While “Pain & Glory” didn’t pick up any Oscars on Sunday, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film is one of our favorites of the past year and has continued his tradition of releasing personal, beautiful work. And for his follow-up projects, it appears that Almodóvar is going in a new direction, with two English-language projects.
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Speaking to IndieWire, the acclaimed filmmaker talked about what’s next, since the chapter of his career focused on “Pain & Glory” has officially come to an end. And while he’s going to continue to make films, the director’s next project isn’t a feature. Apparently, he’s going to work with actress Tilda Swinton on a new short film, titled “The Human Voice,” adapted from Jean Cocteau’s one-act play, about a woman’s final phone call to her lover.
“It’s weird when friends ask me what I’d like to do next, and they’re surprised when I say that I’d really like to shoot a short, which would be like 15 minutes, not a series. That is the story I’m really in love with now and I’m very happy to be pursuing it,” said Almodóvar.
The filmmaker went on to explain why Swinton is the perfect actress to help bring the story to life. He said, “You need that feeling that someone understands you completely. In the case of Tilda, it was exactly how I dreamed of her. She’s so open, so intelligent. She gave me a lot of confidence with the logic. In the rehearsal, we understood each other very closely.”
After his short film with Swinton, Almodóvar is lining up another English-language film, this time a feature-length project based on the short story collection, “A Manual for Cleaning Women” from American author Lucia Berlin. The film will take place in Texas, California, and Mexico, with English and Spanish dialogue.
No release dates have been announced for Almodóvar’s short film or his upcoming feature-length follow-up to “Pain & Glory.”