Page 2 March 18, 2021
Film Review
Tilda Swinton Captivates in The
Human Voice, Pedro Almodóvar’s
Deconstructed Short Film
By Ryan Rojas for cinemacy.com
At just thirty minutes long (the length of
a TV episode), Tilda Swinton commands
every second of the small screen in Pedro
Almodóvar’s beautifully staged and winkingly
meta new short film, The Human Voice.
Based “freely” off of a play by Jean Cocteau,
Almodóvar takes the concept of the
“one-woman show” from Cocteau’s play and
re-tools it to fit within the times of which he
made his film, which was during the middle
of the pandemic last year.
With Tilda Swinton as the film’s singular
character, The Human Voice (which was also
selected to play at last year’s Venice Film
Festival) is a devilishly playful bit of pop-art
filmmaking that sees the director combine his
source material’s wonderfully satiric silliness
and makes it a meta viewing experience that
comments on both film production and how
we communicate as humans.
In The Human Voice, Swinton plays an
actress unhinged, at first silent and vacant as
she sulks about her decadent and deadening
modern apartment, but then firey and alive
at the sound of her iPhone ringing, her lover
on the other end of the line.
Over the course of their on-off conversation
(of which we only hear Swinton’s side
of throughout the entirety of the film) she
switches from depressed and pilling boozer,
to desperately needy partner, to rage-filled
and scorned woman of the world all in a
moment’s time.
It’s a high task to have to create the entirety
of a world when you’re acting alone,
but if there’s anyone in Hollywood who can
do the job, it’s Ms. Swinton, whose talents
and stamina make the film captivating. What
she does so effortlessly–communicating an
entire story and relationship of a fictionalized,
passionately troubled couple–is accomplished
all by way of using a singular element:
her voice.
And she does this with gymnastic range,
pitching up her voice to harken back to
old Hollywood romantic starlets, and then
down-shifting gears into a lower register to
convey darker colors. Her voice work on
display here is as vital and deadly as any of
Almodóvar’s beautifully composed hardware
and tools that are so artfully composed within
the background.
The Human Voice does communicate a narrative
story (kind of), but just as Almodóvar
makes a point of regularly reminding us
that the apartment is in fact a set within a
soundstage, and the actor alone within it
all, the film should really be watched and
appreciated for what it is: an exercise in
filmmaking where the audience gets the rare
chance to deconstruct, study, and understand
all the parts that go into the art of filmmaking,
which feels so special to get during a
crossroads in film production when everything
was flipped on its head. Personally, I think
it’s something worth shouting for.
30 minutes. ‘The Human Voice’ is now
playing in Los Angeles at the Vineland
Drive-In Theater. •
The Human Voice, courtesy Sony Pictures Classics.
Ryan Rojas
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(BPT) - Prescription drug prices are skyrocketing.
For anyone who needs regular
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It’s definitely a continuing trend - last
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The pandemic has underscored the importance
of everyone having access to safe,
reliable and affordable medications. For those
with multiple underlying conditions, this is
even more crucial now.
The Campaign for Personal Prescription
Importation (CPPI) recommends searching
for licensed Canadian pharmacies on certified
websites. CPPI is a national nonprofit
patient advocacy organization that fights for
Americans’ access to safe, affordable prescription
medications from Canada for personal
use. On their website, PersonalImportation.
org, you can find advice and tips, plus a
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“All Americans deserve access to affordable
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online Canadian pharmacies is significant and
available to Americans right now,” says Jack
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for Personal Prescription Importation. “There
is even a bill in Congress, the Safe and
Affordable Drugs from Canada Act, which
could make these savings even easier for
Americans to come by.” •
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