A woman on the verge of madness, a haunting mystery, an ensemble cast brimming with brilliant Spanish actresses… Yes, Almodóvar is back and in more ways than one. The beloved Spanish auteur recently took one of the longest hiatuses of his 19-film career due to serious back surgery in 2013, but as of May of last year the 66-year-old Manchego was back in the proverbial saddle for his twentieth feature, Silencio.
Since then, Almodóvar and his production company El deseo realized that a Martin Scorsese film entitled Silence would be in theaters with the same Spring 2016 release date, along with a a new edition of the eponymous Japanese novel upon which the film is based. In other words, three Silencios. Needless to say, the Almodóvar flick is now officially entitled Julieta and just today we have been graced with a first look at the teaser ahead of its April 8, 2016 Spanish release date.
From the 1 minute 22 second clip, not much can be gathered in the way of plot. There’s a Spanish country house; bold, saturated colors; a peroxide-blonde Julieta lying in bed with her mother; and an unsettling sense of mystery helped along by a haunting piano, string, and oboe score. Early plot details released by El deseo last year suggest that the mother may actually be a figment of Julieta’s imagination, or maybe not, or maybe both. Who really knows with Almodóvar?
The film will follow the title character over three decades of her life, in which we see her struggling with a nagging sense of guilt related to her father’s abandonment of the family, ultimately showing a woman much happier in old age than in the emotional chaos of her youth. In their first outing under the direction of Almodóvar, actresses Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suárez will be playing Julieta at different periods of her life.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about this film, but with this teaser one thing is for sure: It’s got that old Almodóvar feeling.