VENICE, Italy — Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar returns to the Venice Film Festival on Monday with stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. ‘The Room Next Door’ will have its world premiere on the Lido in the evening.
While a new Almodóvar film is always an event for cinephiles, this one has a special significance: it is his English-language debut.
“My uncertainty disappeared after the first table reading with the actresses, with the exchange of the first indications,” he wrote in his director’s statement. “The language wouldn’t be a problem, and not because I know English, but because of the total willingness of the entire cast to understand me and make it easy for me to understand them.”
Moore and Swinton play estranged friends, who met in their youth at a magazine job and whose lives took different paths. Ingrid (Moore) wrote novels. Martha (Swinton) became a war reporter. And now, after years apart, they meet again in a situation described by studio Sony Pictures Classics as “extremely but strangely sweet.”
Almodóvar’s last appearance in Venice was in 2021, where he presented the film ‘Parallel Mothers’, for which Penelope Cruz won the Best Actress award. In 2019, Venice also gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award. But its history with Venice goes back 40 years.
“I was born in Venice in 1983 as a film director,” he said. A few years later he would return with the classic ‘Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown’.
Of his latest, he wrote: “Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore carry the weight of the entire film on their shoulders, and they are a spectacle. I’ve been lucky enough to see both give a true recital. During the shoot, both the crew and I were sometimes on the verge of tears watching them. It was a very moving shoot and somehow blessed.
The film will play in competition at the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival, alongside “Maria” and the upcoming “Queer” and “Joker: Folie à Deux.” The winners will be announced on September 7.
Sony Pictures Classics will release “The Room Next Door” in theaters in December.
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For more coverage of the 2024 Venice Film Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival.
