women on the verge of a nervous breakdown
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brian stokes mitchell and sherie rene scott in “women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. ”
“women on the verge of a nervous breakdown”: patti lupone leads a starry cast at the belasco theater .
tamsin greig as pepa marcos in the forthcoming musical adaptation of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing women on the verge of a nervous breakdown near you .
is pedro almodóvar' s women on the verge of a nervous breakdown a sexist comedy about hysterical women or a story of liberation from machismo? should our nerves jangle with ...
in women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, mr. almodovar sets out to charm rather than shock. that he succeeds should not come as a surprise .
the performance of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown at the playhouse theatre tonight (5 january 2015) has been cancelled due to
a number of cast illnesses
.
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown previews at the playhouse, wc2 (0844 871 7631; urltoken) from december 17, booking to may 9, 2015 .
pedro almodóvar’s eighties hit is one of the funniest films of all time, and now women on the verge of a nervous breakdown the musical is about to be unleashed on london’s theatre - going public .
pedro almodóvar’s pitch - black comedy women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, his first film to earn an oscar nomination, plays in denver this saturday and next monday .
almodóvar' s women on the verge of a nervous breakdown american trailer. it' s a romance, but it' s not about love... it' s a comedy, but not everyone laughs. it' s a place where the one that you can expect, is the unexpected... women on the verge of a nervous breakdown! ! !
a window on our ongoing coverage of women’s cinema, from movies by or about women to reports and comment on the underrepresentation of women ...
[ in the following essay, epps discusses the use of hysteria in almodóvar' s labyrinth of passions, what have i done to deserve this? and women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. ]
a vibrant mix of melodrama and screwball, pedro almodóvar’s eighth feature, women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, was the spanish director’s first to garner international acclaim and an oscar nomination. leading the film’s remarkable ense…
to pick your own seats for women on the verge of a nervous breakdown at playhouse theatre simply find the performances you' d like to see from the listings below and you' ll be given the option .
'' women on the verge of a nervous breakdown'' will be shown tonight at 7: 45 at alice tully hall and at 9 in avery fisher hall to begin the 26th new york film festival .
gazpacho, anyone? a musical adaptation of pedro almodóvar' s beloved film of the same name, women on the verge of a nervous breakdown is the brainchild of the talented team behind dirty rotten scoundrels. preserving the unusual and exhilarating tone and style of the oscar - nominated film, women on the verge will delight both fans of the film and newcomers to the raucous tale .
this story of women and the men who pursue them is a touching adaptation on the verge of all - out musical hilarity .
[ in the following essay, redding jessup asserts that
if the ending convincingly sums up pedro almodóvar' s gender messages in this film, women on the verge of a nervous breakdown is a story about emancipation from machismo .
]
cannes, france — expect more male characters from pedro almodovar, whose credits include such female - centered films as
all about my mother ,
volver
and
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown .
‘from wiry intelligence to wobbling despair’: tamsin greig (centre), flanked by anna skellern (third from left) and haydn gwynne, leads the cast of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown at the playhouse. photograph: tristram kenton
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown has a small, ensemble cast with many featured roles for women. the upbeat, memorable score is great for trained singers, giving many actors an opportunity to shine. perfect for companies looking for a zany, contemporary show with a built - in fan base .
he world is a perfect place, except for one thing – men abandon and cheat on women
: this is the world view of pedro almodovar. well, so claimed bartlett sher, director of the broadway musical adaptation of almodovar' s brilliant 1988 film, women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, which opens next week .
pedro almodóvar’s eighties film women on the verge of a nervous breakdown is a giddy farce, and its camp theatricality always made it a strong candidate for a stage adaptation. four and a bit years on from an extravagant and unsuccessful showing on broadway, this musical version gets a fresh chance in a more focused, less bombastic form .
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown is a key film in my life. it went all over the world and opened up doors for me. there have been two musical adaptations and an italian theatre version. it’s a film that is very much alive .
source :
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown: sexism or emancipation from machismo ?
in look who' s laughing: gender and comedy, edited by gail finney, gordon and breach, 1994, pp. 299 - 314 .
yes, attention - deficit disorder, the plague of american schoolchildren, has now claimed one of broadway’s own. packed with talent and creativity, and a cast and crew bristling with tony awards, “women on the verge of a nervous breakdown” is nonetheless a sad casualty of its own wandering mind .
however, mr. almodovar is not a film maker who can be easily upstaged by a near - classic cartoon. at its best,'' women on the verge of a nervous breakdown'' has much of the cheeringly mad intensity of animated shorts produced in hollywood before the television era .
