Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown operates in a farcical world of comic proportions, propelled by the strange magic of Pedro Almodóvar. He makes films like no other; melodramas in an age where the word itself is a smear, an adjective designed to signal ludicrous love plots, overly theatrical acting, music which swoons and sighs. The film has all this, and then some. Look to his mise-en-scene, dyed luridly in a technicolor mash of crimson, deep blue and burnt sienna, as if even the furniture is flushed from all the passion in the air. When Pepa is unexpectedly left by her boyfriend, the world turns tospy turvy, and the result of her quest to discover the truth (it's never quite a straightforward explanation) is a romp reminiscent of an old school Hollywood screwball, where the characters seem to walk and talk in fast motion, throw themselves at new plot revelations, and are held hostage to their emotions. And Almodóvar would not have it any other way. The plot is the plot, which is to say it is a clothesline onto which increasing ridiculous situations are hung onto the main story-line, and Pepa is continually sidetracked in her mission. The first of these obstacles is her best friend Candela, who has been romanced and abandoned all in the same weekend, and now fancies suicide via jumping over the balcony. Then it's revealed her love affair was with a wanted Shiite terrorist, which suddenly ramps up the drama, and brings police into the fold (and the apartment). Also visiting is Carlos, son of Pepa's lover, and her haughty girlfriend, who are real-estate hunting and become unwillingly wrapped up in the whole mess. Almodóvar's penchant for genre mish-mash reveals itself here, constructing a locked room of increasing complexity and convoluted love triangles (or is it a rectangle, pentagon...), a revolving door of incensed bit characters who all crave the spotlight. Nearly all of them are women. As per the title, women fling themselves into pits for love, willingly embarrass themselves in these pursuits (notice the visual gag with the taxi driver's eye-drops, riffing on the genre of weepies), begin to concoct all kinds of tall tales in their heads. Almodovar's women are bravely undignified, operate at a furious, screwball pace, and come in all shapes and sizes. He may be one of the few directors to continually spotlight middle-aged love, grief and desire in the feminine form. There is no judgement here, only empathy and understanding. He casts Rossy de Palma who looks and speaks the part of an antagonistic witch, but look who is cheating on her while she is unconscious: her slimy, boyish partner. And see her value in the final scene, where Pepa has been chasing an absent masculine presence for the entire film only to find solace right beside her. Almodóvar's early films were the celebratory fireworks of a cultural explosion in post-fascist Spain. His initial comedies were instantly recognisable for their striking, campy style, showcasing never before screened minorities, flirting with boundaries of sexuality and gender through vibrant mise-en-scene, emotive music and outrageous costume and makeup. As he matured as a filmmaker, he recognised the potential for further playing in and between these fiery caricatures, using them as not merely flashy rebellion but as a way of investigating and rebuking common stereotypes, particularly of women. The initial scenes show the film wresting with these; Pepa and Ivan are both voice actors for trashy romance films, filling in for younger, more attractive starlets, with Pepa herself seemingly unable to reconcile the screen and the reality of her own love life. Ivan's voice is hinted to be the common factor in all his flings; women flock like fireflies to the film star's rich baritone. Pepa is one of those flies, and cannot stand to be discarded. Almodóvar further plays with his images. The set design of Pepa's coveted penthouse is key, with shiny baubles and trinkets set up in all corners, globes, lamps, statues and other trash scattered through the rooms. The plants are green, too green, and probably fake - it's a tapestry of kitsch. The terrace aggressively pursues that Californian dream, with tacky beach apparel, palm trees and a view to die for. But Pepa is too busy to even appreciate it, least of all when Candela is about to climb over (look who is the only one to realise), instead rushing around all town in search of her lost man. Only when she finally admits to all this silliness and discards that part of her life does she have the chance to sit down and really gaze at the skyline. The chase is over, the loose ends have been tied up, her secret revealed (the film is basically a two hour set up for a pregnancy brain joke). She is at peace. Her life isn't so bad after all.

