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 .

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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 .
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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 .


tsuchi ( 土 ) , or earth , is a 1939 film directed by tomu uchida .

it won the 1940 kinema junpo award for best film .

a seriously compromised print of earth was discovered in germany in 1968 .

it suffers from nitrate damage and includes german subtitles .

it is missing its first and last reel .

the original film was 142 minutes long ; this version runs 93 minutes .

a 119-minute version of the film , with subtitles in russian , was discovered in russia around the turn of the millennium .

it too is missing the last reel .

tsuchi ( film )

tsuchi ( earth ) . 1939 . japan . directed by tomu uchida . courtesy national film center , tokyo
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notebook is a daily , international film publication . our mission is to guide film lovers searching , lost or adrift in an overwhelming sea of content . we offer text , images , sounds and video as critical maps , passways and illuminations to the worlds of contemporary and classic film . notebook is a mubi publication .
filmmaker , archivist , lgbt film historian and online pioneer jenni olson offers recommendations for excellent examples of landscape cinema .
tsuchi ( earth ) . 1939 . japan . directed by tomu uchida . screenplay by yasutaro yagi , tsutomu kitamura . with isamu kosugi , akiko kazami , kaichi yamamoto . in japanese ; english subtitles . 115 min .
uchida’s most famous prewar film and a masterpiece of realism , earth is an epic portrait of the lives of peasant farmers in northern japan’s tohoku region , filmed secretly over the course of a year against the nikkatsu film studio’s wishes . ( legend has it the studio never officially approved the project until its completion . ) the film juxtaposes the story of one peasant’s hardships with documentary - like shots of farmers toiling in the rice fields . for many years this early sound film survived only in a cut - and - battered german print . this version , still incomplete but considerably longer , is a 2006 restoration incorporating elements from a print discovered in moscow’s gosfilmofond archive in 1999 .
uchida designed a fugitive from the past with virtuosic , geographical symmetry : the original title is in fact straits of hunger . this is where the film begins and comes to an abrupt end , leaving essential aspects of the resolution unspoken . various stylistic experiments , including the use of negative images and an emphasis on shamanistic elements , intensify the impression of the work ' s supernatural force , while in the center of the film , a concrete , historical void is left wide open : ten years go by between inaki ' s escape in 1947 and the resuming of the action in tokyo . on top of the film ' s implicit subject of japan ' s immediate post - war history , there lies an explicit subject—inaki ' s struggle for survival , concrete and spiritual , and above all : at any price . the film ' s entire critical / historical dimension only develops through the combination of both levels .
film history is full of holes , but some are filled in more reluctantly than others . consider , for example , the strange case of tomu uchida ( 1898 - 1970 ) . in his home country japan , he is considered a canonized master . in the west , he was mostly a name without any practical meaning , at least until a ( still slimmed - down ) touring series in the wake of tokyo filmex’s 2004 13 - film - retrospective made the rounds for a few years , e . g . to international film festival rotterdam in 2005 and new york’s bamcinématek in 2008 , allowing for the first time the appreciation of a sizable selection from uchida’s rich and diverse body of work , with emphasis on his fascinating post - war period .
originally written in 2005 for the german newspaper taz on the occasion of the touring retrospective . the final sentence now strikes me as a bit too optimistic—possibly uchida’s major films would have to be released in digital home formats to gain more traction in today’s culture , and this still hasn’t happened . their full aesthetic splendor needs to be experienced on film prints , anyway . at least for some lucky few , there are second chances : moma will present an uchida retrospective in october / november 2016 .
this original compositional form can be understood as the key to uchida ' s work : gaps and breaks are for him not only essential , aesthetic tools , they have a biographical correlation as well . in the middle of his filmography there is a nearly one and a half decade gap : after the outbreak of the war in the 1940s , uchida went to occupied manchuria , likely because he hoped for better working conditions far from the war - incited rationing at home . only repatriated in 1953 , he directed his first post - war film two years later . we learn in his autobiography ( and not only there ) almost nothing about the time in between .
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during world war ii , a japanese soldier finds himself assigned to a kamikaze mission against a u . s . battleship .
a prosecutor , policemen and teacher bring the students vuica and nicu to a restaurant to re - enact their drunken brawl there , and have it filmed to show the effects of alcoholism .
detectives investigate the murder of an old man found in a tokyo rail yard .
a five - person team of gold prospectors in the yukon has just begun to enjoy great success when one of the members snaps , and suddenly kills two of the others . the two survivors , a husband . . . see full summary »
a samurai travels to edo with his two servants . on their way , they meet many people and encounter great injustice .
three thieves escape from a heist , one of them killing the other two . he is sheltered by a prostitute and sought after by the police , but only after ten years his true motivation unravels .
an evil millionaire named artigas plans to use a super - explosive device to conquer the world from his headquarters inside an enormous volcano .
the print found in east germany in 1968 was missing its first and last reels . another print found at gosfilmfond ussr in 2001 , has a first reel .
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enjoy a night in with these popular movies available to stream now with prime video .
teruo is an adopted son of an old samurai family that returns to japan after living in germany and is expected to marry mitsuko . but he ' s struggling to readjust to japan and intends to marry an aryan woman .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
after his gang disbands , a yakuza enforcer looks forward to life outside of organized crime but soon must become a drifter after his old rivals attempt to assassinate him .
feeling the position to be beneath him , a college graduate turns down a receptionist job , but soon finds it necessary to fool his mother and fiancé into thinking that he is employed .
a small - time hood wants to go straight for a good girl but finds that starting over isn ' t as simple as it sounds .
unemployed kihachi and his two sons struggle to make ends meet . but that doesn ' t keep kihachi from wooing single mother otaka .
footage shot in and around the sahara desert , accompanied only by a spoken creation myth and the songs of leonard cohen .
after japan ' s loss in the war , the wealthy , cultured , liberal anjo family have to give up their mansion and their way of life . they hold one last ball at the house before leaving . the . . . see full summary »
a simple story of two friends who live together in a poor tenement and who share about everything in life , until they gallantly rescue a woman injured in a road accident .
with jurassic world : fallen kingdom now in cinemas , we take a look at how imdb users rated the films of the franchise . plus , browse exclusive lego® jurassic world playsets , presented by lego .
hiroshima b4 bomb 1937 - se . . .
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adaptation of nagatsuka ' s novel about the lives of poor peasants in japan at the beginning of the century .
a japanese master canonized at home but unknown in the west gets a major retrospective at the museum of modern art .
these years were the culminating point of a permanent irritation that perhaps explains why uchida has been so long ignored in the west : he is as hard to categorize politically as aesthetically . he is obviously a virtuosic stylist , yet without a consistent style . it is even more complicated ideologically : born in a well - off family , uchida apparently grew up with progressive / idealistic tendencies—his pronounced love for all things from the west is expressed not the least in his choice of the pen name tomu , a translation of his western nickname tom , which he chose to write in kanji characters meaning “to spit out dreams . ”
still , the study of uchida , one of japanese cinema ' s most exciting figures , is now finally possible .
alexander zeldovich’s bracing philosophical epic runs the gamut from holographic sci - fi to flaky satire to sober meditation .
' sun song ' is my love letter to the mystic / musician / philosopher sun ra . . .
if you ' re interested in contributing to notebook send us a sample of your work . for all other enquiries , contact daniel kasman .
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