mti is releasing an all - new revised version of david yazbek and jeffery lane' s (dirty rotten scoundrels) women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. we sat down with yazbek to discuss the changes to the show which were made for the smash - hit west end production .
a musical comedy based on a cult pedro almodóvar film about a bunch of women going doolally over a cheating middle - aged cad? a show which, moreover, flopped on broadway and is now trying to woo cash - strapped british audiences in mid - winter? to be honest, almost all of me thought that the producers must have taken leave of their senses in trying to bring women on the verge of a nervous breakdown to the less frequented side of the embankment .
starring the olivier award - winning actress tamsin greig (episodes, green wing, jumpy, god of carnage), haydn gwynne (the audience, billy elliot) and jérôme pradon (les miserables, pacific overtures), the smart musical comedy women on the verge of a nervous breakdown opened to critical acclaim .
pass the gazpacho: here' s the first image of tamsin greig, dressed in a thierry mugler jumpsuit, as pepa marcos in women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. the west end musical adaptation of pedro almodóvar' s film opens at the playhouse theatre on 12 january 2015. watch greig' s behind - the - scenes transformation and see the picture in full .
the critically acclaimed and possibly controversial in the west end sector, women on the verge of a nervous breakdown was a production i was very excited to see. announced recently with an early closure, this news worried me in the contrast to the good comments i had heard about the production and so there was a slight anticipation to what i was about to embark on .
in'' women on the verge of a nervous breakdown,'' mr. almodovar sets out to charm rather than shock. that he succeeds should not come as a surprise. the common denominator of all almodovar films, even the one that winds up in an ecstatic murder - suicide pact, is their great good humor .
lincoln center theater presented the world premiere of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a musical based on pedro almodóvar' s classic film. lct' s resident director, bartlett sher, led the extraordinary collaborators jeffrey lane and david yazbek, who took almodóvar' s tale and infused it with their own wry, comic style and an irresistible spanish beat .
bartlett sher’s production of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown has a lot to live up to. not just de palma’s gutsy glee, but a large political intention. almodóvar’s story of women liberating themselves after being messed about by men is in part a tribute to the women who he thinks rescued spain from the civil war. it has an artful overlay: the gazpacho laced with sleeping pills that sends characters to the land of nod is an elixir, like the magical juice in a midsummer night’s dream .
they’re giving out the wrong drug at the belasco theater, where “women on the verge of a nervous breakdown” opened on thursday night. as in the 1988 pedro almodóvar movie that inspired this star - jammed musical, valium is consumed in large quantities by many characters. that is so pharmaceutically irresponsible. what this production needs — immediately and intravenously — is ritalin .
on one hand you have a striking title which reminds you of a women’s disease of yesteryear, invented by men to justify their sexual frustration – hysteria. on the other hand, the whole point of the movie is that desperately waiting for a phone call and not being able to regain control of your life after a bad break - up doesn’t make you weak. carmen maura’s performance perfectly demonstrates that being on the verge of a nervous breakdown isn’t the same as fully freaking out .
access your digital script, score, and automatically organize production elements within a breakdown of the show .
in the program notes for the new london production of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown: the musical, composer - lyricist david yazbek explains that the show has
changed tremendously
since it was first staged in a truncated run on broadway in 2010 .
if london is our production, new york was a very expensive out - of - town try - out ,
he says .
this is the best possible version .
jeffrey lane (book) and david yazbek' s (music and lyrics) women on the verge of a nervous breakdown is the musical stage adaptation of pedro almodóvar' s 1988 spanish language film, a larger than life black comedy. this chicago - area production marks the u. s. regional debut of the show and features a revised book and reordered songs. william pullinsi directs with choreography by danny herman .
their story is told through flashbacks as mateo, now a blind screenwriter who has sought to block out his past, chronicles a furtive affair that ends in catastrophe. the dark melodrama is sweetened with typical almodovar comic touches, including a film within the film. this consists of snippets of a comedy mateo is shooting that was inspired by
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown ,
the 1988 film that helped establish almodovar outside spain .
click on the name of the production on the left. the four published reviews will be listed .
women on the verge is based on a spanish film (spanish: mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) written and directed by pedro almodóvar. the musical is still based in spain but with a range of english dialects, we see the story of several women and their lives due to the impact of significant men; 3 women sharing a cheating middle - aged man and two younger women over the dream man. while this sounds an extremely feminist and almost man - bashing in its’ narrative, this comical musical professes much for both genders and orientations, hitting on some stereotypes in a funny way .
in the first half the show itself teeters on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with an especially uncertain opening number. bartlett sher’s production takes too long to look fully at ease. the score is by david yazbek — who also provides lyrics, while the book is by jeffrey lane — and though it pulses with latin rhythms and clever twists, there aren’t enough genuinely flavoursome tunes .
