A WOMAN ALONE in a messy room calls her lover who has just left her for someone else.

Starting from this sadly commonplace story, Jean Cocteau wrote a short one-act tragedy – a strange "monologue of two voices," one speaking and one silent, in which the telephone plays a central role.

"In the past," Cocteau wrote, "we used to see each other. We could lose our minds, forget our promises, risk the impossible, persuade our beloved by embracing them, cling to them so they wouldn't leave. A glance could change everything. But with this device, it's over, whatever was to end has ended."

The play was first performed in 1930 at the Comédie-Française by Berthe Bovy. It was recorded by Simone Signoret. It was turned into an opera by Francis Poulenc. It was adapted for cinema by Roberto Rossellini starring Anna Magnani (1948), by Pedro Almodóvar with Tilda Swinton (2020), and for television by Ted Kotcheff with Ingrid Bergman (1967). In Greece, the performances by Elli Lambeti are famous (the first in 1949, the last in 1978).

COVER PHOTO

From Pedro Almodóvar’s short film La voz humana featuring Tilda Swinton (2020).