Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

• Carmen Maura: Pepa
• Antonio Banderas: Carlos
• Julieta Serrano: Lucía
• Rossy de Palma: Marisa
• María Barranco: Candela
• Fernando Guillén: Iván
• Kiti maneuver: Paulina Morales

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ( Original title: Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios ) is a Spanish film from 1988 directed the dramedy led Pedro Almodóvar, who also wrote the screenplay for a French author Jean Cocteau script.. The main role was played by Carmen Maura.

Action

The actress and voice actress Pepa is abandoned by her lover Ivan, who is also voice actors. Having avoided the contact at work to her, Pepa tries in the belief that he has returned to his wife Lucía, this to make contact with him. She looks for the first time Ivan's son Carlos and notes that Iván has not returned to his wife.

Back home Pepa is visited by her friend Candela, who is on the run from the police because her boyfriend has turned out to be a Shiite terrorist. Pepa's apartment is filled increasingly with other people: Carlos and his girlfriend Marisa, you are interested as tenant for the apartment, two policemen who pursue in search of backers of Shiite terrorists a mysterious phone call, a telephone technician and Ivan's wife Lucía.

Iván planning a trip to Stockholm with his new lover, the lawyer Paulina Morales, who was visited by Pepa meantime, in order to achieve that Candela is beyond its control. Lucía, which, as it turns out, was recently released from the sanatorium, goes to the airport to commit an assassination attempt on Ivan, but the Pepa can frustrate you. Finally, while the others present a marked due to the consumption of sleeping pills and originally supplied Iván thought Gazpacho are asleep, reveals Pepa Marisa that she was pregnant and the apartment rather not want to give up. The view was just so beautiful.

Reception

Dieter Krusche described the film in Reclams film leader as " a noisy, shrill comedy that makes its living by the law of chance unabashedly. Almodóvar ... does not purport to depict reality, but creates its own distinctive reality that appears nightmarish in a fun way. "

For the filmdienst women is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a " farcical, frivolous, humorous overwound Love and sitcom whose extreme rhythm can cause greater pleasure than the satirical substance. "

Awards

At the International Film Festival in Venice in 1988 Almodóvar won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay. At the Toronto International Film Festival in the same year he won the Audience Prize.

At the Goya Awards 1989, the award of the main Spanish Film Awards, the film won awards in the categories of Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actress ( Carmen Maura ), Best Editing and Best Supporting Actress ( María Barranco ). He was also best in the categories of Director, Best Producer, Best Cinematography, Best Mask, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects ( Reyes Abades ), Best Supporting Actor ( Guillermo Montesinos ) and Best Supporting Actress ( Julieta Serrano ) nominated. The Fotogramas de Plata Award winning Antonio Banderas and Carmen Maura, were also nominated María Barranco and Chus Lampreave. María Barranco was also nominated for the Sant Jordi Award and, like Rossy de Palma, for the Premio ACE.

At the Academy Awards in 1989, the film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, but had to Bille August's Pelle the Conqueror defeated. In the same year there was the film a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1990 he received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. The David di Donatello won Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown as Best Foreign Film. At the award ceremony of the European Film Awards in 1988, the film won Best young film and Carmen Maura as Best Actress. The Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani recorded Almodóvar from the Silver Ribbon for Best Foreign Director. The National Society of Film Critics of the United States awarded him a special prize (Special Award). The U.S. National Board of Review award-winning Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with the NBR Award for Best Foreign Language Film.