On December 20th we are opening Pedro Almodóvar's first movie in English, The Room Next Door, at the Royal. We'll bring it to Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, North Hollywood, and Encino in January. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as two friends who reconnect after decades apart and embark on an unusual new phase of their friendship. Writing in Time Magazine, Stephanie Zacharek describes how "the colors of The Room Next Door are its secret message, a language of pleasure and beauty that reminds us how great it is to be alive. If it's possible to make a joyful movie about death, Almodóvar has just done it."![](https://blog.laemmle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/027_FRAMES-HD-400x199.jpg)
![](https://blog.laemmle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/027_FRAMES-HD-400x199.jpg)
“I’m a very dull or heady director," said Almodóvar. "I say to the actors many, many, many things, and what I learned about these two is that perhaps I don’t need to say so much information to the actors. There was one very important [scene of Moore reading] the letter at the end. For me, it was very important. I was almost crying when I talked to her and I said, ‘Well, Julianne, this is what I want for this letter.’ [She] said, ‘Pedro, please let me do it, and after that, you give me all the indications.’ And she was right. When she just read it, I mean, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t intervene, but it was more than perfect. So I learned by then that perhaps I don’t need to tell them so many things to the actors.”