Today from 17:00-20.00 hrs, the UvA Film Club will host their weekly screening in the Universiteitstheater (Nieuwe Doelenstraat)! This week's film is Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1988), with an introduction by Parker Burrow.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is the international breakout film from the most famous Spanish filmmaker of his generation. Far reaching in its influences from Jean Cocteau, rapid-fire American screwball comedies of the 1940s and 50s, and pop-art aesthetics, Almodóvar’s film follows Pepa (played with deadpan brilliance by Carmen Maura) who intends to poison herself in the wake of a sudden breakup. When her impulsive, gazpacho-related suicide is interrupted by an ensemble of regular Almodóvar players (among them Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano, and Antonio Banderas), absurd chaos begins to pile up as everyone’s love life seems to spiral out of control. While the film never breaks from its high-octane ridiculousness, it keeps an intimate, empathetic focus on the perspectives of its women and offers a story of finding self-determination outside of the patriarchy. With its exaggerated melodrama and vibrant bursts of color, the film’s camp sensibilities overtook the Spanish and international mainstream and became a massive critical and commercial success.