So many proofs of love exist in friendship. Our friends can become our wedding witnesses, our children’s godparents and even our surrogate family. In his latest film, Pedro Almodfromvar pushes the limits of friendship further and depicts a “life and death” relationship between two women. The Room Next Door deals with euthanasia and especially the accompaniment of a being until their death. In theaters Wednesday, January 8.
In New York, Ingrid (played by Julianne Moore), a successful writer, crosses paths with an old acquaintance during a book signing. This woman tells him about the incurable cancer of a mutual friend, Martha (played by Tilda Swinton), long lost sight of. Condemned by illness, Martha finds Ingrid and makes a desperate request.
With The Room Next DoorPedro Almodfromvar adds a new theme to the range of social subjects he deals with in his films. The issue of euthanasia seems dear to the director whose concerns evolve with age; in this feature film he makes a vibrant plea for the right to die with dignity. Through the story of Martha, cancer sufferer and former war reporter, Almodfromvar makes a striking parallel: like war, illness is a fight that condemns its survivors to live between life and death. Ingrid, witness to the suffering of her friend, confides: “The heart says no with every beat.”
The issue of assisted suicide has been at the heart of public debate in recent years, in many countries facing the problem of aging populations and long-term incurable illnesses. Pedro Almodfromvar depicts a grayish New York into which bright colors slip. A discreet reminder, but present throughout the film, of his native Spain. The country legalized euthanasia four years ago, but the director questions the relationship of Spanish Catholic society to assisted suicide. It offers a sensitive reading of this controversial act, still under debate in France.
To succeed in this bet, Almodóvar does not deviate from his habits and brings to the screen a duo of spectacular women. The Room Next Doorit is above all a platonic couple, no less close-knit, played by Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. The only male character, shared ex-lover of the two women, is kept at a distance from this female closed door. When they leave New York for a modern villa isolated from the outside world, Pedro Almodfromvar presents the illness in feminine aspects without ever falling into melodrama.
During the film, another platonic couple is mentioned, that formed by the artist Dora Carrington and the writer Lytton Strachey, the latter died in 1932 from stomach cancer, some time later Dora committed suicide. Almodfromvar reserves a different fate for its two heroines, it allows Martha to regain power over her destiny, by deciding the day and place of her death.
-As if suspended in time and space, the two women experience a special moment which helps Martha to welcome death, but above all to transmit this quiet strength to Ingrid destined to survive her. As Pedro Almod sums it up wellfromvar itself: “Fiction makes reality more bearable.” And that’s what he does with this film, a declaration of love for life that should never be reduced to survival.
Genre : Drama
Director: Pedro Almodfromour
Actors:Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro
Pays : Spain
Duration : 1h47
Sortie : January 8, 2025
Synopsis : Ingrid and Martha, long-time friends, began their careers at the same magazine. When Ingrid becomes a successful novelist and Martha a war reporter, their paths diverge. But years later, their paths cross again in disturbing circumstances.
