Tilda! Julianne!: Everything We Know About Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door

Not every director understands the power and allure of a silver screen diva quite like Pedro Almodóvar. After shooting two short films in English as a warm-up, Almodóvar is ready to make his feature-length English debut at the age of 74, following a career of making films only in Spanish. And there’s no shortage of legendary actresses ready to work with him. The project, titled The Room Next Door, boasts Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as its leading ladies and is set for an appropriately glamorous premiere at this year’s Venice International Film Festival before an America release on December 20th.

Is there a trailer for The Room Next Door?

The first teaser trailer for the film was released on August 20th. While it’s light on plot (the only thing close to dialogue we hear is a pained scream), it’s heavy on Almodóvar’s signature aesthetics: colorful clothes, interiors that split the difference between chic and kitsch, and penetrating facial close-ups. Film buffs, will of course, easily spot the homage to Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (or is it more an homage to David Lynch’s own Persona homage in Mulholland Drive?)

Though Swinton sports her signature blonde coif throughout most of the film, at one point she appears in a wig quite similar to Moore’s auburn locks, perhaps tipping us off a bit more to the plot.

What is The Room Next Door about?

Almodóvar’s works are often difficult to sum up in a zippy log line; there are plot twists, melodrama, and often some campy detours. That said, The Room Next Door centers on former war correspondent Martha (Swinton) and auto-fiction novelist Ingrid (Moore). The two old friends, who met while working in their twenties at Paper magazine, are reunited under more somber circumstances: Swinton is dying of a terminal illness and enlists Ingrid’s help in ending her life on her own terms.

“The film talks about the unlimited cruelty of wars, the two different ways these two writers have of approaching and writing about reality, also about death, and how friendship and sexual pleasure can be the best allies to deal with horror,” Almodóvar said in a statement. “It also talks about the pleasure of waking up to birds bringing a new day at a house built on a natural reserve in New England, where the two friends live an extraordinary and awkwardly sweet situation.”

Who’s in the cast of The Room Next Door?

As noted, Swinton, who previously collaborated with Almodóvar on the short film The Human Voice, plays journalist Martha, while Moore plays novelist Ingrid. John Turturro and Alessandro Nivola are also in the film.

Notably, none of Almódovar’s regular Spanish-language collaborators are involved. Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are the director’s two most famous frequent collaborators, but his cavalcade of regulars also includes Carmen Maura, Cecilia Roth, Julieta Serrano, and, most iconically, Rossy de Palma.

Is Dua Lipa in the film?

Dua Lipa, a woman of exquisite taste, loves Almodóvar and has hosted him on her podcast. Almodóvar loves her in return. There have been persistent but unconfirmed rumors that Lipa may feature in an upcoming Almodóvar project. Alas despite some early rumors and reports of Lipa visiting the set, she does not appear in The Room Next Door.

When is The Room Next Door release date?

The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, winning the Golden Lion (the festival’s highest prize). It’ll have a limited theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles on December 20, 2024, before opening nationwide in January of next year.