Film Buffs Will Be Very Happy To Hear This News About Penelope Cruz's Latest Film

Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is one of Spain's most respected writers and directors, and the Academy Award winner already boasts an acclaimed body of work, including films such as Julieta and The Skin I Live In. Almodóvar's next cinematic masterpiece, Pain and Glory, stars Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, and will depict a series of encounters by Salvador Mallo, a film director experiencing physical decline. But when is Pain and Glory out in the UK?

Well, any film buffs out there have a little bit longer to wait, because, according to a statement sent to Bustle, Pain and Glory is set to be released on Friday August 23 2019 in cinemas across the UK. In addition to Desperado actor Antonio Banderas and the Oscar-winning Penelope Cruz, the cast also includes Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Nora Navas, and Julieta Serrano. According to the statement, Pain and Glory was both written and directed by Almodóvar, produced by Agustín Almodóvar, and the film's original score was composed by Alberto Iglesias.

As reported by the Mirror, the film tells the story of director Salvador Mallo (Banderas) as he looks back at the choices he has made throughout his life. As the past and present crash together around him, memories ranging from his childhood in the '60s to his first love in the '80s come flooding back as his health goes into decline. The character's personal reflections also take him back to his early discovery of cinema. However, over the course of the film, one question begins to emerge: where will this nostalgia take him?

According to Deadline, the Spanish filmmaker has previously discussed the content of the film. In a statement, Almodóvar revealed that the film will be about "[f]irst loves, second loves, mother, mortality, an actor with whom the director worked, the '60s, the '80s and the present. And the emptiness, the immeasurable emptiness before the impossibility of continuing to make films." The four-time BAFTA winner then went onto reveal that Pain and Glory "also talks about creation, cinematographic and theatrical, and of the impossibility of separating creation from one’s life."

Unlike the director's previous releases, Almodóvar has explained that Pain and Glory is a film with male protagonists, and "two actresses that I adore." Banderas, who stars as the movie's lead character, and co-star Cruz, each have a long history with the famed Spanish filmmaker — and both appeared in the 2013 film I’m So Excited. Cruz, however, has starred in a whopping six of Almodóvar's films throughout her career. According to the Daily Mail, in addition to I'm So Excited, the actress has appeared in Live Flesh in 1997, All About My Mother back in 1999, Volver in 2006 and Broken Embraces and The Cannibalistic Councillor in 2009.

Almodóvar has this time opted to release Pain and Glory in his home country of Spain through Sony Pictures Releasing International on March 22 2019, reports Variety. Laine Kline, the head of Sony Pictures International Productions, had nothing but praise for the highly celebrated director, and described Almodóvar as "one of the seminal filmmakers of all time."

Pain and Glory is out in cinemas on Friday August 23 across the UK.