Pedro Pascal, the Chilean-American actor and internet daddy, will be making his next appearance after HBO The last of us and season 3 of The Mandalorian in a very different but still delicious project. Pascal stars alongside Ethan Hawke in a queer western short written and directed by Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar, which will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month.
Strange way of life follows a rancher (Pascal) who visits his old friend Sheriff Jake (Hawke); 25 years earlier, the duo had worked together as hit men. But the couple’s reunion seems to unearth a passionate secret.
“The strange way of life mentioned in the title alludes to the famous fado [mournful Portuguese song] by Amalia Rodrigues, whose lyrics suggest that there is no existence more alien than that lived by turning your back on your own desires,” says Almodóvar in press materials for the film.
The themes of the short are also pretty clear in the trailer: in one shot, Hawke approaches to kiss Pascal’s neck, and in another shot, Pascal says offscreen, “Years ago you asked me what two men could do living together on a ranch. I’ll answer you now.”
The Western genre is new to Almodóvar, although he’s always been heavily influenced by old Hollywood melodramas, which seems to be the mode of this new film. According to the trailer, he was also shot in his distinctive style with flashy costumes and set decoration, classic shot composition, and performances of controlled passion.
Strange way of life is only Almodóvar’s second work in English, following the short film starring Tilda Swinton in 2020 The Human Voice. The director of Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown And All about my mother, known for his extravagant farces and dramas, was being courted by Hollywood in the late 1980s, but the great director Billy Wilder warned him against it and he dedicated his life to filmmaking in Europe instead. (Strange way of life was filmed in Europe by Almodóvar’s own production company, El Deseo.)
So why English now and why a short film? The hint is this Strange way of life was co-produced by fashion label Saint Laurent, whose chief designer Anthony Vaccarello designed the costumes. The worlds of high fashion and art-house cinema love to mix, and Saint Laurent has funded this kind of mix of authorial delight and long-form advertising before. For directors, it’s an easy way to get funding to do something different, to bring it to the festivals.
The problem is that short films aren’t always easy to watch, but Almodóvar’s fame made sure of that The Human Voice eventually made it to streaming on Mubi. It would not be a surprise to see Strange way of life land there too, or something like that.
