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An exs stuffed suitcase stands ominously by the door, much like the one that once plagued Pepa.
Apparently, people like my pallor, my mixture of madness and melancholy.
Almodovar and Swinton were planning to film the short right before lockdown began last year.
I love your sweater.
Oh, thank you.
Miuccia is very generous with me.
Where am I reaching you, at home?
I am at home, in the same place where I wrote the last eight movies that I did.
What about this space inspires you?
Its the most comfortable.
Im Spanish; Im accustomed to the sun.
I need natural light.
Here is always the best place to receive the light of the day.
Writing is more rewriting, at least in my case.
Thats good to know, as a writer.
I lovedThe Human Voice.
When did you start thinking about doing this adaptation?
A woman abandoned, crazy, desperate, with the baggage of him, just waiting for his call.
That was how I started.
It became something very different,Women on the Verge.
It became a screwball comedy, and in the end, she doesnt even have the telephone call.
The only thing that remains is the baggage Carmen Maura has, full of memories.
And she goes out onto that balcony, and its terrible, isnt it?
For me, that image is the absolute categorical picture of what solitude is.
Shes walking around the soundstage, talking, and you could see that.
So its not so much theater turnedintofilm, but an organic blend of the two of theater and cinema.
That was really so expressive of the position that this woman is in.
Shes a prisoner twice over.
Shes locked down twice over.
Shes confined to this set, which is her house.
And at the same time, we were all locked down and confined ourselves during shooting.
It was one of those coincidences that very occasionally happens.
I think the original idea became richer because of that coincidence.
I noticed a lot of things were in conversation with your past work and even your future work.
I know you reused some costumes and furniture.
Theres Lucia Berlins book.
Tilda even says the words law of desire.
Talk to me about baking in those references and why you did it that way.
The short, in this case, it was all about me.[Laughs.
]That was one of the reasons to do it.
I felt, I dont know how to say capricious?
It was not gratuitous, because I wanted, since the beginning, to do everything that I like.
And I felt so free to do it, because its a short.
A short gives you much more freedom.
I [could have] made it a feature, but I didnt want to.
I wanted it to last exactly as long [as] the script serves.
And put in everything that I love.
And yes, some of the furniture appears in other movies.
Of course I didnt dare to do that in another feature!
Because then Im afraid somebody is going to say, You used that inThe Flower of My Secret!
But in this case, I felt like a king: very free.
Not to say I didnt feel free makingPain and Glory I felt completely free.
But this was another kind of discipline.
For me, it was a kind of experiment.
I also didnt know that the movie would be released in theaters when I wrote it.
Id always dreamed of working with her.
Ive always loved her.
But basically as an artist, I really adore her.
She made it much more possible, everything that happens in front of the camera.
When I was rehearsing with her, I was frightened about the language.
My English, as you see, is not that good.
But with Tilda, it was different.
In that language, we understood each other perfectly well.
We talked about movies and many things in common.
So that was very easy for me, to be understood and for her to understand me.
Since the beginning, she had a blind faith in me.
And when that happens, that makes you feel very strong.
And much more secure.
When and why did you envision that, and all of these other incredible fashion moments?
I kept that image at the beginning, so she went to buy one.
I love the last collection of Balenciaga, so I tried many of Balenciagas clothes on her.
One was the first big, red dress it was impossible to sit down in.
I knew that the spectator wouldnt know what is happening.
But she was like an abandoned mannequin in a beautiful dress.
The title sequence is also made with all of those elements youd find at any hardware store.
Theyre so dangerous, arent they?
But theyre so plastic at the same time.
So I decided to use the tools in that initial title sequence.
Did you write those in afterward; were you thinking of her when writing?
No, that was written before.
So she had to go, and I stayed in Madrid.
So everything was written in advance.
I wasnt sure that shed be there, but I thought about a person like Tilda.
What do you mean specifically by your own desperation?
And is that why you keep returning to this play and these ideas?
Its the essence of it all.
Someone whos been a great actress and now is in her 50s.
Im familiar with that, from my own experience.
But anyway, I think this is the last time that Ill use this situation.[Laughs.]
I use it inThe Flower of My Secretand some other movies.
The three protagonists are female characters, and they will be women in trouble.
I cant see myself writing about a happy woman.
A woman with her wonderful, happy family?
If I did that, it would be a very ironic comedy.
The women in my new movie will have big problems, but theyre not abandoned by men.
The problems are others.
And whats going on with the adaptation of Lucia Berlin?
This is not the movie Im working on now.
But of course, the pandemic just cut off the possibility of traveling.
So the film is almost done, its a first draft, very close to the real script.
But with the confinement, I just wrote something that is what Im going to do now.
Something much more possible.
Something in Spanish, not in English.
Im going to start shooting in three weeks.
Lucia needs to wait until the situation will be easier, to travel to the U.S. and Mexico.
I dont have the feeling that many people have, that theyve lost a complete year.
So I could work.
It was very profitable, because I was very concentrated.
I didnt have appointments and didnt see anyone.
I was too busy at home!
And after Ill think about Lucia Berlin.
Have you read them?
Oh, I recommend them to you!Theyre so funny.
Theyre so dark.The brutality of herself and her writing, it makes the stories so vibrant.
I really recommend it to you.
Youve said that you see this movie as one of the only happy endings in your repertoire.
Because I felt a huge empathy with the character.
The words of Cocteau, theyre very precise in the pain that shes feeling.
But this is a closed cycle, that pain.
So that was the key in not making this woman so submissive, like she is in Cocteau.
It was a moral necessity for me to give her a way out.
And both of them are in the same state of mourning.
I was inspired by the dog at the last minute.
The idea that she goes out with the dog, that all came to me at that moment.
Were all alone, Im your mistress now.
Both of us are grieving and mourning the loss we had.
Because Im a writer and director, I felt the compulsion to liberate her.
Im opening up possibilities for her.
Theres hope for her.
Shes no longer stuck on this man thats left her.
What will her life be like?
