Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Pedro Almodóvar

Writers:

Pedro Almodóvar (screenplay)
Pedro Almodóvar (story)

Release Date:

11 November 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son...

Plot Keywords:

Sleeping Pill | Burning Bed | Betrayal | Nervous Breakdown | Womanizer

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 19 wins & 17 nominations

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 Testiga de Jehová
Eduardo Calvo	...	Padre de Lucía (as Yayo Calvo)
Loles León	...	Secretaria
Ángel de Andrés López	...	Policía I (as Angel de Andrés-López)
Fernando Guillén	...	Iván
Juan Lombardero	...	Germán
José Antonio Navarro	...	Policía II
Ana Leza	...	Ana

Also Known As:

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (USA)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

UK:12 (re-rating) (2005) | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Peru:14 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

Estudios Barajas, Madrid, Spain

Company:

El Deseo S.A.

Trivia:

Contrary to popular belief, the cab driver is not played by director Pedro Almodóvar, but Guillermo Montesinos.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Pepa pushes the baggage cart at Lucia and it moves with a great deal of speed. However, in the next shot, it's obvious that the cart barely hits her, yet she falls as if it did.

Quotes:

Pepa: Follow that cab!
Cabdriver: I thought this only happened in the movies.

Movie Connections:

Version of L'amore (1948)

Soundtrack:

Soy infeliz

Deliciously funny farce from Almodóvar on top form

Pedro Almodóvar has made some brilliant films since "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", his international breakthrough hit of 1988, but for sheer delirious entertainment value, nothing else he's done has ever quite matched it. Working with a sterling cast led by the peerless Carmen Maura, Almodóvar here is at the very top of his game, directing a self-penned screenplay of sparkling wit and invention with relentless style and panache.

The genre is basically farce, the story built upon coincidences of mounting improbability which bring the various characters into unlikely but hilarious collision with one another. Actress Pepa (Maura) is desperate to save her relationship with serial womaniser Iván (Fernando Guillén), spending her nights dreaming about him and her days waiting for him to call. Tracing his movements, she stumbles upon another of his lovers, the deranged Lucia (a priceless Julieta Serrano), with whom she discovers Iván has a grown up son Carlos (Antonio Banderas). Carlos meanwhile is hoping to rent an apartment with his formidable girlfriend Marisa (Rossy de Palma), in which context they turn up at Pepa's penthouse, unaware of his connection with its owner. Meanwhile Pepa's friend Candela (Maria Barranco) has big troubles of her own: she's on the run from the police and is in hiding at the apartment. Chaos ensues, of course, but it is masterfully orchestrated. Handled badly the plot would simply be tiresome, but here nobody puts a foot wrong. Each cast member is pitch perfect, playing it straight but with just the right hint of irony and kitsch. By imitating the widescreen Technicolor look of 1950s Hollywood, Almodóvar pulls off the audacious trick of making his movie look as if it is set in an altogether earlier era while at the same time anchoring it firmly in the confident, colourful and arty world of post-Franco 1980s Madrid. Kudos to cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, Félix Murcia the set decorator, and costume designer José María De Cossío for their striking contributions to a film that is both hugely theatrical - it has been adapted for the stage - and richly cinematic. Almodóvar references Fellini, Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray, among others, revelling in the glossy, larger than life potential of cinema to be the purveyor of magic and dreams, not to mention nightmares. But here the darkness that often pervades his work is barely perceptible, which is probably why this above any other of his films (with the possible exception of his most recent, "Volver") has been embraced by a much wider audience than is customary. And justifiably so. It's a fabulous film.