When The Room Next Door premiered at the Venice Film Festival in early September, an enthusiastic audience gave director Pedro Almodovar and his two leads, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, a standing ovation, and observers According to them, it was the longest film festival of this year. This reaction predicted that the film would win the Golden Lion at the film festival.
“There was an outpouring of not only love but gratitude for Pedro,” Swinton recalled of the applause, noting that the Spanish filmmaker has made more than 20 feature films and is about to turn 75. did. “He’s a punk rocker. He’s forever.”
“He’s an artist,” Moore says. And it’s also an opportunity for people to express it to him. And it kept coming and coming and coming. It was truly amazing to witness that. ”
The film, based on Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, is a moving double feature in which Swinton plays Martha, a successful war correspondent who turns out to be terminally ill. . Taking matters into her own hands, she obtains a euthanasia drug and obtains a short-term rental of a house in the country with the intention of ending her life there. But she doesn’t want to do it alone, so she asks her friend’s acquaintance, author and journalist Ingrid (Moore), to accompany her home.
“The Room Next Door” is Almodovar’s first full-length work written in English, a language he is still unfamiliar with. “He could make a film in Persian or German or anything, because he doesn’t pay that much attention to language,” Swinton points out. “There are other things he’s paying more attention to. It’s the emotions that really matter.”
Moore said that as a child, Almodóvar would sometimes sit under the kitchen table and listen to his mother and other women as they gossiped and shared secrets. “He’s attracted to that perspective, that intrigue, that kind of drama,” she says. “He’s a man who recognizes that women’s stories matter.”
According to Swinton, the director worked quickly and could only get two takes at most, but the actors sometimes begged for three. But the relentless pace helped build a bond between them.
“We have to put our hands up and move toward each other,” Moore recalled. “It was like we were this ball that went into work every day, a ball of energy and interaction all the time. That’s what this movie is, and it’s kind of a partnership.”
The tone was at times a bit heavy on set, as Swinton’s character is dripping with death, but overwhelmingly not. Talk about possible death is mixed with questions about what to have for lunch. “When you see someone reaching the end of their life, you can’t just sit there and be sad,” advises Swinton. “There’s going to be a moment when someone says, ‘Do you want something to eat?’ What was that funny movie we saw? And we watch it. That’s living. continue.”
Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton in Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door.
(TIFF)
Making the film was hard work, but the reward was catharsis. “I was in Ingrid’s shoes,” Swinton says of Moore’s character. “I have been in the privileged position of supporting people at the end of their lives, and it felt like an opening to bring my own experiences into the film.”
Moore agrees, believing that hardship is an inevitable part of life. “The sooner you recognize that, the more present you can be. You know that things are tough and painful, so you have to learn to live with it.”
The pair advise a similar approach for those disappointed with the outcome of the US presidential election. “The chips are down, but it’s not necessarily a powerless place,” Swinton said. “In fact, this state is a very powerful state, because it allows people to think straight. Today is a great day, we are alive, and let’s live without fear.”
Moore agreed, adding: “When you go through hardship, pain and hardship, you realize how unequal the world is and you think about what you can do and how you can do it. You can’t give up.”
But is Swinton really ready to quit acting as reports suggest? Even Almodovar sent her a panicked email about it. The actor admitted that he may not have been very clear when talking about future roles. “I said, if “The Next Room” were to be my last film, I’d be happy because I’m so proud of this movie.” Or, which is also true, I’ll always I said that this movie was going to be my last movie. “My first film was going to be my last,” she says. “That’s kind of how I work. To be honest, I’m pretty lazy, very lazy in fact, and I like to feel like my work is done.”
“I have been in the privileged position of supporting people at the end of their lives,” says Tilda Swinton. “It felt like it opened up the possibility of bringing my own experiences into the movie,” she says of The Room Next Door, in which she co-stars Julianne Moore.
(Shayan Asgarnia/For the Times)
Both are Oscar winners — Moore won the leading actress trophy for “Still Alice” and Swinton won the supporting trophy for “Michael Clayton” — but Sony Pictures Classics won the film. Both are nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
“It’s just a matter of accuracy,” Swinton says of the unusual decision. “This is a movie about two women who write the truth. I want to see Pedro there.”
Almodóvar’s All About My Mother won the Oscar for best foreign language film, and Almodóvar won a statuette for his screenplay for Talk to Her, but he has yet to win the trophy for best director. (Nominated for “Talk to Her.”) His film is nominated for Best Picture.
“Unfortunately, in America, everything is competitive,” Moore says. “I’m really happy to be able to make a movie that people want to see.”
