‘The Room Next Door’ trailer: Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language film sets December release [Watch]
Even after a decades-long career of lauded work, Oscar-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodovar is still willing to try new things. This year, the acclaimed writer-director will release his first film entirely in the English language with “The Room Next Door.” The highly anticipated Sony Pictures Classics release – a presumed Oscar contender in several categories sight unseen – will bow at the Venice Film Festival later this month before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival. As revealed in a new trailer, “The Room Next Door” will arrive in select theaters on December 20.
According to the press release from Sony Pictures Classics, “The film follows Ingrid (Oscar winner Julianne Moore) and Martha (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton), who were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.”
In a press release provided by the New York Film Festival as it announced “The Room Next Door” as its Spotlight Gala screening, the film was described as follows: “Ingrid (Julianne Moore), a best-selling writer, rekindles her relationship with her friend Martha (Tilda Swinton), a war journalist with whom she has lost touch for a number of years. The two women immerse themselves in their pasts, sharing memories, anecdotes, art, movies—yet Martha has a request that will test their newly strengthened bond. Pedro Almodóvar’s finely sculpted drama, his first English-language feature, is the unmistakable work of a master filmmaker, a hushed and humane portrayal of the beauty of life and the inevitability of death, graced with incandescent performances by Moore and Swinton that tap the very essence of being. Adapting Sigrid Nunez’s treasure of a novel, What Are You Going Through, Almodóvar has exquisitely reframed his career-long fascination with the lives of women for an American vernacular, capturing Manhattan and upstate New York with enraptured affection.”
Moore, a previous Best Actress winner, will compete this year in the same category; Swinton, a previous Best Supporting Actress winner, will be among the top choices in the supporting designation. “The Room Next Door” also stars John Turturro.
Watch the teaser below.