Once upon a time, camp Spanish cinema king Pedro Almodóvar was asked to direct Brokeback Mountain, but the link-up fell through and Ang Lee got the job instead. The story goes that Pedro wanted his version of the movie to be start-to-finish gay sex. “The relation between these two guys is animalistic,” Almodóvar told IndieWire of the failed collaboration. “It was a physical relationship.” Safe to say, Hollywood didn’t approve. But thankfully, Pedro’s never lost sight of his ambitions to make a queer western: his own, titled Strange Way of Life, stars a certain Pedro Pascal and, after premiering at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, will be available to stream from 20 October on MUBI.
Created in collaboration with Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello — both a producer on the film and lead costume designer — Strange Way of Life is Pedro’s second English language short after 2020’s The Human Voice starring Tilda Swinton. Strange Way of Life boasts a star-studded cast too, lead by Pedro, Ethan Hawke and Elite’s Manu Rios.
“This is a queer western in the sense that there are two men, and they love each other, and they behave in that situation in an opposite way,” he said. “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 too much.”
In an interview with Insider, Pedro P shared a bit about his experience working on the film with Pedro A: “He absolutely opened up an entire world of storytelling, colour, culture, rebellion, and sexuality that was just absolutely intoxicating, dangerous, hilarious, heartbreaking, and encompassing the whole spectrum, but with such a signature style,” said the actor, reminiscing about Almodóvar. “It could have been anything that he asked me to do, and I would have done it without question.” And they say romance is dead.
The plot line for the 30-minute feature has been uploaded to IMDb: “After twenty-five years, Silva (Pedro Pascal) rides a horse across the desert to visit his friend, Sheriff Jake (Ethan Hawke). They celebrate the meeting, but the next morning Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their friendship.” Could it be a reflective film that looks back at the pair’s relationship as younger men? Could it be that this meeting is the rekindling of an old love? After all, the film’s title is lifted from an old fado by Amalia Rodrigues about lost love. If you want to know more, read our interview with the director here.
There’s also a trailer for the camped-up old school spaghetti western ahead of its debut on MUBI this fall. We’re sat.
This story has been updated with new details and republished.