"The Human Voice" - Waiting for Tilda Swinton

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

The premiere of the film "The Human Voice" (2020) by Pedro Almodovar, based on the play of the same name by Jean Cocteau, took place at the Venice Film Festival. Learn all about filming, working with actors, editing and filming locations. And admire the starring Tilda Swinton in space.

The woman froze in the hope of the return of her former lover, who never took his suitcases. She shares her loneliness with a voice in the telephone receiver and a loyal dog who does not understand if the owner left him. Two sentient beings stuck in the uncertainty of agonizing anticipation.

Synopsis

Pedro Almodovar:

“The woman froze in the hope of the return of her former lover, who never took his suitcases. She shares loneliness with a loyal dog who does not understand why the owner left him. Two abandoned living creatures. During the three days of waiting, the woman leaves the house only once to buy an ax and a can of gasoline.

A woman's mood changes from insecurity to despair and loss of control. She preps up, dresses as if going to a party, thinks about jumping off the balcony. Her ex-lover calls, but she cannot pick up the phone - she is unconscious because she has swallowed pills. The dog licks her face and the woman wakes up. After taking a cold shower, she makes herself black coffee, black as her thoughts. The phone rings again and this time she picks up the phone.

We hear only her voice, the words of the interlocutor remain a secret for the viewer. At first, the woman holds on and tries to seem calm, but one feels that she is indignant at male hypocrisy and cowardice.

The Human Voice is a lesson that examines the moral and ethical side of passion, the protagonist of which finds herself on the brink of an emotional abyss. Risk is an integral part of the adventure called "Life" and "Love". Another important component is felt in the heroine's monologue - Pain. As I said, this film is about the disorientation and torment of two sentient beings who yearn for their master."

Director's message

Pedro Almodovar:

“I have known Cocteau's play, which served as the basis for the script for the film The Human Voice, for several years now, and it inspired me to work on other projects. I tried to rethink the play when I wrote the script for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, but the end result was an eccentric comedy in which the heroine's lover did not call, so the scene of her monologue with a pipe at her ear fell out.

A year earlier, I had included this scene in The Law of Desire, the protagonist of which is making the film. The main role in this picture is played by the director's sister. Her heroine, as conceived by the screenwriter, finds herself in approximately the same situation as the heroine of the film "The Human Voice". At that time, I was already thinking that a woman, driven to a nervous breakdown, could grab an ax and destroy the house in which she lived with the one who abandoned her. The idea of an ax is also played up in the painting "The Law of Desire". Now I came back to her again.

I went back to adapting Cocteau's text, but this time I decided to stick to the original. I reread the play for the first time in decades. However, I had to make allowances for my own inconsistency and add the definition of "free interpretation" to my version, since this is how it really is. I left the most important thing - the despair of a woman, the high toll charged by passion, which the heroine is willing to pay, even at the cost of her own life. I left behind a dog that is also sad for its owner, and suitcases filled with memories.

Everything else - the phone conversation, the waiting, and what happens next - was inspired by my perception of a modern woman. She is crazy about love for a man who waits a few days to call and collect his suitcases. At the same time, she seeks to preserve the semblance of moral independence, so as not to break under this blow of fate. My heroine is by no means the submissive woman described in the original. It cannot be like that, taking into account the specifics of modern morals.

I have always regarded this adaptation as an experiment, within the framework of which I planned to show what the theater calls the "fourth wall." In a movie, it will be a demonstration of what remains behind the scenes, wooden supports holding realistic scenery, materialization of fiction.

The reality of this woman is filled with pain, loneliness and darkness. I aimed to make it obvious, touching and expressive for the audience, thanks in large part to the amazing acting of Tilda Swinton. From the very beginning, I show that her home is a cinematic pavilion. Moving away from realistic decor and using the scale of the pavilion, I visually enlarged the space in which the heroine delivers her monologue.

