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Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios
1988 Comedy / Drama / Thriller
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Credits
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Director: Pedro Almodóvar
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Script: Pedro Almodóvar
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Photo: José Luis Alcaine
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Music: Bernardo Bonezzi
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Cast: Carmen Maura (Pepa),
Antonio Banderas (Carlos),
Julieta Serrano (Lucía),
María Barranco (Candela),
Rossy de Palma (Marisa),
Kiti Manver (Paulina Morales),
Guillermo Montesinos (Taxista),
Chus Lampreave (Portera),
Eduardo Calvo (Padre de Lucía)
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Country: Spain
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Language: Spanish
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Runtime: 90 min
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Aka: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
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Summary
Pepa is an actress whose work consists mainly of TV ads and dubbing
foreign films. When her lover, Ivan, calls her to put an end to
their relationship, she is distraught but soon realises that life must
go on. According to Lucia, Ivan’s neurotically jealous former
wife, Ivan has left her to start a new life with another woman.
Pepa soon has other worries when her best friend Candela reveals that
she has been living with a notorious terrorist...
Review
Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Pedro Almodóvar’s
very distinctive style of cinema is its surprising versatility.
There’s an unpredictability and disregard for conventions which makes
Almodóvar a very appealing director for mainstream audiences as
well as more exigent film enthusiasts. Of all his films to
date, Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown is probably the one that is mostly likely to
please the average cinemagoer. It’s an outlandish farce of the
kind that Hollywood used to make so well in the ’50s and ’60s,
looking suspiciously like what Lubitsch and Hitchcock may have come up
with if ever they had decided to make a film together.
The jokes are as fast, funny and relentless as a three-legged veloceraptor on rollerskates
- the highlights being a terrifyingly mambo-styled taxi-driver and a TV ad in which the proud
mother of a serial killer promotes a brand of washing powder.
Admittedly, some of the comedy goes a little over the top in a few
places, but the occasional misfired gag is unlikely to spoil anyone’s
enjoyment of the film. Under Almodóvar’s rigorous
direction, the acting performances are almost universally faultless,
with special mention for his star pupils, Carmen Maura and Antonio
Banderas, both virtually unrecognisable from their previous
Almodóvar outing, Law of Desire (1987).
The humour is only part of the film’s appeal. As ever,
Almodóvar shows great imagination and flair in the design of his
film, and with cinematographer José Luis Alcaine he achieves a
silkily seductive look which makes it virtually impossible for a
spectator to tear his eyes away from the screen for even a
millisecond. In addition to some cheeky nods to Hitchcock
(amongst others), there are some touches of real genius - such as the
sequence where Carmen Maura’s black-stockinged legs pacing back and
forth take on the form of a mesmerising (and very erotic) kind of
pendulum.
It's hardly surprising that Women on
the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is widely regarded as one of
the most inspired European film comedies of the 1980s. The film
helped to earn Pedro Almodóvar his reputation as one of the most
innovative and skilful filmmakers of his generation. It may look
slight when set aside some of his later achievements but, with its
lightness of touch, hilarious comic situations and tastefully kitsch
design, it remains arguably the most accessible and enjoyable of
Almodóvar’s film to date.
© James Travers 2008
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