Pedro Almodóvar meditates on death in first English feature ‘The Room Next Door’

Olivia Hampton | December 19, 2024

Pedro Almodóvar, the Spanish director known for brightly colored films filled with melodramatic plot twists, has unveiled his first English-language feature film. The Room Next Door dives into the inevitability of death and its inextricable ties to life.

“I don’t believe in God… I don’t accept death,” the 75-year-old director told NPR’s A Martínez. His unease is shared with Ingrid, played by Julianne Moore. Her long-lost friend Martha (Tilda Swinton) has a failed cancer treatment and asks Ingrid to accompany her during her last days in upstate New York.

“As Julianne said at the beginning of the movie, it’s unnatural that something that is alive should die,” Almodóvar added. He wrote the script, which was adapted from part of Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through (2020).

Every morning, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) looks up the staircase at her friend Martha's door. If it's closed, Martha has said that means she has taken a lethal pill and is now dead. — Every morning, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) looks up the staircase at her friend Martha’s door. If it’s closed, Martha has said that means she has taken a lethal pill and is now dead. (Iglesias Más | © El Deseo. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

The film received the top prize (Golden Lion) at the Venice Film Festival. While it was snubbed for the best picture race in Spain’s Goya Awards, the director and his two leads all got individual nods. Swinton was also nominated as best actress for the Golden Globes.

Almodóvar says he chose to shoot The Room Next Door in English simply because the story called for it. Martha wants to die on her own terms, painlessly and peacefully, by ingesting a euthanasia pill she purchased on the dark web.

Euthanasia is legal in Spain. But it’s still banned in the United States, although some jurisdictions like Washington, D.C. and Oregon allow assisted suicide.

“If I am terribly sick, if life doesn’t offer me anything but pain, then I want to be the owner of my death,” Almodóvar said. “And I think this is a human right that we all have.”

Almodóvar's idiosyncrasies fill The Room Next Door, including his use of saturated colors. Red, the color of blood flowing through arteries, is especially prevalent throughout this film. — Almodóvar’s idiosyncrasies fill *The Room Next Door*, including his use of saturated colors. Red, the color of blood flowing through arteries, is especially prevalent throughout this film. (Iglesias Más | © El Deseo. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

Parallel to Martha’s path toward death is Ingrid’s transformation in overcoming her own anxiety over the ethical and legal dilemma of helping Martha end her life.

In the stylish home in the woods where Martha spends her final days, there are three characters — the two women and death itself, the director explains. “Ingrid learns in that kind of sweet, apocalyptic moment how to appreciate the small things in life. She learns to appreciate nature: snow falling, dawn rising, the chirping of the birds.”

James Joyce’s short story The Dead is quoted, while pink snow falls on the scenery: “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”

It’s not all doom and gloom — there are moments of lightness and many of reflection. Almodóvar had initially scripted a lot more dark, wry humor, saying Swinton was up for it but Moore “was a little less so because she was afraid that it might offend people.”

L to R: Tilda Swinton, director Pedro Almodóvar and Julianne Moore appear on the set of The Room Next Door — L to R: Tilda Swinton, director Pedro Almodóvar and Julianne Moore appear on the set of *The Room Next Door* (Iglesias Más. © El Deseo. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

Almodóvar has his own ways of processing the fragility of life — by creating. “Pleasure for me is a way of running away from death, by writing and making movies,” he said.

In Pain and Glory (2019), the mother of a writer-director (Antonio Banderas) gives specific directions about how she wants to be dressed and made up after she dies. Almodóvar, who infuses his films with parts of his own life, says he had the same experience with his own mother.

The plot of this story may have called for it, but the decision to shoot his 23rd feature film in English was not an easy one for Almodóvar, who apologized for his “very bad” English in the interview and at times spoke through an interpreter.

He tested the waters first with two 30-minute shorts in English, Strange Way of Life and The Human Voice (the latter features Swinton). The experience, he said, “was like doing my first movie. I was very excited.”

Director Pedro Almodóvar operates a camera on the set of The Room Next Door — Director Pedro Almodóvar operates a camera on the set of *The Room Next Door* (Iglesias Más. © El Deseo. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

Almodóvar then had planned to direct a feature with Cate Blanchett based on Lucia Berlin’s collection of short stories A Manual for Cleaning Women. But the travel required for the monumental project proved too daunting for Almodóvar, who had back pain after surgery, and he pulled out.

Creating The Room Next Door, which was largely shot in Madrid, has left Almodóvar “much more open to make a movie in English than before.” While it would depend on the story at play, “I discovered that I could understand the actors and the actors also understood me.”

The broadcast version of this story was produced by Barry Gordemer. The digital version was edited by Majd al-Waheidi.