The red carpet remains the hottest spot on the Lido, where the Venice Film Festival kicked off a new week on Monday with a fresh infusion of hot actors and auteurs. Leading the pack, and turning heads tonight, were The room next door starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton with their director, Pedro Almodóvar.
The Spanish director followed his two leading ladies as the last of the trio to arrive, making a statement in a bright pink pantsuit. Moore opted for a chartreuse sequined evening gown, while Swinton pulled off another dramatic monochromatic look, this time in grey Chanel Couture.
Swinton, Almodóvar and Moore.
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
The film is an adaptation of the 2020 novel by Sigrid Nunez What are you going through?. It centers on a best-selling author named Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton) who rekindle a friendship after years apart. As they delve into their past, Martha, who is battling terminal cervical cancer, reveals her plan to die with dignity and asks Ingrid to be in the next room when she takes a euthanasia pill.
Their appearance at Monday night’s premiere followed an early exit in the afternoon for the film’s official press conference. Moore, a regular at European film festivals like Cannes, opted for a red and black ankle-length Bottega Veneta dress, while Swinton slipped into a monochromatic look of a silk shirt, jacket and trousers by Delpozo. Swinton’s custom look, created by a Spanish designer, seems an appropriate choice to promote a film by Spain’s most iconic auteur.
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore attend a photoshoot for The room next door.
Photo by Victor Boyko/Getty Images
At that press conference, Moore took time to sing Almodóvar's praises and said that the film focuses on a subject that, in her opinion, is rarely addressed on the big screen: female friendship.
“What’s so compelling about this film and the lens that Pedro puts on this relationship is that not only do we have a mother-daughter story, which we actually see a lot in literature and film, but we very rarely see a story of female friendship, and especially older female friends… I don’t know if there’s another director in the world who would do that,” she explained. “Of course, we have romantic relationships, we have familial relationships. But the importance of those cannot be overstated. I mean, they’re really, really extraordinary. And the fact that he chose to portray that relationship, to elevate it, to show us the love story that is, I think, really extraordinary, and it felt special to us as well, to me and Tilda.”
For her part, Swinton spoke a bit about her views on the end of life. “I personally have no fear of death and never have,” she explained. “I know that we stop, and the whole journey of accepting death can be a long one for some people, for some reason and with certain experiences in my life, it came quite early… One of the things that this film is a portrait of is self-determination, someone deciding to take their life, their living and their dying into their own hands.”
In his review, The Hollywood Reporter Chief film critic David Rooney calls it “a hodgepodge that ultimately works,” writing that “melodrama and theatricality” are toned down, “resulting in a very measured drama about life, death and the responsibilities of friendship that at times risks becoming a dry intellectual exercise. Without two such accomplished leading men, it's doubtful it would work.”