Offbeat crazy comedy with hilarious results and turns out to be pretty funny . Almodóvar comedy starred by Spanish star cast plenty of likable humour and disconcerting plots . A film dubber woman called Pepa (Carmen Maura) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown when his lover named Ivan (Fernando Guillen) leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he left her . In the opening scene Pepa (Carmen Maura) and Ivan (Fernando Guillen Cuervo) are dubbing to Spanish Johnny Guitar (1954). Pepa takes on Ivan's wife (Julieta Serrano) who is zealous because of his husband left her for her . Meanwhile , her clueless friend called Candela (María Barranco , though Victoria Abril turned down the role) appears in her flat . Candela who is as unsettling as she is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend seems to be a dangerous Islamic terrorist . There also meets Carlos (Antonio Banderas) , Ivan'son , and his girlfriend (Rossy De Palma) and amazing happenings take place . Pedro Almodóvar brings us a very mixed bag of outlandish characters , rapid dialogs , and absurd situations on a luxury flat . As a pregnant woman becomes involved into loving triangles , terrorists , revenger wives and faces the greatest danger, which we carry within ourselves . Enjoyable though silly film full of good taste , offbeat characters , embarrassing mood-pieces , fun scenes , sympathetic humor and sense of style but not totally satisfactory , including conventional as well as undiluted pitfalls . The picture deals with troubled people , off-the-wall comedy , absurdities , terrorism , jealousy and many other things . The movie is pretty well and turns out to be a superior comedy to Almodovar's previous and subsequent entries . The result is an amusing but sometimes absurd comedy ,including profanities , colorful frames and a crazy strings of plots . There are many references to Pedro Almodóvar's universe throughout the film . Pedro Almodóvar and Carmen Maura's personal relationship was seriously damaged during the shooting, which Maura even defined as a "living hell". It took 18 years for them to work again . On Carmen Maura , Almodóvar told : ¨If you divide the stages of my career and labelled them with the names of the people I've worked with, there's definitely a stage in my filmmaking that would be called The Carmen Maura Years, and those films were all in the 80s - although I did work with her again on Volver (2006). At the time, I felt she was absolutely the best vehicle I could find to tell my stories. She was the actress who had the best intuition, to connect with what I wanted from her. She could be very funny and very dramatic at the same time, so it was the perfect combination for me¨ . Nice interpretations by all star-studded cast as Maria Barranco , Fernando Guillen , Rossy De Palma , Julieta Serrano and full of familiar faces as Chus Lampreave as a caretaker , Witness Jehová , and other delightfully played roles such as Kiti Mánver , Guillermo Montesinos as Cabman , Eduardo Calvo , Loles León , Joaquin Climent , Lambordero , Ana Leza , among others . And a Hollywood/Spain super star : Antonio Banderas . In fact , this movie marks Antonio Banderas's 3th collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar , after Labyrinth of passions and Matador , subsequently they made : Atame , The skin I live in , I'm so excited , among others hits . As usual in most of Pedro Almodóvar's movies, there is a small role for Agustín Almodóvar, his brother and producer of the film, who plays a building employee . Atmospheric musical score by early deceased Bernardo Bonezzi , Almodovar's ordinary ; including known songs by Chavela Vargas . Colorful and luxurious cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine . The motion picture was realized in his peculiar style by Pedro Almodovar ; he often uses symbolism and metaphorical techniques to portray circular story lines though here he directs a special comedy , including his ordinary touches . Almodovar directs throughout with splendid zip and he usually portrays strong female characters and transsexuals and along his career getting some important international prizes . His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release . In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company : El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world , making his films very popular in many countries . Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar subsequently made successes such as Labyrinth of passions , Law of desire , Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown , Bad education , All about my mother , Talk to her , Broken embraces , The Skin I Live In and many others . The latest from acclaimed Spanish director , Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited (Los Amantes Pasajeros) competing for the inaugural best European comedy honor during the upcoming 26th edition of the European Film Awards .

Every true artist trusts, to more or less extent, in his intuition. There are those whose magic lies almost entirely in the choices they make out of intuition. It's marvelous to be able to trust someone's intuition (even more when our own intuition works). Than we have those who start over a rational basis, and only after creating a safe net on which they can trust do they put something of their deep feelings over it. I think this second definition suits the vast majority of creative minds. For a long time i thought Almodóvar belonged to the first kind of director. After seeing this film i definitely place him in the second kind. For an uninformed viewer, such as i was when i got into the world of Almodóvar's films, he can look as if there was no specially recognizable structure underneath what you get. My recent viewings of some of his films convinced me otherwise, this one specially. This is a film in which (unlike his other films) the mechanics of the story has to do with how facts unfold. It's comedy alright, and it builds a world of linked coincidences and facts that always come to be important, further in the story.So we have a narrative made of coincidences, circular stories, and intersections. The first 5 or 6 minutes of the film (including the initial credits) are specially marvelous in the way we get to see this. We have a pop montage of magazine cuts, pieces of lives, faces, coloured bits. This introduces us to the pace of the film, which is frantic in comedy sense (this shows through the story, not the editing). Than we have an introduction to our central character, around which everything revolves: she dubs films, which means she lends her voice to other bodies. She was (we come to understand) the lover of a man who does the same. And we get a marvelous piece of film, in which we follow our voice off dubbing, and the film she is dubbing, already with the translated line. She is dubbing alone, the male voice is silent. This is exquisite work. A fantastic scene. It got me into the mood, i thought. This because we are deceived by this first scene. Next to this, it turns to a comedy environment (tracking American screwball comedies, this is assumed by Almodóvar).The major cinematic concerns in every film by Pedro Almodóvar is on working narrative in ways that are new, seductive, and visual. All his films (specially those of the 80') were pure experiments, completely different from the previous one. There, Pedro was more attached to a certain mood, a certain psychedelic way of living, certainly derived to his experience inside the Movida, Madrid's underground of the 70'. Nevertheless he was already trying build new cinematic narrative forms. There is a certain aspect that happens in all of his films, despite the differences between them: he likes the idea of having actors whose characters perform. Actresses playing actresses, characters pretending to be something else. His narrative mood has really much to do with this. Here he is very intelligent in the depiction of this aspect. The first scene i mentioned establishes this, the mad mother who pretends to be sane in order to fulfill her madness does it, and the film has an unfolding moment in a scene where everybody is acting and lying to the police. Near the beginning, the mad woman (who pretends to live 20 years before her time) says to her father: "You lie so well, dad! That's why i like you". Almodóvar wrote the script...The flaw here is that everything is mechanic. This development through circular coincidences, and a hidden plot that comes to unfold and reveal us the truth is not exactly in line with the best visual efforts of Almodóvar. I think he knows that, he even stated that this script was a lot easier to write than that of, for example, Kika (a lot more implicit in its narrative content). So, narratively, this IS Almodóvar, but not his best. But it has beautiful strokes, underlined intentions, and i will take those first minutes with me wherever i go.My opinion: 4/5http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

I am a huge fun of Almodovar and Women... was the last out of all his movies I saw - I have seen all of them now. I am very happy that this one was the last as if it was first I wouldn't go any further. Early Almodovar, very square and obvious and so annoying that I couldn't get through all of this movie. Characters supposedly perfectly created - were absolutely unbearable - something too much and something else missing.At some point I developed feeling of compassion towards men in this movie. Cant believe that Almodovar was accused of being feminist after making Women.. I am very happy that later movies were better and I am looking forward to his new production to get rid of the bad taste after Women.... P.S. I am not American:)