STRANGE WAY OF LIFE | EXTRAÑA FORMA DE VIDA (Opening Film)

SPAIN | 2023 | COLOR | DCP | 31’ | ENGLISH

Two men sharing a common past but a diametrically opposed identity before the Law, meet again at an idyllic Wild West settlement. Their reunion brings forth the repressed passion, igniting a nostalgic return to the years of youth. But, the next morning reveals the real reason behind the reunion and a bloody confrontation seems inevitable. Unless love wins... Pedro Almodovar directs a queer pocket western for YSL fashion house, and Ethan Hawke with Pedro Pascal stand as the opposite poles of a destructive magnetism. His impossibly beautiful imagery is imbued with a campy mood and a treasure of cinematic references, all signifying the perfect (and guiltless) ‘guilty pleasure’ of the year. Th.K.

DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar
SCREENWRITER: Pedro Almodóvar
DoP: José Luis Alcaine
MUSIC: Alberto Iglesias
EDITOR: Teresa Font
PRINCIPAL CAST: Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal

The short film "Strange Way of Life" will be followed by a screening of Pedro Almodovar's film "The Law of Desire" (1987).

In a summertime Madrid, enkindled by the heat and passion of her people, a queer director, accustomed to guarding his independence from his lovers, will see his rule over his life destroyed by the coming of a paroxysmic young man. Life and art share the same fiery bed in one of the boldest, wild and (for his ardent admirers) best Almodovar films. Antonio Banderas is handsomer than ever, Karmen Maura re- minds why she held the scepter of being Almodovar’s unparalleled muse, while the entire film pulsates in a risky, animated sexual tension that was about to be sorely missed in the director’s later work.

DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar
SCREENWRITER: Pedro Almodóvar
DoP: Ángel Luis Fernández
MUSIC: Bernardo Bonezzi
EDITOR: José Salcedo
PRINCIPAL CAST: Eusebio Poncela, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas

PEDRO ALMODÓVAR
Major filmmaker of worldwide acclaim, born in Spain in 1949. Member of the culturally rejuvenating Madrilenian Movement, he started from the experimental theater. In 1974 he bought a Super-8 camera and soon delivered his first short. Two-time Oscar winner, holder of Directing and Screenwriting awards in Cannes & Venice film festivals, amidst a series of prizes in almost every major institution.

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTED)
2023 Strange Way of Life
2019 Pain & Glory
2011 The Skin I Live In
2009 Broken Embraces
2006 Volver
2004 Bad Education
2002 Talk to Her
1999 All About My Mother
1991 High Heels
1989 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1987 Law of Desire