Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Starring:Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, MarÃa Barranco, Kiti Manver, Guillermo Montesinos, Chus Lampreave, Eduardo Calvo, Loles LeÃ³n, Ãngel de AndrÃ©s LÃ³pez, Fernando GuillÃ©n, Juan Lombardero, JosÃ© Antonio Navarro, Ana Leza, Ambite, Mary GonzÃ¡lez, Lupe Barrado, JoaquÃn Climent, Chema Gil
Director: Pedro AlmodÃ³var
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Pedro Almodovar broke into the art-house mainstream with this wild, manic comedy about a gaggle of women and their various problems with men, be they married lovers, cheating husbands, fiancés, or terrorists. Almodovar's long-time leading lady, Carmen Maura, stars as an actress (famed for her laundry detergent commercial as the mother of a sloppy serial killer) who's just been dumped by her married lover. In the midst of trying to track him down for a face-to-face confrontation, she crosses paths with her lover's son (Antonio Banderas), his unbalanced wife (Julieta Serrano), and his new girlfriend (Kiti Manver). Adding more fuel to the fire is the hapless friend (Maria Barranco) who got involved with a Shiite terrorist and is now being hunted by the police. Almodovar, a master of farcical screwball comedy, manages to keep all these balls in the air in dizzy, hilarious style without once losing his momentum. Chock full of the director's over-the-top stylization, in terms of both story and sets, the film is a hilarious yet heartfelt marriage of kitsch and drama, verging on parody but never going entirely over the top. Maura is absolutely breathtaking as the unhinged lover, dispensing wise advice to others while trying to keep a semblance of sanity, and the supporting cast is quintessential Almodovar, including a brief but memorable turn by Banderas in what could have been a bland, go-nowhere role. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1989. --Mark Englehart

All About My Mother After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. ----Bret Fetzer

Talk to Her
Writer-director Pedro Almodóvar makes another masterpiece with Talk to Her, his first film since the wonderful All About My Mother. Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is in love with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who is gored by a bull and sent into a coma. In the hospital, Marco crosses paths with Benigno (Javier Camara), a male nurse who looks after another coma patient, a young dancer named Alicia (Leonor Watling). From Benigno's gentle attentiveness to Alicia, Marco learns to take care of Lydia... but from there, the story goes in directions that deftly manage to be sad, hopeful, funny, and creepy, sometimes at the same time. The rich human empathy of Almodóvar's recent films is passionate, heartbreaking, intoxicating--there aren't enough adjectives to praise this remarkable filmmaker, who is at the height of his powers. Talk to Her is superb, with outstanding performances from all involved. --Bret Fetzer

The Flower of My Secret
Pedro Alomodóvar made this misfired, rambling comedy about a romance novelist (Marisa Paredes) whose crumbling marriage has left her depressed and unable to work. At a low point, she writes a scathing indictment of her own books (which are penned under another name), with no one realizing critic and author are one and the same. Almodóvar ( Law of Desire) has the start of a great idea here, and for once, he's direct about his sympathy for a character. But nothing else about The Flower of My Secret is so clear. Despite its unusual allegiance to the straightforward "women's films" of the 1950s, this movie blows it by becoming needlessly complicated over extraneous junk, forcing one to grope in the dark for Almodóvar's point. -- Tom Keogh

Bad Education
Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. -- Steve Wiecking

More Stills from Pedro Almodovar Classics Collection(click for larger image)

More Pedro Almodovar at Amazon.com

Songs of Almodóvar CD
Volver
The Films of Pedro Almodóvar

Customer Reviews:

Pedro! Viva!.......2007-05-14

I was familiar with the movies. They were part of a Retrospective about 6 yrs. ago at the Museum of the Moving Image. The box set is great!! The layout is fabulous. I had all the other movies except Matador. This is a must have for any Pedro fan. It is only missing High Heels, one of Pedro's best.

Great collection to have.......2007-05-13

I am a big fan of director Pedro Almodovar's films and this collection of 8 of his best movies is a must-have. These timeless movies are presented in a nice, space-saving box. I recommend it wholeheartedly to any fan of Almodovar.

VIVA PEDRO.......2007-05-12

Brilliant fimmaking, enormous vairety, lovely transfers. The material is difficult ot see. If you didn't catch these things when they were first released, you are up the creek. The theatrical reissue that was meant to promote the video release didn't last long enough for me to see but one of them. The dvds of most are out print, but I had LIVE FLESH, TALK TO HER and BAD EDUCATION on dvd and WOMEN ON THE VERGE on laser disc. But still, I had to have the set. Really terrific. got a good price at amazon Marketplace and i'm totlaly satisfied.

