Almodóvar returns to Venice with 'The Room Next Door' and gets a nearly 20 minute ovation

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar returned to the Venice Film Festival with stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. Their film, “The Room Next Door,” had its world premiere on the Lido Monday evening, where it received a standing ovation for nearly 20 minutes.

Though a new Almodóvar film is always an event for cinephiles, this one has special significance: It’s his English-language debut.

“My insecurity disappeared after the first table read with the actresses, with the exchange of the first indications,” he wrote in his director’s statement. “The language wasn’t going to be a problem, and not because I master English, but because of the total disposition of the whole cast to understand me and to make it easy for me to understand them.”

Moore and Swinton play disconnected friends, who met in their youths at a magazine job, and whose lives took different paths. Ingrid (Moore) wrote novels. Martha (Swinton) became a war reporter. And now after years apart, they meet again, in New York, when Ingrid finds out Martha has cancer and is in a nearby hospital.

Over the next weeks and months, they reconnect, learning about one another's lives and Martha's estranged daughter through a series of revealing conversations.

Before the film's premiere, Swinton said that it would never have occurred to her that Almodóvar might eventually find a space for her in one of his films. She said she has “worshipped in his high church” ever since seeing “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” in the late 1980s in London. In Almodóvar was a kindred artistic spirit, she thought.

“I still feel like a student seeing his first film,” Swinton said.

But she was English and he worked solely in Spanish. The idea of collaborating seemed like a fantasy only. Then one day, she said, she got up the nerve to say something to him.

“I said, ‘Listen I’ll learn Spanish for you, you can make me mute,’” Swinton said. “Characteristically, he laughed.”

Moore added: “I don’t know how I managed to walk into this world, but I felt lucky that he chose me.”

Almodóvar’s last Venice appearance was in 2021, where he presented the film “Parallel Mothers,” for which Penelope Cruz won its best actress prize. In 2019, Venice also gave him a lifetime achievement award. But his history with Venice stretches back 40 years.

“I was born as a film director in 1983 in Venice,” he said. A few years later, he’d return with the classic “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”

Of his latest, he wrote “Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore carry the weight of the whole film on their shoulders, and they are a spectacle. I have been fortunate in that both give a veritable recital. At times during shooting, both the crew and I were on the verge of tears watching them. It was a very moving shoot and, in some way, blessed.”

Though death looms in the film, when Martha asks Ingrid to join her in a house upstate for her final days, all felt that it's a film about life.

“We talked a lot about life, but we didn’t really talk about death. What can you say? You can talk about dying,” Swinton said. “This film is a portrait of self-determination ... This feeling of (death) being a celebration felt for me very real and very relatable and I can’t say that I wouldn’t act in the same way if I was in her shoes.”

Both Swinton and Moore were excited to be in a film that spotlighted a female friendship between two women at their ages.

“We very, very rarely see a story of female friendship and especially a story about female friends who are older,” Moore said. “The importance that he shows us is so unusual and was so moving to me that he portrayed this relationship as so profound, because it is.”

The film is playing in competition at the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival, alongside the likes of “Maria” and the yet-to-premiere “Queer” and “Joker: Folie à Deux.” Winners will be announced on Sept. 7.

Sony Pictures Classics will release “The Room Next Door” in theaters in December.

More coverage of the 2024 Venice Film Festival: https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival

Alessandro Nivola, from left, Tilda Swinton, director Pedro Almodovar, Julianne Moore and Alvise Rigo pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Julianne Moore, left, and Tilda Swinton pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Julianne Moore, left, and Tilda Swinton pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tilda Swinton upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Julianne Moore, from left, director Pedro Almodovar, and Tilda Swinton pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tilda Swinton, from left, director Pedro Almodovar, and Julianne Moore pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

Julianne Moore, left, and Tilda Swinton pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Julianne Moore poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Julianne Moore poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Julianne Moore poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tilda Swinton poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tilda Swinton, left, and Julianne Moore pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tilda Swinton, left, and Julianne Moore pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tilda Swinton, left, and Julianne Moore pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Tilda Swinton, from left, director Pedro Almodovar, and Julianne Moore pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'The Room Next Door' during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Julianne Moore, right, and Tilda Swinton in a scene from "The Room Next Door." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Julianne Moore, left, and Tilda Swinton in a scene from "The Room Next Door." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Julianne Moore, right, and Tilda Swinton in a scene from "The Room Next Door." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — England and English soccer teams could be removed from UEFA competitions if a new regulator is considered to be “Government interference” in the sport.

In a letter sent by UEFA to the U.K.'s new culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, European soccer's governing body raised concerns about a proposed independent football regulator (IFR) in English soccer. The regulatory will ensure the financial sustainability of clubs and stop teams from joining breakaway competitions like the European Super League.

UEFA regulations state there should be no government interference in the running of soccer.

“We have specific rules that guard against this in order to guarantee the autonomy of sport and fairness of sporting competition; the ultimate sanction for which would be excluding the federation from UEFA and teams from competition,” UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis wrote in his letter, which has been seen by The Associated Press.

England, which has been runner-up in the last two European Championships, is co-hosting the 2028 edition of the tournament.

If UEFA imposed its ultimate sanction of excluding the English Football Association, the England team would be barred from competing in the Euros. It could also mean Premier League clubs being barred from the Champions League and other competitions.

The U.K. government’s Football Governance Bill would give an independent regulator powersto safeguard the future of clubs. It includes strengthened tests over who can run or own clubs.

In its letter, UEFA said “normally football regulation should be managed by the national federation.”

It said it was concerned by what it described as “scope creep” by a regulator into areas beyond “the long-term financial sustainability of clubs and heritage assets.”

UEFA said if all countries established regulators with wide-reaching powers it would hinder its ability to maintain effective governance across Europe. It wants England's regulator to be “strictly limited” to the long-term financial sustainability of clubs and heritage assets.

A U.K. government spokesperson said “the Football Governance Bill will establish a new Independent Football Regulator that will put fans back at the heart of the game, and tackle fundamental governance problems to ensure that English football is sustainable for the benefit of the clubs’ communities going forward.”

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - The UEFA Euro trophy is pictured after Britain and Ireland were elected to host the Euro 2028 football tournament during the the UEFA EURO 2028 and 2032 hosts announcement ceremony after the UEFA Executive Committee, at UEFA Headquarters, in Nyon, Switzerland, Oct. 10, 2023. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP, File)