these are only some of the delirious ingredients in this most entertaining, deliberately benign new spanish farce,'' women on the verge of a nervous breakdown.'' the director is pedro almodovar, better known here for his deliberately scandalous dark comedies ('' matador,'''' law of desire'' and'' what have i done to deserve this?'') in which anything goes, provided that it may offend somebody' s sensibility .
an examination on the effect of franco - era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends .
book by jeffrey lane; music by david yazbek; lyrics by david yazbek; based on the film
women on the verge ...
by pedro almodóvar; musical director: james abbott; music orchestrated by simon hale; additional orchestrations by james abbott and david yazbek
madrid, the first track from david yazbek and jeffrey lane’s score for the new stage adaptation of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown has been released, capturing the humour, colour and chaos of pedro almodóvar’s oscar - nominated film. powered by a live onstage band and boasting an international cast that includes ricardo afonso, marianna benedict, tamsin greig, hadyn gwynne, rebecca mckinnis, sarah moyle, haydn oakley, jerome pradon, anna skellern and willemijn verkaik, this smart new musical comedy is directed by tony award - winner bartlett sher .
that almodovar himself has been involved has added to the load on the heavily padded shoulders of this largely female cast. but sher' s somewhat simplistic take on the almodovarian mentality was not the only sign that it would not live up to fans' expectations. preview performances have been pushed back twice, and opening and closing songs are still being juggled, suggesting it' s not only the women having the nervous breakdown but the cast and crew .
though feminist in its sympathies,'' women on the verge'' is far from being a tract of any sort. the characters mr. almodovar has written and directed keep asserting idiosyncrasies that do not allow them, or the film, to be so humorlessly categorized .
after that, he wrote the part of marisa for me for in women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. it felt more like being an actor because, unlike in law of desire, my character had nothing to do with my real life. she did not dress like me. marisa [ who comes to pepa’s apartment with her boyfriend, who happens to be pepa’s lover’s son ] drinks gazpacho filled with sleeping pills and falls asleep. at the beginning i was like: “my goodness, i’m not doing anything here! ”
through both his exceptionally skilful interpretations of female relationships (in particular his compassionate depictions of complicated and fractious familial bonds in films such as high heels, volver (2006) and women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (1998) ) and his granting of centre stage to trans - gender and trans - sexual characters (such as agrado in all about my mother (1999), tina in law of desire (1987) and angel in bad education (2004) ), almodóvar manages to ‘un - gender’ his audience. an act that seems impossible within the patriarchal systems of mulvey’s influential piece .
melding melodrama with screwball farce, this academy award–nominated black comedy was pedro almodóvar’s international breakthrough and secured his place at the vanguard of modern spanish cinema. continuing the auteur’s exploration of the female psyche, women on the verge of a nervous breakdown tells the story of pepa—played by the director’s frequent collaborator carmen maura—who 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. the filmmaker channeled hollywood inspiration into his own unique vision, arriving at the irreverent humor and vibrant visual sense that define his work today. with an exceptional ensemble cast that also includes antonio banderas and rossy de palma, this film shows an artist in total control of his craft .
all the women in this gloriously camp yet seriously heartfelt celebration of female powers of survival and self - emancipation have been abandoned by men .
today he is among the most celebrated directors in the world, with two oscars (talk to her, all about my mother) to his name and stars such as penélope cruz at his command. but back in 1988 things were very different for almodóvar, below. then he was an underground film - maker living in madrid with a small arthouse audience for his anarchic, low - budget movies. then, in march that year, came the premiere of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (or, in its more poetic spanish, mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios), a self - penned piece of delirious comedy inspired by hollywood classics .
he has covered a broad range of subjects: transsexuality in high heels and all about my mother; love and loss in talk to her and the flower of my secret; diabolical revenge in the skin i live in; mother - daughter relations in volver; and abandonment in his forthcoming julieta. his 2013 comedy i’m so excited seems to exist as an outlier, yet almodóvar started out with this kind of madcap comedy, in films like law of desire and pepi, luci, bom. women on the verge of a nervous breakdown is the film where almodóvar manages to draw upon almost all of his pet themes at the same time. he puts everything into the pot and comes out with a film that’s light, refreshing and tangy .
two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas .
a television actress encounters a variety of eccentric characters after embarking on a journey to discover why her lover abruptly left her .
a woman called pepa is going to have a definitive conversation with her lover, who is leaving her. when you split up with someone you are on the verge of a breakdown, you are about to lose control. she goes out in search of him and things happen: her apartment fills up with people who have a range of different problems. at first pepa resents all these people, but in the process of helping them, she realises she has got over her own problem .
the almodóvar collection, six of the director’s early films, is out on 19 september .
