La voz humana

Jean Cocteau's play La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice) opened at the Comédie Française in 1930 as a atar vehicle for Belgian actress Berthe Bovy, then popular in Parisian stages. The work involves a woman, only identified as Elle = She, speaking on the telephone with his lover of several years, who is leaving her.for another woman. Her interlocutor is silent for the duration and we don't even know for sure if he is listening or if the connection has been broken.

The play had an enduring popularity, and has been since in the repertory of many theater companies. It was put on screen several times, among them by Roberto Rossellini (first episode of L'Amore 1946: actress Anna Magnani) and by Ted Kotcheff (1966: actress Ingrid Bergman). It even had a second life as an opera by Francis Poulenc in 1958, which has been as well accepted as the play and is still being staged and recorded.

This being the Almodóvar version, we may expect some off the wall happenings. One is a very funny scene where the protagonist browses for axes in a hardware store that seems to have an unusually large inventory of the item. On another, the axe in question is used in a hilarious way. We are shown mid-movie that She's apartment is actually a set in a sound stage which is perhaps a gentle dig at he artificiality of the play. And, last but not least, we have the director's trademark, cinematography in gloriously saturated colors. Tilda Swinton does an outstanding job as She; she tones down the melodrama and borders on the humorous at times. All in all, a refreshing take on the play and the best version I have seen.

When long ago I saw Rossellini's version of this play by Cocteau with an audience of students the most memorable moment came when Anna Magnani finally put down the phone, promptly picked it up and started dialling again and everyone in the cinema groaned en masse.

The play has yet to be filmed in French, in Pedro Almodovar's first film in English this time it has brevity on it's side and it's Tilda Swinton's turn to be the woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The original was in black & white but in true Almodovar style Swinton uses an earphone that makes the proceedings seem more like an interior monologue as she prowls about cigarette in hand dressed in chic little outfits in bright pastel colours complemented by the decor and even the pills that she pops.

A mature woman (Tilda Swinton) watches 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. The woman at first speaks calmly, but once the conversation goes on, things get worse, and anger and a certain hysteria emerge from her mouth. We watch two living beings facing abandonment.

Almodóvar presents his first film entirely in English, a 30-minute short film with the absolute leading role of the great Tilda and dealing with heartbreak as a backdrop, a torn monologue based on Cocteau's play, in which the author Frances showed the sadness, the rage, the helplessness, the helplessness and a thousand other emotions of a love breakup. In which the long-time British actress shows a whole catalog of feelings through a telephone conversation in which the other party cannot be heard. This prestigious British actress of androgynous beauty has a notorious career. She has played both women and men. She doesn't always play women; she has played Mozart on stage, an Elizabethan nobleman in Orlando (1992) and an androgynous angel, Gabriel, in Constantine (2005). Tilda Swinton is a frequent collaborator of Luca Guadagnino with whom she has worked in five productions: The Protagonists (1999), Tilda Swinton: The Love Factory (2002), Io sono l'amore (2009), A bigger splash (2015) and Suspiria (2018), together they also created the concept of the short film Here (2012).

Also worth highlighting is the excellent work of two of Almodovar's regular collaborators: cameraman José Luis Alcaine in the photography and the Oscarized composer Alberto Iglesias in music. Being a project produced by Pedro Almodovar himself y his brother Agustin Almodovar, the latter has a bit role as a shopkeeper. Later on, Pedro would make a second short film in English: Extraña forma de vida (Strange Way of Life) with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. Previously Pedro Almodóvar had directed successful films, some of them Oscar-winning, among which the following can be highlighted: Dolor y gloria, La piel que habito, Hable con ella, Carne trémula, Tacones lejanos, Átame, La Flor de mi secreto, Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, La Ley del Deseo.

While Swintons performance is a great showcase for her range and understanding of this character - The Human Voice can feel a bit to self indulgent and overly sarcastic. Almodovars direction shines in the moments where Swinton dominates the screen but falters when trying to build a world around her that would support the feeling of the emotional turmoil she is in.

The dog is identified in the film credits at the end, but oddly not here - his name is Dash. And he does a great job.