Pedro Almodóvar returns with Bitter Christmas, a film that analyzes the close relationship between reality and fiction as it explores the stories within stories that so often get us in trouble.
The film, scheduled for a November release, stars Bárbara Lennie and Leonardo Sbaraglia across separate timelines. And just ahead of its TIFF Canadian premiere, the highly anticipated film has received its first trailer.
A Sony Pictures Classics release, Bitter Christmas involves two stories. The first takes place during a long weekend in December 2004 and centers on Elsa (Lennie), an advertising director whose life intersects with her boyfriend, Bonifacio, and her two friends, Patricia and Natalia. The second jumps forward to 2026, where Raúl (Sbaraglia), a screenwriter and director suffering from writer’s block, begins to break through with a new screenplay.
Though it takes time, the connection eventually becomes clear: Raúl is writing Elsa’s story. And thus, the real story begins to take shape.
A winner of the Cannes Soundtrack Award at this year’s festival, Bitter Christmas is set to screen at both the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival before a limited opening on November 13. It expands nationwide on November 25.
Check out the trailer below.
About Stephen Davis
I owe this hobby/career to the one and only Stephanie Peterman who, while interning at Fox, told me that I had too many opinions and irrelevant information to keep it all bottled up inside. I survived my first rated R film, Alive, at the ripe age of 8, it took me months to grasp the fact that Julia Roberts actually died at the end of Steel Magnolias, and I might be the only person alive who actually enjoyed Sorority Row…for its comedic value of course. While my friends can drink you under the table, I can outwatch you when it comes iconic, yet horrid 80s films like Adventures in Babysitting and Troop Beverly Hills. I have no shame when it comes to what I like, and if you have a problem with that, then we’ll settle it on the racquetball court. I see too many movies to actually win any film trivia contest, so don’t waste your first pick on me. My friends rent movies from my bookcase shelves, and one day I do plan to start charging. I long to live in LA, where my movie obsession will actually help me fit in, but for now I am content with my home in Austin. I prefer indies to blockbusters, Longhorns to Sooners and Halloween to Friday the 13th. I miss the classics, as well as John Ritter, and I hope to one day sit down and interview the amazing Kate Winslet.