'' women on the verge'' takes place in its own, very special farcical universe, where outrageous coincidences are the norm and where logic dictates that a forgotten blender full of spiked gazpacho will be drunk by the wrong person. it' s also a place where a television anchor is a sweet old grandmother instead of a barely literate sex symbol, and where pepa, an actress, appears in a commercial for a detergent guaranteed to get the blood out of your killer son' s shirt and trousers .
in the film carmen maura gives an unforgettable performance as pepa. in her luminous close - ups we see both her desperation and her strength. almodóvar acknowledges maura as his muse, saying he enjoyed her performance so much in the law of desire, his previous feature, that he decided to make women on the verge “an overdose of carmen maura”. tamsin greig has a similar ineffable allure .
fourteen new songs feature, including on the verge and lie to me. the opening song, madrid, contains the lyrics: “madrid is my mama / give me the nipple, everyday i’m gonna taste it. ” madre mia !
at one point in the swirling mayhem of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a character catches sight of what she thinks is a mirror but is in fact a picasso portrait. “my god, i look dreadful! ” she exclaims. it’s a throwaway gag (and very funny in context), but it’s perhaps also symbolic. with its primary - coloured set, farcical plot, hectic pace and illogical structure, this stage musical of pedro almodóvar’s much - loved 1988 film aims to use splintered style and self - conscious theatricality to get at the fact that life, as experienced, often doesn’t make sense. it’s a second shot for the creative team, who mounted an ill - fated broadway version in 2010. and it seems apt for a show all about tenacity that this slimmed - down version comes nearer its mark and features stellar performances from tamsin greig and haydn gwynne .
while
broken embraces
gives equal time to men, almodovar said women remain the stronger sex in his stories. the spanish filmmaker said that, until about age 8, he grew up almost exclusively in the company of his mother and other women, a generation tempered by hard postwar conditions in the 1950s .
there' s a wonderfully jabbing end - of - the - tether quality to the act one finale (“welcome to the edge, the verge, the ledge”) where greig, in specially trained and remarkably serviceable voice, is joined by the rest of the teetering brigade .
pepa' s suicide quickly takes on the aspects of a dental check - up: it keeps getting sidetracked .
join the get the chance group on facebook for updates and opportunities to get involved .
miss maura is wonderful as a woman who simply cannot resist fighting back. the actress has a big, no - nonsense screen personality that perfectly fits mr. almodovar' s raffishly deadpan comic method. watching'' women on the verge'' while remembering'' the human voice,'' one experiences the same sense of liberation that bob hoskins feels when he leaves los angeles and enters toontown in'' who framed roger rabbit.''
men or women, this show caters for all, whether it is the relatable narrative, the comical scenes or the unusual take on a musical, this is a show that would be a shame to miss. so much so, i am considering seeing it just one more time, just as a treat !
returning to my earlier comment of being slightly controversial on the west end, women on the verge dared to bring a new and unconventional musical to the difficult and notorious scene where musicals consist rarely of productions that are not well - known and usually of whose music everyone already knows, ready to sing along to. as someone who is not hugely into musicals, but is finding slight entertainment in them recently due to the west end, this satirical and broad attempt at a west end musical was right up my street – the music catchy, with a spanish twist which complimented my love of european and mediterranean culture and dared to bring out a bit of atmosphere in such a small theatre .
the plot here follows that of the film closely. pepa (ms. scott, in the role immortalized on screen by carmen maura), is a movie voice dubber, who has just been left by her longtime lover (and fellow dubber), ivan (mr. mitchell). this guy has a history of walking out on women, including his wife, lucia (ms. lupone), newly released from a mental institution and bent on revenge .
the movie is big enough to carry these claims. the show is not. a slimmed - down version of the musical put on five years ago in the states, which sher described as “the most expensive out - of - town try - out in theatre history”, it is elegant and edgy rather than barmy and bumptious. too agreeable to be really disturbing. what’s on the other side of the verge does not look or sound sufficiently momentous .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
hollywood remake? almodovar' s apparently planning a tv series spin - off of the film on fox tv in the us, which his screenwriter promises will be
a suburban drama about a group of women who have known each other for a long time
. prizes it won five goyas, two european film awards and two venice film festival gongs, and was nominated for a bafta, an oscar and a golden globe. what to say ...
the royal tenenbaums riffs on the mambo taxi gag, with the same cab turning up every time a character needs a ride .
what not to say ...
pfft, women eh ?
[ in the following essay, vernon analyzes the influence of american film melodrama on almodóvar' s work. ]
creating
one of the jauntiest of all war - of - the - sexes comedies
( pauline kael), pedro almodóvar, spain' s premiere writer - director, creates an off - kilter universe of madness, mayhem and pure fun. high atop one of spain' s poshest penthouses, three women have come to the end of their mental ropes. super - sexy pepa (carmen maura) is forever teetering around atop her skyscraper spikes as she obsesses over iván (fernando guillén), the lover who just jilted her over the answering machine! her neurotic best friend candela (maría barranco) is seeking refuge at pepa' s place because she recently realized her lover is a shiite terrorist. and iván' s ex - wife lucía (julieta serrano) was just released from a 20 - year stint in a mental institution. they' re all mighty mad - - in fact, they' re on the verge of a nervous breakdown? and one of them is about to commit murder unless the other half - crazed femmes fatales can stop her !
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 .
but the play' s worst crime is that it misses the point of the film. in the play, women are masochistic and fragile, in thrall to any man' s
blah blah blah
, as ivan sings. but almodovar' s point is not merely that evil men hurt poor little women; it' s that men are weak and women are amazing. this may be just as sweepingly simplistic but it' s a lot more sympathetic to both genders and, as a result, a more fun viewing experience .
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a live band will appear on stage, and instead of hollywood references, david yazbek’s score makes heavy use of guitar to set the spanish scene .
but “women” the movie had momentum and suspense beneath its giddiness. contrasting deliberately artificial visuals (in the style of 1950s technicolor hollywood melodramas) with dead earnest emotions, mr. almodóvar’s film exuded, hilariously but hauntingly, the heightened passions we associate with opera. its characters’ distractedness was the distractedness of obsession. the distractedness of “women” the musical mostly feels born of indecision and even boredom, as if it kept getting tired of whatever it was doing .
most important, it thrusts the onus on to the cast to draw out the bruised feelings behind the fizzing disarray. greig brings her touching tragicomic expertise to pepa and a rich, rough emotional truth to her musical solos. gwynne is superb as the ex - wife and her painful song about the invisibility of middle - aged women gets to the heart of the show .
both touching and hilarious, women on the verge is a story about women and the men who pursue them... finding them, losing them, needing them and rejecting them. at the center is pepa, whose friends and lovers are blazing a trail through 1980s madrid. along with pepa, there' s her missing (possibly philandering) lover, ivan; his ex - wife of questionable sanity, lucia; their son, carlos; pepa' s friend, candela and her terrorist boyfriend; a power - suited lawyer; and a taxi driver who dispenses tissues, mints and advice in equal proportion. mayhem and comic madness abound, balanced by the empathy and heart that are trademarks of almodóvar' s work .
right from its funny face - style opening titles, the film is a homage to almodóvar’s favourite movies. pepa’s apartment is modelled on the set of how to marry a millionaire, while in an early scene we see her recording a voiceover for joan crawford’s part in johnny guitar. there’s a paean to hitchcock’s rear window when pepa stands on the street and looks at the activities going on behind the façade of an apartment block .
there is currently no sound amplification system in place at the venue. please contact the playhouse directly for more information on accessible performances. the venue can be reached on 0207 925 7730 .
this hilarious and heartfelt musical based on pedro almodóvar ’s award - winning trailblazing film celebrates women centre stage at the playhouse theatre now. last chance to see these unmissable performance' s, season ending 23 may. book your taxi now .
there’s nothing quite like a late - night showing of the fly to give a pregnant woman the heebie - jeebies, and nothing quite like naked lunch to make that pregnant women reassemble the shards of her hormone - soaked rum - baba brain and make her own humdrum micro - drama epic .
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pepa encourages one of her ducks to jump on a piece of furniture that was ivan' s. the duck refuses and pepa says
she hates it .
the duck, with a green head, is clearly a male .
( wait a minute. what is that ladybug doing on my ceiling? i’m just going to do a quick google search on ladybugs... . oops, are you still there? you see, the spirit of this production is truly infectious. if the performers can’t seem to keep their minds on the show, why should we? )
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this is exemplified in carmen maura' s grand performance as pepa. miss maura, who looks a bit like jeanne moreau, is to mr. almodovar' s cinema what anna magnani once was to roberto rossellini' s. this comparision would come to mind even if the director hadn' t said publicly that the inspiration for'' women on the verge'' was jean cocteau' s short, one - character play'' the human voice,'' which was acted by miss magnani in the rossellini screen adaptation .
godard' s debut, co - written with francois truffaut, didn' t just rewrite the movie rule book; it tore it up, threw it on the floor and did a cheeky little dance on top of it. coursing with a love of american gangster flicks, a bout de souffle takes a b movie plot - a french hoodlum (belmondo) kills a cop and goes on the run with his american girlfriend (seberg) - and reinvigorates it with a dizzying arsenal of cinematic tricks (jump cuts, talking to camera, handheld cameras) and a fresh, fractured sense of storytelling. the chemistry between the surly belmondo and the elfin seberg is sex on the stick, but man of the match is godard: playful, challenging and far too cool for l' ecole .
in the musical marisa is played by seline hizli, an actress who can’t compete with rossy’s monumental visage but has a decent royal court pedigree. antonio banderas’s youthful beauty and stammering vulnerability as carlos on celluloid set him on course to become a matinee idol; haydn oakley, a veteran of the book of mormon, steps into the stage role .
with the arrival of brand new comedies on the theatre scene we thought it was time to take a look at the top 3 female comedy icons to watch out for this autumn .
arnold captures the beauty that is to be found in the smallest, most mundane of things, be it the wind at the top of a glaswegian tower block or a heart - shaped balloon sailing above an essex council estate. but what’s truly impressive is her focus on women and female sexuality; men are sexually objectified in a way that is all too rare in contemporary cinema, and despite the often immoral actions of her leading ladies, arnold doesn’t allow us to judge or condemn them, even when they’re urinating on someone’s living - room carpet. and that is no small feat .
[ in the following interview, which was conducted on may 25, 1987, almodóvar discusses his approach to filmmaking, the major themes of his films, and the place of his work in the context of spanish film. ]
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for the record, credit should be given also to the auteurs responsible for'' night of the living duck,'' including greg ford and terry lennon, who did the story and direction. the venerable mel blanc is heard as daffy. mel torme provides daffy' s singing voice and the song'' monsters lead such interesting lives (they don' t live 9 to 5)'' was written by virg dzurinko and mr. ford. pure funniness. a benign farce women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, directed by pedro almodovar; screenplay (in spanish with english subtitles) by mr. almodovar; director of photography, jose luis alcaine; edited by jose salcedo; music by bernardo bonezzi; an el deseo, s. a. / laurenfilm production; released by orion classics. at alice tully hall, 7: 45 p. m. ; avery fisher hall, 9. running time: 88 minutes. this film has no rating. pepa marcos... carmen maura carlos... antonio banderas lucia... julieta serrano candela... maria barranco marisa... rossy de palma ivan... fernando guillen taxi driver... guillermo montesinos
my introduction to jane campion was through a university module on cinema from australia and new zealand, which i’d taken to satisfy my antipodean roots. exploring the piano (1993) through its portrayal of violence lurking behind apparently calm domesticity, i became both fascinated with and admiring of the bold focus on female subjectivity – particularly on ada and her potential for destabilising the colonial system through her mute ‘otherness’ .
it promises to be a cold winter in madrid. as the long hang - over from the olympic annus mirabilis of 1992 drags on, spain is facing up to record unemployment, continuing political scandal, and mounting concern over the intrusions of the newly deregulated media. in a mirror image of the ...
perhaps the quintessential really serious euro art house movie, ingmar bergman' s persona is visually stunning, intellectually challenging and emotionally wrenching. a famous actress (ullmann) loses her speech halfway through a performance and is placed in the care of a nurse (andersson) in a remote seaside cottage. as the women grow closer and more intimate, bergman mounts a fascination examination of female identity, played mostly on the faces of these two actresses (bergman fell in love with ullmann during the shoot). if this isn' t enough, bergman consistently lays bare the artifice of filmmaking, right up to the final moments where the film burns in the projector. mesmerising .
at the beginning of 2011 we held a competition for amateur female film writers, inviting them to submit a thumbnail description of a person in the world of film who is or has been an inspiration to them .
this is painless sexual politics, a fiendish comedy full of prickles and pain and the bright shiny pinks of a matador' s cape .
the legendary spanish filmmaker throws open the doors of his madrid work space to the hungry eyes of lwlies .
the film that put werner herzog on the map, aguirre is the fable - like story of a spanish conquistador (kinski) driven bonkers by his ambition to find the legendary city of eldorado in 16th century south america. this is the heady, natural world ambience of bad lieutenant played out to the max, with kinski beating cage hands down in the intensity olympics. lest we forget, this is the movie that kick - started the tempestuous herzog - kinski relationship and a raft of great on - set anecdotes - when kinski threatened to abandoned the film mid - shoot, herzog threatened to shoot the actor, then turn the gun on himself .
because it' s a proper bollywood blockbuster, that' s why! featuring three of mumbai' s biggest stars (khan! rai! dixit !), based on a massively popular indian novel, with a huge budget (in bolly - terms, at least), a three - hour running time, opulent sets and throbbing, shimmering dance numbers. not to mention a heavy dose of melodrama as rich boy khan becomes torn between two women: his forbidden childhood love (rai) and a courtesan (dixit) .
more obscure references include an image of pepa shot through a pair of spectacles, which is borrowed from hitchcock’s strangers on a train. the musical can’t play these spot - the - movie games, but as a stage show it is closer to almodóvar’s original inspiration, a jean cocteau 1928 play, the human voice, in which a jilted woman waits by a phone for her lover to call .
when pepa marcos' (carmen maura) lover ivan (fernando guillén) suddenly leaves her without any explanation, she embarks on a strange journey to discover why. on the way she meets a variety of eccentric characters, including ivan' s son from a previous relationship (antonio banderas), his fiancee marissa (rossy de palma) and a shiite terrorist cell who have been secretly holding her best friend candela (maría barranco) hostage. it' s a film noir take on the romantic comedy .
it' s buffy meets the matrix meets blade! in moscow! russian madman / genius timur bekmambetov arrived on our screens with a bang thanks to this demented, dizzily dark twist on the action movie. it seems that the world is still peopled with witches, werewolves, vampires and the rest - but they are divided into light and dark others, battling it out for supremacy, and the souls of new, emerging others, on the streets of russia' s capital. extraordinary visuals on a shoestring budget, bravura subtitle design (it matters) and a plot that just makes sense (unlike its
chalk of destiny
powered sequel), this is the most visually imaginative superhero movie of the last decade .
i enjoyed every minute of the film. with pedro, it’s always like playing. he writes female characters so well because he comes from a matriarchy. his mother was very important, very creative. he loves women. he understands our world and the way we see life .
there is something at once mad and methodical about pedro almodóvar' s films. frenetic, effervescent, wild, and rapturous, they are also willful, deliberate, and self - conscious. they focus on dispersion, center on marginality, and concentrate on excess. they ...
this offbeam, heartfilled almodovar packs the narrative zip of a soap opera and the emotional wallop of a douglas sirk melodrama. it also takes the spanish auteur away from his castilian stomping ground and on to barcelona. there, cecilia roth' s grieving mother connects with the father of her child, now a chick - with - a - dick prostitute, and a richly - drawn array of actresses, hookers and the odd pregnant nun. sparkling, warm and witty, it' s a fitting celebration of mums everywhere .
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now you could argue (if you were feeling generous) that “women” is only reflecting the temperament of its restless, dissatisfied characters, who keep looking for love in all the wrong places. or that all those quick cuts between scenes and songs are meant to recreate the farcical style of mr. almodóvar’s film, which remains a priceless portrait of romantic anarchy .
comissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1905 revolution, sergei eisenstein' s silent dramatisation of the naval mutiny of the battleship prince potemkin put russian cinema in general and eisenstein in particular on the world movie map. whole forests have been destroyed to accommodate the academic treatises that have been written about the editing techniques and stylised compositions on display, here but ignore all the intellectual apparatus and enjoy the bold, adventurous storytelling. it' s most famous sequence - tsarist troops systematically slaughter civilians on the odessa steps - is so powerful it is often believed to be based on historical fact: it is actually a pure eisenstein invention and debatably cinema' s greatest set - piece .
it may be a landmark in italian neo - realist cinema but sod that: roberto rossellini' s is a compelling drama about the ravages of war on everyday folk. tracing the hunting down, capture and torture of a communist resistance leader (pagliero) by the gestapo, rossellini replaces studio - system gloss with a tangible, intense naturalism, throwing in details (shots of toilets, babies on potties) that mainstream films would not dare show. much has been made of its non professional cast, but two of the standouts come from pros: magnagni as a pregnant communist sympathizer and fabrizzi as a noble priest .
it’s about women who are caused to suffer by men and the ways – comic and tragic – in which they vent their anger. after their break - up, pepa (carmen maura) needs to talk to ivan about something important before he goes off on a trip with another woman. for every sub - plot, there’s a woman with a tacit connection to the former couple. pepa’s protégée, candela (maria barranco), provided lodging to the shiite terrorists who planned to hijack ivan’s plane to stockholm. his ex - wife, lucia (julieta serrano), also tries to reach him to make him pay for the years she spent in an insane asylum. ivan’s son (antonio banderas) is under the influence of his rough virgin fiancée (rossy de palma). finally there’s paulina, a feminist lawyer whose shadow looms large over the characters until we discover she, too, might be on the verge of full collapse .
this is the haunting story, set in 1920s china, of songlian (gong, never better), a student who decides to become a rich man' s concubine after the death of her father leaves her without means of support. entering his household as the
fourth mistress
, she swiftly becomes embroiled in the infighting between the women competing for their near - faceless master' s attentions, and finds herself a pawn in a deeply twisted game. read it as a critique of communist china, an impassioned plea for empathy or a feminist parable if you like, but it remains a haunting and unforgettable winter' s tale .
it hasn' t been pepa' s day, or even week. ivan, her longtime lover and a male - chauvinist rat, walks out on her, leaving only a bland message on her answering machine. planning suicide, pepa spikes a blenderful of garden - fresh gazpacho with sleeping pills, but forgets to drink it .
hollywood remake? not on your nelly. though precious: based on the novel push by sapphire comes closest in tone at times. prizes nominated for four oscars and won one bafta. what to say ...
there' s the odd homage to the action cinema of the northern hemisphere, but this is more than just the brazilian goodfellas .
what not to say ...
on the whole, i prefer the portrayal of the favelas in the incredible hulk (2008) .
i like to think of alfred hitchcock (pictured at top) as a great conductor of a philharmonic orchestra, whose work bringing perfection of harmony and unity to a musical performance is done behind the scene and long before the performance .
six years later, as a student of film, we were read laura mulvey’s seminal piece ‘visual pleasure and narrative cinema’. whilst my classmates’ moods sank ever lower, slowly comprehending with horror their roles as spectators, i couldn’t help feeling slightly more positive than the rest: i had finally realised why almodóvar’s work had been such a shock. having been brought up on mainstream hollywood classics, which rarely, if ever, passed the bechtel test, i had never before seen women portrayed on screen in such an intelligent and competent manner .
hitchcock’s scientific attitude towards the craft of his art is my inspiration as a filmmaker. his films are my inspiration as a writer and a film lover .
i see akerman’s cinema as part of the brutalist movement of the 60s and 70s. brutalism in architecture is epitomised by unrelenting concrete buildings: an extreme type of modernism. for its admirers, the purity of brutalist form is a kind of poetry .
what almodóvar set out to depict, he says in the book almodóvar on almodóvar, was “a feminine universe that’s totally humane. the only remaining problem in this earthly paradise is that men continue to leave women”. the film cost £500, 000 to make but quickly broke all box - office records in spain and stormed britain and the us to become the biggest non - english language film since fellini’s 8½ in 1963.
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown ( spanish : mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios ) is a 1988 spanish black comedy-drama film written and directed by pedro almodóvar , starring carmen maura and antonio banderas . the film brought almodóvar to widespread international attention : it was nominated for the 1988 academy award for best foreign language film , and won five goya awards including best film and best actress in a leading role for maura . the actual spanish title refers to an ataque de nervios , which is not actually well translated as " nervous breakdown " ( crisis nerviosa ) . ataques de nervios are culture-bound psychological phenomena during which the individual , most often female , displays dramatic outpouring of negative emotions , bodily gestures , occasional falling to the ground , and fainting , often in response to receiving disturbing news or witnessing or participating in an upsetting event . historically , this condition has been associated with hysteria and more recently in the scientific literature with post-traumatic stress and panic attacks . 
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (spanish: mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) is a 1988 spanish black comedy-drama film written and directed by pedro almodóvar, starring carmen maura and antonio banderas. the film brought almodóvar to widespread international attention: it was nominated for the 1988 academy award for best foreign language film, and won five goya awards including best film and best actress in a leading role for maura. the actual spanish title refers to an ataque de nervios, which is not actually well translated as " nervous breakdown " (crisis nerviosa). ataques de nervios are culture-bound psychological phenomena during which the individual, most often female, displays dramatic outpouring of negative emotions, bodily gestures, occasional falling to the ground, and fainting, often in response to receiving disturbing news or witnessing or participating in an upsetting event. historically, this condition has been associated with hysteria and more recently in the scientific literature with post-traumatic stress and panic attacks.
women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (spanish: mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) is a 1988 spanish black comedy-drama film written and directed by pedro almodóvar, starring carmen maura and antonio banderas. the film brought almodóvar to widespread international attention: it was nominated for the 1988 academy award for best foreign language film, and won five goya awards including best film and best actress in a leading role for maura. the actual spanish title refers to an ataque de nervios, which is not actually well translated as " nervous breakdown " (crisis nerviosa). ataques de nervios are culture-bound psychological phenomena during which the individual, most often female, displays dramatic outpouring of negative emotions, bodily gestures, occasional falling to the ground, and fainting, often in response to receiving disturbing news or witnessing or participating in an upsetting event. historically, this condition has been associated with hysteria and more recently in the scientific literature with post-traumatic stress and panic attacks.