Everything We Know About Pedro Almodóvar’s STRANGE WAY OF LIFE

Strange Way of Life is about a man who rides a horse across the desert from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier both the Sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen. Silva comes to visit him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not the memory of their old friendship.

This is the story of Strange Way of Life, written and directed by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar and starring Ethan Hawke as Jake and Pedro Pascal as Silva. It will be released at the Cannes Film Festival this May where it will be part of the Official Selection, but out of competition.

Strange Way of Life – a famous Portuguese song

The title of the 30-minute film alludes to the famous fado (a Portuguese folk song) by Amalia Rodrigues, Portuguese singer, and fadista, whose lyrics suggest that “there is no stranger existence than the one that is lived by turning your back on your own desires”. Almodóvar has revealed that the film is about how the two main characters treat each other as enemies to hide their mutual attraction.

Almodóvar always wanted to work in English. Actually, he had planned to film with Cate Blanchett on a movie based on the book A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. However, he finally decided not to direct it because he found it really complicated to shoot a long film completely in English. He directed and wrote a short film starring Tilda Swinton: The Human Voice, a free adaptation of Jean Cocteau‘s theatrical monologue of the same name.

A Tribute to Spaghetti Westerns

Last August, we finally managed to see some pictures of the film, published by his brother and producer of many of his films, Agustín Almodóvar. The filmmaker from La Mancha was seen with the actors in Almería, filming on the sets of spaghetti western’s classics. This subgenre emerged in the mid-1960s as a result of Sergio Leone‘s cinematographic style. The director considered the province of Almeria, and more specifically the Tabernas desert, the perfect shooting location for his films.

At the Venice Film Festival, Almodóvar said that he wrote the script during the pandemic and that he wanted to shoot “in the same places where Sergio Leone filmed his spaghetti westerns”. Actually, he filmed in the same village built fifty years ago by Sergio Leone, precisely where he filmed his Dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood. The Spanish filmmaker has always been in love with Almería.

The Spanish Brokeback Mountain

Some film magazines have stated that it is his “answer to Brokeback Mountain“. Actually, Almodóvar turned this project down in the past and it was eventually directed by Ang Lee. Almodóvar considers his film a “queer western”. He wanted to put a twist on a genre that is usually 100% male and heterosexual. Strange Way of Life would fulfill all the clichés of the genre, with gunslingers, ranches, and a sheriff, but with a completely different angle.

Alberto Iglesias is again in charge of the music. He has previously worked with Almodóvar in many of his films (Talk to Her, Volver, among others). Anthony Vaccarello is in charge of the costume design, in addition to being an associate producer of the project. Now we just have to wait for the film to come out in theaters after its release at the Cannes Film Festival. Personally, I can’t wait since I’m a huge Almodóvar, Hawke, and Pascal fan!

After its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it will be part of the Official Selection, Strange Way of Life will be released in Spanish theaters on May 26th through BTeam. It has no release date in US cinemas just yet.