I mixed cinema and theater, taking only the most important things. For example, at a certain moment, the heroine goes out onto the terrace to look at the city. However, only the wall of the pavilion opens up to her gaze, on which there are reminders of previous filming. No panorama, no views opens up to her. She sees only emptiness and darkness. Thus, I emphasized the feeling of loneliness and darkness in which the heroine lives.

The studio where we shot the film became the main scenery in which the events of the film developed. A realistic set, in which the heroine lives in anticipation of her lover, was built in the pavilion. By showing the wooden props holding the set, I seem to expose the backbone of the set.

Filming in English was also new to me. On set, I work in a relaxed way, but this time, especially given the unusual format, I felt more free than ever before. I freed myself from my native language, from the obligatory minimum film length of 90 minutes, from the need to worry that something from the shooting equipment did not get into the frame. It was a real revelation for me.

However, not everything was so smooth. I still obeyed certain restrictions, the boundaries were quite clear and unshakable. Working in such a conditionally free mode required precise planning of the mise-en-scene, perhaps even more thorough than on the set of a regular film. And it's not about theatrical attributes in the frame.

But here we have to look deeper. Everything that I show to the audience in a particular case is intended to emphasize the idea of the main character's loneliness and uselessness, the isolation in which she lives. There is a dramatic overtones behind every detail. By showing the panorama of the film set, I tried to show that the heroine seems very small, as if she lives in a dollhouse.

The introduction before the credits can be compared to an overture to an opera. Balenciaga suits helped me create this illusion. In the first scene, the waiting woman is dressed very extravagantly. She appears to be a mannequin thrown in the back room.

To tell you the truth, I like to experiment. For example, turning a huge chroma key, which usually disgusts me, into a kind of opera house curtain. It's interesting, funny and very invigorating.

The perception of the film set as a kind of intimate place, a kind of laboratory helped me forget about furniture, props and music. Several pieces of furniture appeared in the picture, which could be seen in my other films.

The same can be said for music. I suggested that Alberto Iglesias write a medley from our previous films, but adapt the pace and mood for The Human Voice. And so he did. The result is an absolutely amazing electronic soundtrack, which includes musical themes from the films "Open Embrace", "Bad Parenting", "Talk to Her" and "I'm Very Horny", adapted for the new film.

Even before starting work, I had many unusual ideas, but even then I realized that the most important roles in the film "The Human Voice" would be played by the text and the actress. It was not easy for me to adapt the text, it was even more difficult to find an actress who would convey my words sincerely and emotionally. My version turned out to be more abstract than Cocteau's play, in which everything is recognizable and naturalistic. The more difficult it is for the actress to play this role. The heroine is surrounded by chimeras, she has practically no real support. Her voice is the only unbreakable thread leading the viewer into the darkness of the plot, preventing them from falling into the abyss. Never before have I so desperately needed a truly genius actress. Fortunately, everything I could only dream of, I found in Tilda Swinton.

The Human Voice was my film debut in English. The picture turned out to be extremely idyllic, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to shoot a movie in English again. The only thing I'm sure of is that I can work with Tilda Swinton in her native language. In our short film, she reigns supreme from beginning to end, revealing herself from the most unusual side.

The film crew, with bated breath, watched her lines and movements. Her intelligence and tenacity helped me a lot in my work. Especially in addition to her limitless talent and almost blind faith in me. It seems that all directors dream of such an actress. This kind of work is very encouraging.

The lighting was again in charge of Luis Alcaine, the last great maestro of light to work in Spanish cinema. He worked in the camera crew on the filming of Victor's masterpiece Erise Yug. Thanks to him, the set lit up with all the colors that I love so much. Alkaine and I are already working on the ninth film, so he knows very well what colors and in what saturation I like. Nostalgic for Technicolor.

Editing was done by Teresa Font, who previously edited the film Pain and Glory. She approached work with her characteristic enthusiasm and efficiency. Juan Gatti took over the design of the credits and advertising poster. The filming was directed by my family company El Deseo. I hope viewers will enjoy the film as much as we enjoyed working on it."