Spanish director Pedro Almodovar arrives at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday with his short film strange way of lifePushing the boundaries for LGBT representation in Western style.
Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal star as a sheriff and rancher with a romantic history who reunite after a 25-year hiatus. While it’s clear that their passion is still alive, circumstances seem to be conspiring against the reunion.
Check out the trailer here.
Almodovar and Hawks took the stage for an exclusive conversation after the Out of Competition world premiere in Cannes on Wednesday.
The director said that the premise of the film came from a question from Ang Lee Human Error – ‘What would two men working in a field do?’ — but added that his short film bears no other similarities to the 2005 feature.
“I wanted to make a classic Western in which we talk about desire between two cowboys. Normally in classic Westerns, women’s roles are always secondary and we never talk about desire between two men. Let’s not talk. That’s what I wanted to do,” he said.
questioned whether he believed strange way of life To be the first “truly queer Western” in which a gay male is confronted with desire, Almodovar agreed, pointing to a long intimate discussion between the two characters after an “orgasmic night”.
“In Jane Campion dog power, His sexuality is very bisexual. They never talk about desire and of course, they never talk nonsense,” he said, alluding to the relationship between Benedict Cumberbatch and Kodi Smit-McPhee’s characters in the film.
He also suggested that the household details in the film set it apart.
“I think this is the first time in the history of a Western where you see two men making a bed,” he said, referring to a scene the morning after the men’s night of passion.
“It’s a very important scene because for Jake’s (Hawk) character, making the bed is a way of erasing the previous night, while for Silva (Pascal), it’s the opposite. Throughout the scene, what he does in bed Happened, talks about it.
Almodovar also discussed the revival of the Western genre.
“It’s interesting, 10 years ago, people were saying the Western is dead but in the last five years we’ve seen Driver by Chloe Zhao, dog power And first cow by Kelly Richard. Curiously, they were a new way of looking at the genre and all three are by female filmmakers.
“there is also yellowstoneBut to me, the series is very traditional in a bad way,” he said.
Hawke said he jumped at the chance to work with Almodovar.
“When I received the script and the invitation to participate, I went for a walk and thought that whatever I’ve done in my life would be right to receive this email. I was so grateful,” he said to thunderous applause. .
“A lot of contemporary Westerns think they’re copying old movies and to have the chance to work with Almodovar, everything he’s done in his life, he has an original voice with the camera, Which is an original story to tell. All of his stories are so deeply human.
When asked whether he thinks the male characters will stay together, Hawke replied, “We disagree about that. I think they’re going to stay together.”
Disagreeing, Almodovar pitched a longer imaginative sequel, in which the characters were torn apart by circumstances and ended up differently in Mexico in hot pursuit of a criminal at the center of the story.
There, a final three-way gun showdown would seal the fate of the relationship, although the filmmakers said they had not decided in which direction.
He said, “It will happen after two hours…I don’t know whether they will be together or not, but they will be free from this nightmare.” “I should probably make it up.