Film & TV / NewsFilm & TV / NewsPedro Almodóvar is directing a short film starring Tilda Swinton and a dogThe English-language short is an adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s play The Human VoiceShareLink copied ✔️February 11, 2020February 11, 2020TextGünseli Yalcinkaya After his Oscar nominated film Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodóvar has announced that he’s making a short film starring only Tilda Swinton and a dog. The English-language short film, which is due for release in April, is an adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s one-act play The Human Voice about a woman on the phone with her lover, who is set to marry another woman the next day. Almodóvar previously used this text as the starting point for his 1988 classic Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which features a phone call in which a woman attempts to convince her partner not to leave her. “You need that feeling that someone understands you completely,” he said on casting Swinton. “In the case of Tilda, it was exactly how I dreamed of her. She’s so open, so intelligent. She gave me a lot of confidence with the logic. In the rehearsal, we understood each other very closely.” The film comes ahead of Almodóvar’s English-language feature debut, an adaptation of Lucia Berlin’s short story collection, A Manual for Cleaning Women. The director will focus on five of the book’s 43 stories, taking place in Texas, Oakland, and Mexico, with a mix of English and Spanish. Swinton is currently part of a public appeal to save the late British filmmaker, artist, and activist Derek Jarman’s iconic house in Kent. A fundraiser by the charity Art Fund asks supporters to “protect Derek Jarman’s legacy, and inspire creativity in generations to come” by raising £3.5 million to stop the filmmaker’s home from being sold privately. In the meantime, watch the trailer for Pain and Glory below. Escape the algorithm! Get The DropEmail address SIGN UP Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday. Privacy policy Thank you. You have been subscribed Privacy policy Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.READ MORE7 generation-defining moments from Girls Euphoria season 3 is a celebration of female degradation Nike Airmaxxing with singer-songwriter Simone RuthThis iPhone-shot doc exposes the ugliness of authoritarianism7 things to watch from trans film festival TITE10 films we’re excited to see at Cannes Film Festival 2026Exit8: A must-see Japanese horror about an endless commute ‘It’s just the aesthetic’: The Drama and the allure of violent subculturesWhat went down at our 25th anniversary screening of AmélieHow Daniel Blumberg turned water, wind and silence into a film scoreDazed x MUBI Cinema Club’s season finale: Father Mother Sister Brother6LILITH6: Inside the witchy femme mall cult of Forbidden FruitsEscape the algorithm! Get The DropEmail address SIGN UP Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday. Privacy policy Thank you. You have been subscribed Privacy policy