Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

1988

1h 28m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

962

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Comedy

Drama

Pepa resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a deliciously chaotic series of events.

Directors

Pedro Almodóvar

Writers

Pedro Almodóvar(screenplay by)

Pedro Almodóvar(story by)

Jean Cocteau(theatre play by)

Stars

Carmen Maura

Antonio Banderas

Julieta Serrano

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Top cast

Pepa

Carlos

Lucía

Candela

Marisa

Paulina Morales

Taxi Driver

Jehovah's Witness Goalkeeper

Eduardo Calvo

Lucía's Father

Loles León

Secretary

Ángel de Andrés López

Police I

Iván

Germán

Police II

Ana

Lucía's Mother

Secretaria Paulina

Police I Spot

Directors

Pedro Almodóvar

Writers

Pedro Almodóvar(screenplay by)

Pedro Almodóvar(story by)

Jean Cocteau(theatre play by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

"I was a virgin this morning, but I'm not sure now...". Well after ninety minutes of these shenanigans, I'm surprised she was even certain about the morning. The story follows actress "Pepa" (Carmen Maura) who is despondent after being left by boyfriend "Iván" (Fernando Guillén). Determined to find out why, and pregnant, she contacts his former wife "Lucia" (Julieta Serrano), herself fresh from a lengthy stint in a sanatorium and living with her rather geeky looking twenty-something son "Carlos" (Antonio Banderas) but they can't really shed much light on his behaviour either. Whilst all this is going on, a group of terrorists is believed to have carried out an atrocity in Madrid and it might be that her best friend "Candela" (Marisa Barranco) could be mixed up as she had them stay in her apartment for an evening of furious jogging - so now she's in hiding. With the media and the cops on the trail of the killers, Pedro Almodóvar now crams enough slapstick comedy into this to rival anything Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau ever did. There's nothing nor anybody left out - even a bleach blond gay guy and some ridiculous high heeled antics to keep the pace rocketing along til a denouement that closes the story, but that hardly matters. This is about the characters and both Maura and and Barranco are on entertaining form delivering a pithy and humorous script as the plot lurches from the daft to the dafter. Well worth a watch this.

Geronimo196711 Apr, 2024