The Human Voice

director and screenwriter – Pedro Almodovar

The Human Voice

Spain, 2020, 30 min

director and screenwriter – Pedro Almodovar

based on the play “La Voix humaine” by Jean Cocteau

producers – Agustin Almodovar and Esther Garcia

camera – Jose Luis Alcaine

editor – Teresa Moneo

music – Alberto Iglesias

production designer – Antxon Gomez

costume designer – Sonia Grande

An EL DESEO production

intl. sales – FILMNATION

BG distributor – PRO FILMS

with:

Tilda Swinton

A woman watches time passing next to the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up, but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn’t understand that his master has abandoned him. Two living beings facing abandonment.

During the three days of waiting, the woman only goes out to the street once, to buy an axe and a can of gasoline. The woman goes through all sorts of moods, from helplessness to despair and loss of control. She makes herself up, she dresses up as if going to a party, she considers throwing herself off of the balcony, until her ex-lover calls on the phone, but she’s unconscious because she’s taken a combination of thirteen pills and cannot answer the call. The dog licks her face until she wakes up. After a cold shower, revived by a coffee as black as her state of mind, the telephone rings again and this time she can answer. The human voice is hers, we never hear the voice of her lover. At first she pretends to act normal and calm, but she is always on the verge of exploding in the face of the man’s hypocrisy and meanness. 

The Human Voice is a moral lesson about desire, even though its protagonist is on the verge of the very same abyss. Risk is an essential part of the adventure of living and loving. Pain is very present in the monologue. As I said at first, it is about the disorientation and distress of two living beings who grieve their master.

Pedro Almodovar