Pedro Almodovar nsts one of the greatest living film directors, the rightful heir to Hitchcock’s throne with his mix of psychosexual driven dramas and an innovative storyteller who delivers uniquely crafted narratives. When Hulu notified me that his films were going to expire and be removed on June 20, 2017, I decided to watch all his films, including the ones that I already saw. This review is the second in a summer series that reflect on his films and contains spoilers.
I am fairly certain that I have seen Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown multiple times on multiple mediums: VHS, DVD and now streaming. The images stayed with me long after the memory of the plot subsided. If you have seen an Almodovar film, it is probably this one because it has the tone of a classic screwball comedy, no sexual situations, no death and is vibrant. Unlike most of his other films, there is no trans character, and the only character that could be considered *ahem* flamboyant has a girlfriend, is a tertiary character and is purely comedic.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown follows Pepa, a famous TV actor, as she desperately tries and repeatedly fails to communicate with her ex-lover and fellow coworker, Ivan, a voiceover actor, soon after he breaks up with her. Her desperation leads her to various encounters with other colorful characters in crisis.
Like most of his films, Almodovar begins in confusion-the voiceover is slightly dissonant with the succession of images on the screen. We hear Pepa describe her home before the breakup, but we only see her sleeping, multiple alarm clocks and an architectural model of her apartment building. Then we see a Fellini-esque sequence of Ivan encountering and desiring multiple types of women then at work doing a voiceover of a male character in a Joan Crawford film. It is only later in the film that we realize what is fiction and what is real when we see Pepa doing the voice of Joan Crawford and is painfully reminded of the words of love they once shared in better times. Our confusion mirrors and creates empathy for the internal turbulence of the main character’s emotions.
Like Pepa, we are on a journey to determine what is authentic and what is fake about her relationship with Ivan and her life. The artist’s personal life is a turbulent one, and she is a type of priest whom people feel compelled to confess their transgressions to and become their true selves. The unstable boundary between real life and the recorded events on screen, both silver and small, is constant. She goes from watching a TV news broadcast about Shiite terrorists to becoming a part of the police investigation. Pepa wants to simply live, but also must perform a role within her daily life in order to navigate absurd obstacles during an encounter with detectives. Her home becomes a stage for others to perform. There are even a couple of action sequences when she gets to jump in a cab and says “follow that car.”
The film initially appears to be a screwball comedy. I didn’t realize that seemingly insignificant moments like news broadcasts, an errand to the pharmacist, an innocuous request in a cab for eye drops or a casual visit to pharmacist would play a significant role in the movie’s denouement. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ends up being a clever twist on an action thriller in which like Liam Neeson, the characters must stop an assassination and a terrorist hijacking of a plane, but the action captured on film is emotional and psychological. The film is a cautionary tale for Pepa as her main foil, Lucia, Ivan’s ex-wife and raging madwoman, gives in completely to her destructive obsession and refuses to accept a decades long breakup with Ivan thus destroying any ability to move on and live a full life with those she should love. Pepa must wake up from her fantasy of what she imagined her life to be, and see it as it is. Like Law of Desire, the police investigation reveals that the crime being investigated is the explosive nature of their love life, but a cop appears to be napping in the airport when Lucia makes her move. Bureaucracy is always less effective than the sympathetic artist at resolving or preventing a crime.
What saves Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown from being a tragedy like Law of Desire is the redemptive ending for the main character. Pepa can move on and welcome a new life. The other women referenced in the title also have happy endings. Candela, the model, will probably not get in trouble, but may reprise Pepa’s role if Carlos, played by Antonio Banderas in another mama’s boy role, is anything like Ivan, which he appears to be. Marisa, Carlos’ fiancé, is finally satisfied and socially open to positive interactions after an inadvertent pharmaceutically induced, but restorative rest. The feminist lawyer gets her guy (for now, but if there is a sequel, she may assume the role of Pepa or Lucia depending on her outlook). Even Ana, the motorcyclist girlfriend, rescues her boyfriend. Lucia fails at her insane attempt at revenge and may get the treatment that she needs. Pepa’s home transforms from a hysterical sanctuary like Noah’s ark from an apocalyptic deluge into a restorative Edenic sanctuary where you can taste the forbidden fruit (tomato or gazpacho) without being exiled.
The Hitchcock style in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is reminiscent of Rear Window when Pepa spends a restless night looking for Ivan and voyeuristically sits on a bench and looks into the various apartment windows at the residents within the building. Like North by Northwest, there is a theme of serendipity in the film with characters casually being in the perfect place to discover something when it is casually being thrown out, or they are the unintended receivers of a message meant for someone else (Pepa’s discovery that Carlos is Ivan’s son) or as a well-deserved karmic moment of condemnation (the answering machine lands on the feminist lawyer’s getaway vehicle). Ivan purposely uses miscommunication or a false persona to play his former lovers against each other so he can get away without dealing with either of them.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is the perfect gateway film for people interested in Amodovar’s work, but is not necessarily emblematic of his style considering how relatively unscathed the characters emerge from this film. (Side note: The Burning Bed did predate this film. Influence?)