Lydia Spencer-Elliott
REVERED Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar has released a snippet of his first English language film The Human Voice online.
A short drama, the film is scheduled to premier at Venice Film Festival this week and will star British actress Tilda Swinton.
“The Human Voice is a festival celebrating Tilda, a display of her infinite range as an actress,” said auteur Almodovar. “Directing her has been spectacular.”
The plot adapts Jean Cocteau’s 1930 play La voix humaine, from which Almodovar sought inspiration in past works including Law of Desire (1987) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988).
Almodovar will also direct a feature length English language film this year. A Manual For Cleaning Women will again star Swinton and be based on the book by Lucia Berlin.
Almodovar regularly establishes a favoured actress to frequent his films. In the past these have included Penelope Cruz, Julieta Serrano, Marisa Paredes and Rossy de Palma.
“I feel that I can tell a richer and more entertaining story with women,” said Almodovar in 2016.
“I will write male and female characters but I do find, at least in Spanish culture, women to be more vivacious, more direct, more expressive, with a lot less of a sense of being fearful of making a fool of themselves.”