You have to appreciate the improbable and ridiculous.......2007-05-01

A pretty good collection, if strangely inclusive of BAD EDUCATION, a recent film, with the older batch of films, mainly of 1980s. This could be because LAW OF DESIRE's film director character is a forerunner of the film director in the later film. The problem is in reviewing the collection or the individual films. For instance, there are 3 documentaries on the filmmaker included on an extra disk. Otherwise the movies are presented w/English subtitle options but no extras, except for one of them.

Almodovar's style as a whole is for wildly improbable plots involving situations and characters that run of the mill people would never experience. American film reviewers love this, as they love French farce, and so give these films a free pass, awarding a blue ribbon. The true question is whether the same films would be as highly reviewed if the identical screenplay were presented as a solely American product.

Almodovar's film staples include (on the 8 films represented in this package): (1) Penelope Cruz going into labor (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER; LIVE FLESH). (2) The homely guy is always slick, a real winner, at least professionally, and sometimes a film director (BAD EDUCATION; LAW OF DESIRE). (3) There's always strained theatrical moments, such as presentations of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, that take up much screen time, and often are comical without being meant to be. Ditto a usage of older films that his characters seem to be greatly influenced by. (4) The cute guy, who in real life would probably be greatly sought after as a romantic partner, is always a loser who becomes obsessed with another person or thing to the detriment of everything else (LIVE FLESH; LAW OF DESIRE; BAD EDUCATION). (5) Usage of FF nudity is primarily male. (6) Everyone in the world (or at least Spain) is personally acquainted with a transexual or transvestite.

Briefly, on the films themselves, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER is a tear-jerker that goes to extremes and unfortunately goes on way too long. Good acting, but improbable characters and their life histories make this film an experience to endure.

BAD EDUCATION has the superlative Gael Garcia Bernal in it, and is also a blatant indictment of the Catholic Church's methods. The twists and turns in the plot make it worthwhile as well as uniformly good performances. Unusual film from this director, who usually focusses more on the women. For those squeamish of homosexual content, this film is not nearly as explicit as LAW OF DESIRE.

LAW OF DESIRE has the young Antonio Banderas seducing/seduced by a film director whom he is obsessed with. There is FF nudity from Banderas and others. Rather interesting, not quite a thriller, but an ending that brings the story-line full circle in a way. Rather a moral on how what you're looking for may be staring you in the face but you have to be prepared to take it. I found the plot weak whenever it got into the ancillary characters, as they were unnecessary to the main plot but presumably there to soften the main character of the film director.

LIVE FLESH is an unbelievable situation of a young man from prison subsequently having affairs with two police officers' (one of whom he'd shot and crippled) wives. Unfortunately this plot was wholly predictable though improbable. Too many cliches of drunken criminal cop abusing wife, etc. At times seems it was meant to be a music video, and should have been, with pop songs used as narrative.

TALK TO HER, generally considered one of the more popular Almodovar films, and a quiet, sincere character piece. I could easily have lived without the scene of the shrunken man interacting with a woman's nude body; that was outrageous for the fun of it, I guess. But from what appeared to be a would-be homosexual union between two men veered in another direction that also made the ending quite believable. It set up cliches only to knock them down.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN has provided me an obsession with gazpacho that has haunted me to this day. I didn't watch it again via this collection, but realized I have no memories of the film from first seeing it, except that it was fun; so that tells me nothing of the plot is essential, and I probably didn't identify with the characters.

THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET is weird, as it takes off from the scenario of ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, which isn't a good thing. It's about a writer's crisis, this time her own self-conceit being played out on a public stage, as she is both a well known author but also writes under a pseudonyn attacking her own work. Meanwhile, her marriage is falling apart. So she's really a woman having an identity crisis, as an artist, and as a woman. Maybe it takes a person who's undergone an identity crisis to understand this one.

MATADOR can be summed as "Can two serial killers find happiness in death with each other?" Add Banderas as a sexually confused young man who appears to have occasional perfect-radar psychic abilities and a young woman who's been sexually assaulted three times and is quite casual about it, and a closeted gay detective, and a psychiatrist who wants to seduce basically anybody, and you pretty much have a would-be psychology thriller very confused about what's going on. The film has the confusion one would expect from a wholly improvisational piece, like the director was making it up as they went along in the filming. I am blinded by the idea any of these characters would even exist in real life, except for the detective, so find it amazing they'd actually be stumbling into each other's orbit. A fun movie to spend some time on, as it is an entertaining mix of psychological motivations and I guess you can breathe easy nobody like this lives on your block.

