“We repeat what we don’t repair.” That chorus, often sung in therapy offices, to anyone who finds themselves slapping a lover, then massaging the ensuing pain a moment later, applies to most of us.

“Socializing has really exhausted me as time has gone by,” Almodóvar told me in September, not long after he had jetted from his home in Madrid to the Toronto International Film Festival to present ...

I once turned to my partner as he tucked into a spicy takeaway meal and asked him, “How does that actually feel? Like, in your mouth? Does it hurt sometimes?” I had expected him to say no, that it ...