A new trailer has dropped for Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language short ‘The Human Voice’ which is being screened at the 2020 BFI London Film Festival.
Written and directed by Almodóvar, produced by Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García, the short follows a woman watching time passing next to the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up, but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn’t understand that his master has abandoned him. Two living beings facing abandonment. During the three days of waiting, the woman only goes out to the street once, to buy an axe and a can of gasoline.
Related: The Human Voice Review – Venice 2020
The woman goes through all sorts of moods, from helplessness to despair and loss of control. She makes herself up, she dresses up as if going to a party, she considers throwing herself off of the balcony, until her ex-lover calls on the phone, but she’s unconscious because she’s taken a combination of thirteen pills and cannot answer the call. The dog licks her face until she wakes up. After a cold shower, revived by a coffee as black as her state of mind, the telephone rings again and this time she can answer. The human voice is hers, we never hear the voice of her lover.
At first, she pretends to act normal and calm, but she is always on the verge of exploding in the face of the man’s hypocrisy and meanness. THE HUMAN VOICE is a moral lesson about desire, even though its protagonist is on the verge of the very same abyss. Risk is an essential part of the adventure of living and loving. Pain is very present in the monologue. As I said at first, it is about the disorientation and distress of two living beings who grieve their master.
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The short will screen at the London Film Festival at the BFI Southbank on Saturday 17th October and will be accompanied by a pre-recorded introduction and Q&A with Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton.
It will then launch on 7 November 2020 at a special Event Screening in cinemas across the UK. The film will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with Almodóvar and Swinton hosted by film critic Mark Kermode.
The Event will have repeat screenings nationwide from 8 November.
