TO LOVE SOMEBODY // A FILM REVIEW OF "THE HUMAN VOICE"
What's so extraordinary about the new short film THE HUMAN VOICE (premiering at this year's Venice and NYFF) is how simple it is. Or at least, how simple it appears to be. This is, after all, Pedro Almodóvar's new film, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. It's also Almodóvar's first English language film but don't think any of his usual weirdness and wonder is missing. It's all there, from the candy colored palette to the luscious score. Best of all, it stars a dynamic Tilda Swinton and ONLY Tilda Swinton. Although there's a few people in a store scene, this is a one-woman firestorm named Tilda and it works out wonderfully.
Based loosely off of Jean Cocteau's play "The Human Voice," which his 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios) also took inspiration from, we begin with Tilda in a shop, purchasing...a hatchet? Indeed it's a hatchet and she seems intent on using it. The storekeeper packages it up for her and she and her pint size dog are on their way. The rest of the film takes place in her apartment, as she has a very stressful phone call with her lover, who has decided to leave after four years. This apartment, a visual that's perfectly Almodóvar, seems bordering on what's real and what's not. There's bright splashes of color. Meticulous set design. But a set design it is indeed, as the camera slowly backs away to reveal just that. The camera allows us to see the breaks in reality: there is no ceiling, no outside other than a bare and concrete studio set. Because this home is a set. Or is it? That's the beauty of Almodóvar: it can be both. Seeing that it's a set brings you "behind the scenes" or allows you to believe this is indeed fiction.
Each time we head back to Swinton, we are reminded of the gravitas of her situation and the powerful performance she gives anchors you into your seat, thrilling you like few phone calls outside of your own life can. Is the hatchet for him? For her? Will she use it more than once? What is in store once this phone call is over? I won't spoil it here, but the build to it is marvelous, as is the splashy ending. Though only 30 minutes long, the dynamic duo of Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton in THE HUMAN VOICE is a beautiful match indeed. They perfectly complement each other, almost urging the universe to set up another pairing, a longer pairing. Which, I'm sure it will.
GRADE: A
BASED ON THE PLAY BY Jean Cocteau SCREENPLAY & DIRECTED BY Pedro Almodóvar STARRING Tilda Swinton. Featured as part of the 2020 New York Film Festival. For more info: https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/the-human-voice/