May Screenings (Online)

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
MUJERES AL BORDE DE UN ATAQUE DE NERVIOS

• Director: Pedro Almodóvar
• SPAIN / 1988 / H264 / Colour / 88’ / Spanish; Turkish s.t.

• Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar
• Original Work: Jean Cocteau
• Director of Photography: José Luis Alcaine
• Editing: José Salcedo
• Music: Bernardo Bonezzi
• Cast: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, María Barranco, Rossy de Palma, Kiti Mánver
• Producer: Agustín Almodóvar
• Production Co.: El Deseo, Laurenfilm
• World Sales: TF1

This film is screened within the Antidepressant section.

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One of Pedro Almodóvar‘s most loved and most entertaining films, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown tells a story about what its title implies: Pepa‘s lover leaves her on a telephone conversation, and trying to resolve situation, Pepa needs to take care of everybody else‘s nervous breakdowns instead of her own tragedy. On an iconic terrace floor in Madrid, Pepa is joined by an array of quirky characters: her lover‘s ex-wife, his son and his son‘s fiancée, a friend searched by the police… This wonderful film that brings Almodóvar‘s usual suspects in its cast is a delightful mix of kitsch and black comedy and farce as well as melodrama, all the while heightening its power of absurdity and oddity as coincidences accumulate––"celebrating ‘high heel,‘ thoroughly feminine lives," as Yeşim Tabak states. Adapted from Cocteau‘s same play, Almodóvar‘s latest film The Human Voice is also included in the May programme of the festival.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.