Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary cinema. His films are complex social dramas with a focus on daring sexuality. His career began with short films in the 1970s, and includes more than 40 films, most of them set in Madrid.

What seems important about his films is that they delve into the psychology of the ordinary people of Spain. A notable example of this is when Almodóvar made Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1988. The film was well received by audience and critics and it won the Best Screenplay Award. He has over 170 awards from different, prestigious film festivals and institutions from all over the world.  

His latest film The Room Next Door, the first film to be shot in English, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last September. It was one of the masterpieces the last El Gouna Film Festival managed to include in its programme. The film was screened in the official selection out of competition.

The Room Next Door opens with a famous writer, Ingrid (Julianne Moore), signing her new book. One of her readers informs her that her former best friend Martha (Tilda Swinton) is suffering from very aggressive cancer. The two women were extremely close but are no longer regularly in touch.

Martha’s illness is the milestone of the drama, providing a simple and gradual arc in the relationship between the two women. First, Ingrid visits Martha several times at the hospital where she is undergoing experimental treatment. Very little happens in terms of action.

Almodóvar, who is also the screenwriter, uses storytelling to make up for the lack of drama in this part. In this way we find out about Martha’s history as a war correspondent. This flashback also completes the circle of the character who has faced death in a range of different ways, and is now facing another type of life threat from within herself.

Some of the audience were disappointed with the slowness of the middle part of the film, especially that most of Almodóvar’s past films feature a lot of melodrama, but the artistic challenge is that he astutely creates a gripping atmosphere without the need for dramatic action or development.

The turning point occurs when Martha decides she can’t endure another course of experimental treatment, she has suffered enough. Martha reveals to Ingrid that she will not wait for the final stages of her disease, so she buys a pill to end her life from the dark web. All she needs is for Ingrid to be in the room next door. She rented a house in Woodstock just to enjoy her last few days. (It is unclear whether the choice of Woodstock is referential, a nod to the freedom symbolised by the famous 1969 concert.)

Although Martha’s decision sounds terrible to Ingrid, she seems to understand the whole situation. In one scene the two ladies’ dialogue reveals that in the past Ingrid was involved in a relationship with Martha’s ex-boyfriend Demian (John Turturro), though the film doesn’t say whether it was then that they drifted apart. When Martha tells Ingrid she will leave her room door open if she takes the pill just to prepare her for what will happen. This makes Martha seek support from Demian. It is an important detail because the US legal system doesn’t permit euthanasia.  

Almodóvar uses boldly solid colours. This is a feature of most of his films. The colours add their own glow, helping to relieve the emptiness and gloom. The end of the film leaves you with the same feeling as his 2002 masterpiece Talk to Her, which won the US Academy Award for best original screenplay, the Golden Globe for best foreign language film and the BAFTA for best film not in the English language, among other awards. It is a feeling of numbness and a need to be alone just to absorb the amount of beauty you were stormed with for the past hour and 45 minutes. There is beauty in almost every scene, but what is breathtaking is the scene when Martha is in the garden of the house and she dissolves in the green of the cloth of the chaise lounge where she is lying. It is a very romantic way of showing Martha has passed.

The film benefits from powerful performances from Swinton and Moore. It can be seen as a milestone in Almodóvar’s career not only because it is his first to be set in the US and in English but also because it doesn’t depend on a dramatic arc but rather on a uniquely sensitive storytelling style filled with awareness of mortality and the complexities of human relationships.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly