Keeping busy

One thing I've really liked about the Almodovar films we've watched is the pace. Everything feels so hectic. All these life-changing, usually pretty damn depressing things are happening to people, but there's always so much other zany shit going on (Muslim hijackers, spiked gazpacho, insane wives, frantically feeding film crews, moms coming back from the dead) that the bleak points — gut-wrenching breakups, sexual assaults — don't get a chance to be truly bleak. No sooner does the girl stab her stepfather to death than the mom is in there — in a comic nod to professional housewifery — with her bucket and mop expertly dealing with the mess, and I for one was thinking boy, that scarlet pool of blood looks really pretty on that aquamarine floor. Almodovar makes "dark" comedies, but the darkness is always kept at bay by the manic carnival and color of life.

Leading ladies

What did you think of Penelope Cruz as the heroine? I didn't mind her, but I think she lacked that real spark that was so fantastic in Pepa in "Women on the Verge." And I think Carmen Maura stole all her scenes in "Volver," too. I adored her hiding under the bed and laughing about farts.

The sexes

"Volver" gives us an ensemble of females to root for and a couple of low-life males to despise (one unseen). What do you think Almodovar's thoughts are about men and women? This is only my second film of his, but I'm reminded somewhat of the women and men in "Women on the Verge," who didn't exactly make beautiful music together.

French connection

I was astounded to learn that Jean Cocteau was involved in the making of Almodovar's film. (I am sort of a Cocteau fan by marriage — I had a big thing in college for Raymond Radiguet, Cocteau's genius boy lover who wrote two French masterpieces and died at age 20).

Here's an interesting excerpt about the Cocteau play that inspired "Women." The whole thing is here.

Jean Cocteau's one-act play, La Voix humaine [The Human Voice], consists entirely of a monologue by a woman engaged in a final phone conversation with her lover. Alone in her room, she desperately clings to the telephone as her only link to the man who has left her for someone else. Although this agonizing portrait of abandonment and despair bears little resemblance to Almodovar's multi-charactered comedic romp through the streets of Madrid in Mujeres al horde de un ataque de nervios [Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown], Cocteau's play has been named as the source of inspiration for that film. In various interviews Almodovar has explained that his original intention had been to adapt the play to the screen, but due to its brevity, he needed to expand the material to feature film length. This led him to devise a story of the forty-eight hours leading up to the phone call.

How times change

The first time I saw this movie I hadn't the foggiest idea what a "Shiite terrorist" was.

The ending

To avoid putting any spoilers out here, I'll post in the first comment.

And now for the men ...

Ivan. Mambo taxi driver. Ana's biker babe?

1) Flawed? (Too obvious?)
2) Likable?

Language and sensibility

cl alluded to the language barrier. It's something I really considered with this film, more so than with other foreign movies, because it's so stylized; I was wondering whether they had a really particular or stylized way of talking that got lost in translation. Did anyone else have that feeling?

I remember reading a long time ago — in The Nation, I think, when I still subscribed — a film reviewer who described Pedro Almodovar this way: Imagine if Woody Allen had grown up gay in General Franco's Spain. That makes a certain amount of sense to me. Anyone else see it?

Pacing and plot

Starting with when Carlos, Marisa and Candela invade Pepa's apartment, I'd give this movie a 9 or 10. Before that, I think the beginning is pretty confusing (with or without the language barrier) ... especially the very start: Credits, Pepa, dream sequence, Ivan in studio, Pepa. Did anyone else experience this or any other difficulty following the plot?

Anticipation

Much of the comedy in the film involves anticipation. And sometimes we are made to wait for it. When Pepa dumps her pills into the gazpacho, you know that mischief is afoot. But it takes a bit before we know who is going to drink the stuff. Likewise, we know that her apartment is to be shown when she set the bed on fire, but we don’t expect quite as many, and as varied, visitors as she gets. So by the time she tells the mambo taxi driver that he should have some eye drops, we can anticipate at least one more taxi scene.

I love the bed fire, by the way. You would expect a woman setting her bed on fire to be acting out a symbolic rage against the man in her life. But Pepa does it out of negligence in the act of impulsively trying to improve her life by quitting smoking. And for a moment she is childishly captivated by the flames—until she starts choking.

cinematography

I think "Women" has a lot of gorgeously shot scenes. Among my favorite are the tightening shots of Pepa pacing through the apartment, particularly the one where the camera focuses in on her feet moving back and forth across the floor. Did this or any other shots stand out for you?

The women of "Women on the Verge"

We have our heroine, Pepa, and a hodgepodge of slightly nutty women:

Candela (the amiga), Marisa (sleeping fiance), Lucia (Ivan's vengeful ex), Paulina (la "feminista"), plus a Jehovah's witness, angry biker Ana and a nutty receptionist.

Pick any and all women to discuss. Are they:

1) Flawed?

2) Likable?

Next time ...

My apologies, everybody. Recommended for the next cinematic selection: Ensure that the movie is out on DVD (because many rental places, like Blockbuster, have stopped renting VHS), and also check that it's on Netflix. "Women" is not on DVD, so I think some people still haven't seen it. My library copy is en route to the McDs right now.

Christy's pick

I feel a little overwhelmed, selecting the first Cinema Chatter film pick, and I hope that a foreign movie won't turn off prospective members. But "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" is one of my favorite comedies. And my deciding factor was the buzz about director Pedro Almodóvar's upcoming film, "Volver."

I hope you, too, will enjoy heroic women, chickens, a mambo taxi, a well-deserved bitch-slap and a fumbling Antonio Banderas.

What to drink during the movie: Gazpacho.