“The Human Voice” is the first joint film by Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton, and at the same time the first English title by a Spanish director. This thoroughly Almodovar, colourful and emotional melodrama successfully combines two temperaments, sensitivity and cinematic elements. The inimitable style of the creator of “Talk to Her” seems to be tailored to the star of Jarmusch or Guadagnino, like the insane red Balenciaga gown in which the pale Tilda Swinton traverses the set of Almodóvar’s film.

The protagonist – in love, humiliated, desperate – conducts her last telephone conversation with the man who left her. In the apartment, accompanied by the packed suitcases of his lover and his orphaned dog, throwing himself from rage to sadness, he consumes a love catastrophe. He takes the pills, grabs the ax, pours gasoline: she wants to kill herself, she wants to destroy him, she wants to play the role of life in the drama called breakup. He changes costumes and masks, tries on conventions, begs, screams and whispers: he checks whether this story should end in a tragedy or maybe … a happy ending?

Filmed during a pandemic, medium-length, loosely inspired by the art of Jean Cocteau “Human Voice” is the essence of the Almodovar world: because Cocteau’s text was already used by the Spaniard in “Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown” and “Almost Desire”. Because both the music and the elements of the extravagant scenery in the new film come from Almodóvar’s previous works. Because his cinema is a passionate love story in which the leading roles were almost always played by expressive, extraordinary heroines. The “Human Voice” thus says goodbye to a certain stage in Pedro Almodóvar’s work and heralds a new chapter.

The film is accompanied by an extremely interesting conversation in which the director and his new muse add to this thread. Separated by the pandemic, they talk from their homes about film making, love for cinema, inspiration and – joint! – plans for the near future.

director: Pedro Almodóvar
starring Tilda Swinton
drama / short / Spain / 2020
duration: 30 + 45 min