Pedro Almodovar’s “Strange Way of Life” will debut at Cannes Film Festival
Pedro Pascal & Ethan Hawke led 'Strange Way of Life' will debut at Cannes Film Festival. The queer western short film is directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
Pedro Almodovar is defined by many as a visionary director. Bringing us films like “Parallel Mothers” and “Volver”, Almodóvar has constantly pushed the envelope of filmmaking with his work. Now he's doing that with his latest short film, “Strange Way of Life”. The western, which has been compared to “Brokeback Mountain” because of Almodóvar's own comments on the film, will centre a love story between two men.
Starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, very little of the film has been revealed beyond the fact that it is a love story and that it is a western, which is by design. In a new podcast with Dua Lipa, Almodóvar sat down with the singer to talk about a great many things and share his love for her work. However, Almodóvar was also asked by the singer about his upcoming film and what he could tell her. And while it wasn't a lot, we still got some insight into the movie, including when it will premiere. Almodóvar stated that the film will be heading to Cannes and so that's the first time audiences can take in “Strange Way of Life” on screen.
On the podcast ‘Dua Lipa: At Your Service’, Almodóvar revealed that the film will open at the Cannes Film Festival. "He's not allowed to say a lot about the western but he's going to say something because you are Dua Lipa and he loves you," his translator said prior to Almodóvar taking over the conversation in English:
"The title is ‘Strange Way of Life’. It will release in May, it will open in the Cannes Film Festival and then we have to wait until that moment. But of course, it's a Western, it's about masculinity, but I don't want to classify it. I don't know exactly what the people are going to say about the Western. This is a queer western in the sense that there are two men, who love each other, and they behave in that situation in an opposite way. It's about masculinity in that deep sense."
Taking back the conversation, his translator said:
"So what I can tell you about the film is that it has a lot of elements of the western, it has gunslingers, it has the ranch, it has the sheriff. It has the town, it has the showdown, but what it has that most westerns don't usually have, is the kind of dialogue that I don't think a western film has ever captured between two men."
The segment ends with Almodóvar saying that he was giving too much away.
With that, we now know “Strange Way of Life” is premiering at Cannes Film Festival, and we'll soon get to see a queer love story at the centre of a western, and to Almodóvar, the dialogue is what sets this short film apart.
