Review | 'The Human Voice': Exquisitely performed by Tilda Swinton, the film's themes and emotions resonate even more sharply in these uncertain times

The only voice we hear in the film is 60-year-old Swinton’s.

In the stunning opening credits of his first English-language film The Human Voice, Pedro Almódovar declares that his short is “freely based” on Jean Cocteau’s play (a monodrama of the same name) which was first performed in 1930.

In trademark Almódovar style, the 30-minute drama, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, is vividly coloured and exquisitely performed by Tilda Swinton who plays a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Although this film is neither a sequel nor prequel or directly connected to the Spanish writer-director’s Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), Cocteau’s play is said to have inspired both this 1988 Academy Award-nominated black comedy film as well as Almódovar’s 1987 comedy Law of Desire.

In an interview to The Guardian newspaper, Almódovar said that he decided to do an update of Cocteau’s story because he felt the main character in Women on the Verge… “was too submissive”. He said, “I felt a modern-day woman wouldn’t be able to identify with that behaviour. It just doesn’t happen now, does it? What I tried was to give Tilda’s character more autonomy. I even changed the ending so it becomes more an act of revenge, a statement of independence.”

In The Human Voice, packed suitcases are placed in a corner of a room as a woman waits for her lover to come and collect the cases, or at least call. The former lover has also left a pet dog, Dash, behind. Both the woman and the dog are spiralling at the prospect of rejection. The only time they step out is to visit a hardware store where she picks up an axe, which proceeds to murder a blue Balenciaga suit.

Less story and more a study of the human condition of waiting for three interminable days, submerged in grief and heartbreak, during which the woman experiences a number of moods, some that take her into very dark places. These are conveyed via words, through the character’s structured and stark costumes in monotones of red, blue and black, the props and Swinton’s riveting performance.

The stunning set of the apartment (boldly coloured and a touch retro), located within a studio sound stage – or ‘a box within a box’ as art director Antxón Gómez describes it – serves as the main location for the woman, the dog and a definitive phone call. Sometimes shot from above or in a long shot, the empty sound stage dwarfs even the 5 foot 11 inch tall actress.

The production design is an additional star with little touches such as the faux furnishings and French (Chanel), Spanish (Loewe), American (Tumi) luxury brands dotting the apartment, complimenting Swinton’s wardrobe predominantly sourced from Spanish label Balenciaga. The woman may be unravelling mentally and emotionally but her couture game is on-point – red suit paired with leopard skin stilettos and a clumsy ensemble of mixed prints, seemingly randomly selected garments (Dries Van Noten) with shiny platform heels that take her from bedroom to balcony. There is a finely curated stack of DVDs and books, particular art works on the walls and a German coffee maker. Modernising includes the woman using Airpods as she walks around the apartment talking on the phone.

The only voice we hear is 60-year-old Swinton’s, whose monologue and delicate shifts in expression suck you into the rollercoaster of emotions from despair to hurt to defiance. Through the monologue, a theatrical piece of performance art, you learn a little more about her life (an actress), her derailed relationship and her state of mind. In these uncertain times of isolation and anxiety, the themes and emotions within The Human Voice resonate more sharply. The production too is a fine example of joyous, rich filmmaking in a time of restraint and the delight of a particularly heady collaboration such Almódovar’s with Swinton.

The Human Voice is available in India on BookMyShow Stream