“Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown”

“Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown”

“Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown” • Initial release – 1988 (Barcelona) • DVD initial release – April 10, 2001 • Director – Pedro Almodovar • 1 Oscar nomination, 25 other award wins & 19 nominations. • Carmen Maura – ‘Pepa’ • Antonio Banderas – ‘Carlos’

Critical frameworks & themes • Psychology • Genre • Personal response • Film form • Comparisons between ‘Hable Con Ella’ (talk to her) and ‘Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown’. • Obsession – Love, passion

Film Form • Main colors used – Red • Any change with colors of clothes used reflect on the situation that the characters find themselves in. • Two sofas in two different rooms • Mirror in cars shows drivers eyes, but the face is not directly shown. • Same taxi driver throughout the film • Street lights go out when Pepa is crossing the road. Signifying danger of death. • Pepa’s red phone breaks – Death of Pepa if she doesn’t hear back from Ivan. • Phone call between two women – both facing directly at a static camera. • escalators in airport – moving away with little effort. • Police detective also wearing a red shirt. Representing the police, even across the world as the hate and death of the public.

Technology • Phones • Pepa’s job is a voice over in the cinema. The actors act on the screen, but don’t speak. Pepadoes the actors voice. • Hand guns. Shows little security for an international airport.

Genre • This film is classified as a comedy/ Drama. • I would rather call this film a drama film rather than fitting it into the comedy genre. • However this does not mean that comical effects are used within the film. An item used is when the police are investigating Pepa’s flat, while a friend is outside, laying on the sunbed, after taken some of the soup, which contained the sleeping pills. You know the police are going to find her, but every time they get close, they pull away, preventing the inevitable.

Psychology • Bed set on fire, possible mode of suicide, but Pepa backs out, then moves onto the sleeping pills in the soup - Mentally unstable • Pepa allows others to drink the soup, even though she knows it is already containing the sleeping pills.

Comparing ‘Hable con Ella’ and ‘Women on the verge of a nerve breakdown’ • Both films contain obsession – love, romance, care, etc... • I feel that in ‘Hable con Ella’ the audience was positioned as another friend of Marco, played by Dario Grandinetti, and we are witnessing his passion in life, Alicia. • As the film progresses, I feel that the audience warms to Marco, however as soon as we find out Marco has rapped Alicia, the view changes instantly. • Both films show mental instability. Marco raps Alicia while so is still in a comma. And kills himself in prison

Personal Responce • Represents spanish cinema, or Almodovar’s type of cinema, as over obsessive personalities, mentally instability people. • Robert B. Pippin’s chapter 3 ‘Devils and Angels in Almodovar’s Talk to her’ talks about Alicia’s rape, and compares her to sleeping beauties, and they were victims of unwanted male attentions, showing examples of male fantasies of passive, wholly dependent women who live and depend utterly on bold sexual attention by men, regardless of considerations of equality or consent.

“Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown”