international superstar muse in Penelope Cruz with 1997’s Live Flesh, and the pair have made movies together ever since. Interestingly, when Banderas and Almodóvar finally reunited for 2011’s The Skin I Live, Cruz was slated for a role, but dropped out due to pregnancy. Though, technically, Cruz and Banderas did both have cameos in Almodóvar’s I’m So Excited in 2012, Dolor y gloria will mark their first official time costarring together.

Ironically, after all that, the pair may not actually appear in scenes together, as they certainly don’t in the trailer. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks, with Banderas’s main character remembering his past selves.

The film is set for a release in Spain in March, and then will likely roll out to international audiences through the festival circuit.

Other frequent Almodóvar regulars, including Cecilia Roth and Julieta Serrano, also appear in the film, as does quickly rising Spanish pop star Rosalía, in her film debut.

Related: Behind the Scenes of Pedro Almodóvar’s New Film, Julieta