It's about time Pedro's older (and best ) movies were available in USA format!.......2007-04-24

I have been an Amoldovar fan for more than twenty years (at least). I'm glad that he's gotten more American recognition now, but his older movies are still my favorites ( and so hard to find not that I'm no longer in a big city with great art and foreign film theaters. I'm so glad this incredible collection is finally available! (Not to mention that Matador and Law of Desire are some of the best acting Banderas has ever done!)

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Average customer rating:

Thanks to Angelika for showing this Almodovar Movie!
What's up with Almodovar's DVD releases???
Enjoyable Comedy. Not quite up to Hepburn and Grant!
Wildly funny
Very familiar Almodovar, but viewers who know modern Almodovar may be surprised

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Starring: Carmen Maura , Antonio Banderas , Julieta Serrano , María Barranco , and Rossy de Palma
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Live Flesh
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What Have I Done to Deserve This?
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ASIN: B000059H9F
Release Date: 2001-04-10

Description

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar created a fiery sensation with this nutty screwball comedy, about a slightly unbalanced actress in a desperate situation. "Women on the Verge..." was Almodovar's international breakthrough film, and is one of his best loved.

Customer Reviews:

Thanks to Angelika for showing this Almodovar Movie!.......2006-09-29

I liked it and I miss this type of comedy.
The taxi driver was hilarious!

What's up with Almodovar's DVD releases???.......2006-08-22

This is a great movie....Why isn't it available on DVD in the US? There's a festival of Pedro's movies in the theaters around the country right now....but can you buy his DVDs...for most of them, NO! So, what's the story? Is there a re-release in the works? A boxed set for Chirstmas? Deluxe versions with commentary? Let us fans in on the secret! Thanks!~Tom Burkert

Enjoyable Comedy. Not quite up to Hepburn and Grant!.......2006-01-11

`Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' written and directed by Spaniard Pedro Almodovar has been described by some other reviewers as a `screwball comedy'. I generally agree with this assessment, except that compared to the greatest of this genre, for example, `Bringing Up Baby' with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, this effort is just a bit weak, primarily in the weaknesses of the male protagonists, who generally make short appearances, largely as a means to introduce the various stressed out women of the story, of which there are four or five, depending on how you count them.

Like `Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, the next Almodovar film, this involves a film within a film in that the lead character played by Carmen Maura is a voiceover actress who dubbs female voices. They appear to be working on an American film starring Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden whose name escapes me.

The lion's share of the story is the increasingly desperate efforts of two main characters to work out their failed relation with the primary male character, as one woman, the Maura character is the man's long time mistress, and the other, played by Julieta Serrano, is his wife. The other women are stressed out by an oddly contemporary subplot in which some Shiihite terrorists are planning to blow up a flight to Copenhagen, the very same flight the lead male character is to be taking with his new mistress.

Oddly enough, Antonio Banderas, who gets second billing on the cover of the tape is hardly even the third or fourth most important character in the film. Either his credit is being boosted due to his more recent celebrity or he was among the best known Spanish film actors even in 1988.

This is a very entertaining film, at least as good as a lesser Woody Allen movie, but not quite up to the best comedies.

Wildly funny.......2005-12-05

Love, sweet love, what some people will go through in the name of love! In this fleet-footed comedy a woman (played by Carmen Maura) learns that she is pregnant by her married lover (Fernando Guillen) and spends two frantic days and nights trying to contact him with the news. This sets off a madcap series of "adventures" - each one enough to cause anyone a nervous breakdown - involving Shiite terrorists, her lover's wife and son, the police, and a mad chase to the airport. At the end Maura saves Guillen's life (his crazy wife was going to shoot him) but decides to throw him over.

The camera technique here is flawless: with quick cutting and constant movement we feel Maura's anxiety. The maddening missed connections are handled brilliantly. Writer and director Almodovar has a sure comic touch. This movie reminded me quite a bit of A FISH CALLED WANDA, which also has madcap humor and a very fast pace. Both pictures even have a stutterer in them. Definitely worth a watch.

Very familiar Almodovar, but viewers who know modern Almodovar may be surprised.......2005-11-08

Watching Women on the Verge . . . reminded me of Hindi movies from the eighties; why? Because of the style, the dialogue, the whole way that the thing is filmed. So people who know Almodovar's current, what I consider more sophisticated, work, you might be disappointed. The style is very 80s, and why shouldn't it be? The movie was released in 1988. The cinematography is no doubt wonderful, but newer Almodovar films have incomparable beauty, which is not so much present in this film. The plot is complicated but no more complicated than most plots are these days; the story is fascinating with neat twists and turns, the focus is heavily on Pepa compared to the other characters. If you are watching this movie for Antonio Banderas I'd forget about him; he does a great job, but Almodovar loves making films about women and the experience of being a woman. Men only make cameos, and Antonio's role is little more than that. Pepa, on the other hand, is a tremendous, strong woman, and the dialogue in this film is its strongest point - especially Pepa's.

