WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AND OTHER FILMS BY PEDRO ALMODOVAR. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS
BREAKDOWN (1988) OR MUJERES AL BORDE DE UN ATAQUE DE ''NERVIOS.''
WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY PEDRO ALMODOVAR. MUSIC BY BERNARDO
BONEZZI. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY JOSĖ
LUIS ALCAINE.
STARRING CARMEN MAURA, FERNANDO
GUILLĖN,
MARÍA
BARRANCO, ANTONIO BANDERAS, JULIETA SERRANO, KITI MANVER AND ROSSY DE
PALMA.
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS
BREAKDOWN was the breakthrough film of director, producer and
former actor Pedro Almodovar (born 1949), netting him as it did an
Academy Award nomination for BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM in
1988.
I'd always
been curious about the Spanish film with the intriguing name. I was
therefore as happy as Larry to be asked to review it, along with
other films by the multi-award-winning director who, back in 1988
when the film was made, had a head of hair as luxuriant and black as
Antonio Banderas's own barnet. Banderas, of course, is one of the key
players in this black comedy-drama. Or 'dramedy,'
as I believe people sometimes say today. Not me though, I think 'dramedy'
sounds terrible.
The central
story is an old, old one, probably as old as time itself. A woman has
been abruptly deserted by her older married lover Ivan, the fuppin'
baxterd. The woman is Pepa Marcos, an attractive television actress
in her forties who does voice-overs. She has a sense of humour and
seems like she could be a good, nice fun person to be around, when she's not tearing her hair out about some loser, that is.
She lives in
a gorgeous apartment and seems to be doing well financially. She has
so much genuinely going for her that it's sad to see her all
depressed and popping sleeping pills over her louse of a boyfriend.
Still, that's women for you. Doesn't matter how fabulous they are, a
guy has the power to make them feel about two inches tall every time.
The silver-haired Ivan in
particular is an absolute past master at filling women full of the
most outrageous lovey-dovey bullshit, none of which is sincere. Well,
he might mean it at the time he says it but I wouldn't count on it.
There's an
actual scene at the beginning where we see him doing this exact thing
with a parade of beautiful women from across the globe. It's funny to
watch but probably not so funny when you're the woman he's supposed
to be being faithful to, if you get me.
Anyway,
poor Pepa is not in a good place when Ivan decides to do his
moonlight flit. He even calls her up on the telephone (it's
1988, remember!) asking her to
pack a bag for him for a flight he's taking. What an absolute bloody
cheek! I know
what I'd do with his
flippin' bag.
Pepa has something she needs urgently to impart to Ivan but,
as is the way with these married sleazebags, he's totally
incommunicado, the cowardly shit, desperate to avoid any unpleasant fallout arising from the consequences of his actions. Sheesh. No
wonder artistes like
the wonderful Alanis Morrisette pen bitter break-up songs like 'You
Oughta Know...!'
Added to
Pepa's frantic attempts to find her slimebag lover is a highly
colourful cast of characters who contribute chaos and the blackest of
black humour to an already fraught situation.
A
slightly nerdy-looking Antonio Banderas (still handsome,
though!) as Carlos complicates
things no end by turning out to be Ivan's son with his mentally
unstable wife Lucia for whom, judging by her dress, the 'Sixties are
still very much alive and kicking.
Carlos
comes to view Pepa's apartment (she's getting rid of it
because of all the painful memories associated with sharing it with Ivan) with
his snobby fiancée
Marisa. Marisa is an
extraordinary-looking woman, not beautiful but certainly striking.
Anyway,
Carlos may appear shy and unassuming but he's his philandering
father's son at the end of the day. This
would explain why he makes a play for Pepa's best friend Candela, as
typical a love-hungry female in desperate search of a man as you're
likely to see this side of SEX AND THE CITY.
Candela,
a gawky-looking chick with short hair and big feet who's attractive
in a quirky, kooky way, has gotten herself into one dilly of a pickle, as Ned
Flanders from THE SIMPSONS might
say.
She's
gotten herself inadvertently mixed up with a group of Shi-ite
terrorists who plan to blow up a flight to Stockholm which, surprise
surprise, Ivan is going to be taking with his new girlfriend. Yeah,
that's right. He's got a murderous wife with mental problems and a
distraught girlfriend with a secret and he still goes
out to get himself another piece of ass to further complicate his
romantic life. Incredible...!
Anyway,
Candela, who is now as drawn to Antonio Banderas's Carlos as he is to
her, fell in love with this guy she didn't know was a terrorist after a weekend of the most marvellous 'f***ing,' as
she puts it herself when she's confiding in a bemused Pepa. Now her boyfriend's police mugshot is plastered
all over the television and she's afraid the cops are gonna 'do'
her for complicity. She has
every reason to be worried...
Add to this
crazy mix a broken telephone, several smashed windows, a burned-out
bed, a mambo-loving taxicab driver, a hijacked motorbike and a big
old jug of gazpacho spiked with sleeping pills and you've got
yourself a superb madcap Spanish-language comedy with some really big issues at its
core.
I like the
addition of the whole 'terrorism' thing, which raises the question that you
never truly know who you're committing to unless you take the time to
get to know someone first.
And we
all know the answer to the question of whether Pepa should kick Ivan's designer-suit-clad arse to the kerb and strike out on her own, or if she
should continue to put her own life on hold while waiting around for
Ivan to possibly come back to her. Yeah, we know
the answer because it's easy to see what someone else
should do in this situation.
Taking our own good advice is much, much harder, unfortunately...!
The
news I am about to impart (cue fanfare!) is very good indeed for fans of Pedro Almodovar's, whose trophy
cabinet to date contains one Oscar, four BAFTAs, six European Film
Awards and two Golden Globes. You can now purchase, courtesy of
STUDIOCANAL,
an amazing boxset that contains not only WOMEN ON
THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN,
which as I said was his internationally-acclaimed breakthrough film,
but five other brilliant movies as well, namely:
DARK
HABITS- 1983.
WHAT HAVE
I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?- 1984.
LAW OF
DESIRE- 1987.
KIKA-
1993.
THE FLOWER
OF MY SECRET- 1995.
There's
a whole host of brilliant extra features (including
cast and crew interviews) up
for grabs as well, naturally. Also, just to say that BFI
SOUTHBANK are
hosting a two-month Pedro Almodovar season from August 1st
to October 5th,
just in case anyone lives in the area and can book tickets for
onstage appearances by not just the great director himself but also actress
Rossy de Palma, Jean-Paul Gaultier the iconic fashion designer and
a few surprise guests as well. It
sounds smashing. Wish I could be there.
(PS, remember Jean Paul Gaultier's stint in the amazeballs TV programme EUROTRASH with the fast-talking Antoine de Caunes? I used to live for that show, until
I discovered how to access my OWN Internet porn,
that is, heh-heh-heh...!)
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
No comments:
Post a Comment