Pedro Almodóvar breaks the records at the Venice Film Festival

His latest film, The Room Next Door, received a 17-minute standing ovation – the longest of this 2024 edition.

The last time the Spanish filmmaker appeared at the Venice Film Festivalit was in 2021 for Parallel mothers. Three years later, Pedro Almodovar makes a triumphant return with The Room Next Door – his first feature film in English. Armed with his two muses, Julianne Moore And Tilda Swinton – with whom he has already been able to work on the short film The Human Voice – the director first walked across the red carpet, cheered from all sides, signing autographs, then returning with Alessandro Nivola And Alvise Rigoalso in the cast.

Inspired by the novel by Sigrid Nunez, What is your torment?, The Room Next Door immerses the audience in the friendship between two women, Martha (Tilda Swinton), a war reporter, and Ingrid (Julianne Moore), a novelist. While the former is suffering from terminal cancer, the latter returns to her friend to live with her the last days of her life and help her leave. A story full of sensitivity that charmed the Mostra audience and earned the entire team a 17-minute standing ovation! The longest since the beginning of this 81st edition. It thus exceeds the twelve minutes granted to The Brutalist with Adrien Brody.

Applause that never stopped, to prolong the pleasure, Pedro Almodóvar went to greet his fans in the room and sign some autographs.

According to the filmmaker, The Room Next Door marks a new era. During the press conference, the latter returned to one of the most present themes in his film: death – and more precisely the choice of euthanasia – evoked by the character played by Tilda Swinton:

“The film is in favor of euthanasia. The possibility of euthanasia should exist everywhere in the world. It should be legalized and doctors should be allowed to help their patients.”

While in France, this practice is subject to debate and is not authorized by law, in Spain, it has been legalized since 2021. For the actress concerned by this issue, the film depicts the desire to decide for oneself about one’s life and death.

Beyond this reflection, Julianne Moore, for her part, preferred to highlight and thank the filmmaker for having staged a friendship through elderly female characters – a rather rare species in cinema:

“I don’t know any other director in the world who can do that, except Pedro.”

The Room Next Door will be released in theaters on December 20.