A point on the film as a screwball comedy; having just viewed it, I can see where this is coming from and the film definitely has its moments, but I wouldn't say that the film had me laughing from beginning to end. It has some very funny moments, as well as several instances of very biting comedy. In many ways the film is really serious, and Pepa's role, which is central, is not the most comic of the film.

Overall a great movie; I enjoyed seeing early Almodovar but if I have to make a choice I prefer "All About My Mother" and "Talk to Her".

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

Average customer rating:

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Manufacturer: Roadshow
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000JDBG1K

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: Though the kinky characters and aberrant social behavior common to the works of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar are very evident in his Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the film is at heart a door-slamming farce in the grand tradition. The tiny apartment of pregnant actress Carmen Maura is the "Grand Central Station" setpiece for this dizzying tale. Distraught over her recent breakup with her lover, Carmen prepares to overdose on sleeping pills, which she blends into a gazpacho so they'll go down easier. She is diverted from her suicide by her best friend Maria Barranco, a fugitive from justice (her boy friend is a Shi'Ite terrorist) who needs a place to stay. Later, when Carmen's apartment is empty, her ex-lover's grown son (Antonio Banderas) comes to the apartment with his fiance (Rossy de Palma) in answer to Carmen's "room to let" newspaper ad. The wife inadvertently ingests Carmen's "pill sauce," and as she blissfully snoozes, the husband inaugurates an affair with Carmen's friend Barranco. SPECIAL FEATURES: Featurette, Interactive Menu,

Pedro Almodovar 4-DVD Collection (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; Pepi, Luci,Bom; Dark Habits; What Have I Done to Deserve This?) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]

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Pedro Almodovar 4-DVD Collection (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; Pepi, Luci,Bom; Dark Habits; What Have I Done to Deserve This?) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Manufacturer: Optimum
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Viva Pedro - Pedro Almodovar Classics Collection (Talk to Her/ Bad Education/ All about My Mother/ Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown/ Live Flesh/ Flower of My Secret / Matador / Law of Desire)
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ASIN: B000FVXTYI

Product Description

"Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: This 4-DVD Collection contains 4 Almodovar's movies: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios): 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, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner. Pepi, Luci, Bom: Almodovar's first film of life in Madrid during the punk era and not one for the squeamish. He covers everything from drugs and sexual violence, to female masochism. Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas): Yolanda sings in a seedy nightclub. When her boyfriend dies of an overdose, she fears the police and seeks refuge in a convent that saves women from the streets. These off-beat nuns include a heroin using abbess who loves Yolanda, one who writes romance novels under a pseudonym, another raising a tiger in the convent yard, and one who designs fabulous fashions and is in love with the local priest. They plan an evening extravaganza starring Yolanda to celebrate the abbess's birthday and to convince their wealthy patron not to abandon them. What Have I Done to Deserve This? (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!): A dysfunctional family in Madrid: Gloria is a cleaning lady, living in a crowded flat with Antonio, her surly husband, a cabby who adores an aging German singer he used to chauffeur; he's also a forger. One teen son sells heroin, the other sleeps with men... Can this chaos be tamed? SPECIAL FEATURES: Box Set, Interactive Menu, Multi-DVD Set, "

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! [Region 2 Import- Great Britain, English Subtitles]

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Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! [Region 2 Import- Great Britain, English Subtitles]

Manufacturer: Pathe!
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Pedro Almodovar Interviews Antonio Banderas
Madrid Party Premier
Poster Gallery
Production Gallery
Theatrical Trailer and English Subtitles

ASIN: B000LPPH1G

Product Description

Ricki, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, kidnaps porn star Marina and tells her, 'I am 23 years old, have 50,000 pesetas and am alone in the world. I would like to be a good husband to you and a good father to your children'. As Ricki attempts to achieve an ordinary life by force, with alternately hilarious, tender or disturbing consequences, we are left wondering about the ties that bind in more conventional relations.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [Region 2]

Average customer rating:

Thanks to Angelika for showing this Almodovar Movie!
What's up with Almodovar's DVD releases???
Enjoyable Comedy. Not quite up to Hepburn and Grant!
Wildly funny
Very familiar Almodovar, but viewers who know modern Almodovar may be surprised

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [Region 2]
Starring: Carmen Maura , Antonio Banderas , Julieta Serrano , María Barranco , and Rossy de Palma
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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