Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke's Genre-Bending Gay Western Set to Debut at Cannes
Pedro Almodóvar. Ethan Hawke. Pedro Pascal. Cowboys. Drama. Romance. Mother of god, are we not entertained?
Strange Way of Life has already gotten quite the buzz since Almodóvar announced the shooting of his genre-breaking Western (at heart, he says) last year. The film, which is set to premiere at Cannes Festival in May, is supposedly the director's answer to Brokeback Mountain and The Power of the Dog. Almodóvar is said to be in the editing process right now. While details are still a little murky, we aren't completely in the dark with this one. Here's what we know about the Parallel Mothers director's 30-minute short film so far.
What Is the Plot?
In June 2022, Almodóvar explained a part of its plot to Indiewire, saying: "One of them travels through the desert to find the other. There will be a showdown between them, but really the story is very intimate."
Appearing on Dua Lipa's At Your Service podcast later on, the filmmaker would tell us more about the film. "This is a queer Western in the sense that there are two men and they love each other," the visionary director said. "And they behave in that situation in an opposite way."
The Western has sheriff Jake and gunslinger Silva, played by Hawke and Pascal, respectively, meeting again after 25 years apart.
Shot in English by Madrid-based production company El Deseo, Strange Way of Life will have Silva riding a horse onwards to Bitter Creek, where Jake is. They had earlier worked together as gunmen and will now have to wrestle with some past feelings.
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What the Hell Is It About?
What we know for sure is that it's "unlike anything we've seen before." Almodóvar also noted how happy he was with Hawke and Pascal's performances.
"It's about masculinity in that deep sense, because the Western is a male genre," Almodóvar explained in the podcast. "It has the gunslinger. It has the ranch. It has the sheriff. It has the town. It has the showdown. "But what it has that most Westerns don’t have is the kind of dialogue that I don’t think a Western film has ever captured between two men. And now I think I’m telling you a little bit too much.”
The film's title, interestingly, comes from Amália Rodrigues' legendary fado, which is about the strange, strange experience that comes with repressive desires. And with Hawke and Pascal at the helm, two generational stars, we can rest assured that we're getting some (whispers) real cinema here.
