When you put Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal in anything, I’m instantly on board. But add them into the latest Pedro Almodóvar short film and throw in some cowboys? I’m ready to watch it on a loop for the entire foreseeable future. Gearing up for its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, we’re learning more and more about Strange Way of Life.
The synopsis of the short film reads as follows: “A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake [Hawke]. Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva [Pascal], the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen. Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship.”
Almodóvar, according to The Hollywood Reporter, took inspiration from the famous Portuguese fado song by Amália Rodrigues which gives inspiration for the film’s title. The lyrics go: “Suggest that there is no stranger existence than the one that is lived by turning your back on your own desires.”
With the information that the film would premiere in Cannes, we also got an official poster for the film which features both Hawke as Sheriff Jake and Pascal as Silva holding guns, ready to strike, while also looking pretty stylish for two cowboys in the wild wild west.
We talked previously about how this is Almodóvar’s answer to Brokeback Mountain and so it’s thrilling to see things come together for the film. And until we know more, at least we know that we’ll see Hawke and Pascal smooch. Right?
I love a good smooching western
Everything about this has been hush-hush, which is good! We don’t need to know everything about a movie prior to getting to see it. We don’t know the tone of the movie or how the song’s inspiration will play into the film as a whole. But this poster feels like an homage to those classic westerns we know and love while also feeling a little campy? Maybe it’s just the fun Photoshop mixed with the mystery created by the lack of overall information we have.
In addition to being generally excited about this short film as a whole, I’m also excited to see how casting Hawke and especially Pascal might bring in younger fans who may not already be familiar with Almodóvar’s work, and inspire them to go check out his other films.
We don’t know when we’ll get to see the movie but it is premiering at Cannes next month with Pascal, Hawke, and Almodóvar reportedly planning to be in attendance.
(featured image: screenshot from Ethan Hawke’s Instagram page)
