Pedro Almodóvar‘s latest movie at the Cannes Film Festival, Bitter Christmas, scored a nine-minute ovation after its world premiere screening Tuesday night.
The pic (Spanish title: Amarga Navidad) — the auteur’s 11th offering in Cannes, and eighth in the main competition — straddles two storylines and is the latest to reflect his own viewpoint. It centers on a director, Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), and Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), the cult filmmaker at the center of Raúl’s screenplay. As Raul grapples with telling the story of Elsa’s life, he’s confronted by the murkiness of borrowing from real people for the purposes of fiction.
The crowd which included last year’s jury president Juliette Binoche, responded well to the pic after the screening, which was attended by Almodóvar and his cast that includes Sbaraglia, Lennie, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Quim Guitierrez and Patrick Criado.
“I’ve never found an audience that is so warm as here,” Almodóvar told the Grand Théâtre Lumière audience after the applause died down. “It’s always a dream for me to come, just to enter by that door and sit down here. … I will miss it very much when I will not come.”
Deadline’s Pete Hammond in his review noted the echoes of Almodóvar the artist are unmistakable in Bitter Christmas, and called it “a fascinating peek into the master’s own head.”
Bitter Christmas, which has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S., is playing in Cannes’ main competition. Despite being a Cannes regular, Almodóvar has never won the fest’s Palme d’Or, though he has won plenty including Best Director (All About My Mother) and Best Screenplay (Volver).
