8DTHOmnibusThursday, March 2, 1989
Spanish import is a
fun, twisted eomedy
By JAMES DEAN
Staff Writer
"Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown," as its title
suggests, is very funny. It is the
most successful in a string of
comedies from the new king of
Spanish cinema, Pedro Almodovar.
Not only has it achieved the feat
of being the most popular Spanish
film ever in Spain, but it has also
become the second most popular
foreign-language film ever at the
American box office after "La Cage
aux FoNes" And, as if that wasnt
accolade enough, it has just been
nominated for Best Foreign film at
this month's Academy Awards,
which it may very well win.
Almodovar's two previous films,
"Matador and "Law of Desire"
were, to say the least, bolder than
"Women on the Verge." The humor
was simply less refined, and based
more prominently on the carefree
sex habits of a strange section of
the Spanish population. The reason
that both films were delights to
watch in spite of their outrageous
ness lay in Almodovar's ability to
write and direct immensely likable
characters, even though they
were some of the craziest char
acters you could hope for (if that s
what you hope for). You laugh at
them, but after a while you find
yourself strangely affected by
them. It is an unexpected pleasure.
With "Women on the Verge."
Almodovar has kept the charac-
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ters but given them less grotesque
and perverse characteristics.
Cone is the "Matador" school
teacher who gets his kicks watch
ing people get decapitated by
giant industrial circular saws. Cone,
too. is the "Law of Desire" trans
sexual woman whose old choir
master recognizes her face from
somewhere, but cannot place it
until she reminds him of the affair
they had before she, as a he, ran
off with her father. Compared to
them, the cast of "women on the
verge" has little to hide.
The beauty of the film is that
despite their relative normality by
Almodovarian standards, they are
still verging on the twisted. The
life and soul of the film (until Lucia
gets into the swing of things
more of that later) is Pepa Marcos,
a television actress and movie
voice lubber. Pepa has been
spurned by her smooth lover, Ivan
(also a movie voice dubber), and,
to be frank, it has pushed her to
her limits. She is not a happy
woman, and it takes a dose of
sleeping pills to get over this
setback. When she becomes bored
with that idea, she decides to track
him down at all costs.
From this point the complica
tions start, all of which involve
traumatic women, it turns out
that Ivan has a vengeful old lover,
Lucia, who tricked her way out of
an asylum, and a new lover who
has a reputation for being a
feminist lawyer. By coincidence,
Ivan's son Carlos wants to lease
Pepa's apartment with his Picas
soesque girlfriend Paulina, who
must be one of the few people
Random
Presidents,
By ELIZABETH ELLEN
Staffwriter
it's not what you know: it's who
you know.
: If what I know is it, then I'm in
big trouble. I dont know whether
orange the fruit was named for
orange the color or the other way
'round, or if the true origin of the
word "orange" has something to
do with the dude for whom this
fair county was named.
it's not who you know, its who
I know.
And even given a lively assort
ment of glittering andor disgust
ing friends and acquaintances,
nothing is guaranteed. In this life,
chance plays its merry games with
our psyches and our bowling
averages. One day you are striking
and the next, all you get Is gutter
balls.
Speaking of the gutter, looks like
John' Tower is heading that way,
'toys-and girls. The man has pulled
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in the world to have a perfectly
straight, vertical nose. They arrive
just in time to save Pepa's best
friend from throwing herself off
the apartment balcony because
she is depressed that her latest
lover is a Shiite terrorist and
neglected to tell her.
And on it goes. The strange
thing is that the story really does
not seem that complicated while
it is unraveling. And I have not
even mentioned the spiked gaz
pacho or the motorcycle chase.
Almodovar is so supremely con
fident about the twists and turns
of his characters and his story that
he makes it seem like a most
obvious and uncomplicated set of
events. The very fact that he can
get all his main characters and a
few extras into the same room
and not make it seem unlikely or
awkward is quite masterful. Not
only is it a credit to the control
Almodovar has over his film, but
also an indication of the the skill
he has developed in his technique
since "Law of Desire."
problems
out all the stops by promising
never to touch another drop of
alcohol so long as he and George
Bush shall live, cross his heart and
hope to die, stick a nuclear war
head in his eye, amen sister, if the
Senate will have mercy on a poor
alcoholic with suspicious ties to
various defense contractors and
confirm him as Button Pusher 2.
Remember the song "He's Got the
Whole World in His Hands"?
(The president probably gets
first crack at the super-funky
button-pushing job, although the
Constitution is a bit unclear about
this. Ben Franklin voted that his
candidate for national bird, the
turkey, should have dibs on the
button. A drunken brawl ensued
at The Convention over this issue.
Madison reports that a compro
mise was reached when the liquor
ran out. Actually, two compro
mises were made at this point of
ensuing drought the aforemen
Thoughts
Pedro Almodovar (pointing), director of "Women
Almodovar's confidence
stretches to the way he has made
his picture look. It ought to be
disturbing that Pepa's apartment
is so blatant a set; you can almost
see the paint of the Madrid skyline
in the background. The colors
throughout the film make it seem
like a walk through something out
of Willy Wonka's chocolate fac
tory. This weird feeling of artifi
ciality, however, only enhances
the manic world of the characters,
and in turn, the wonderful humor
and idiocy of the whole sordid tale.
Aside from the vertical nose, the
star of the whole show is Carmen
Maura as Pepa. Maura already
showed her versatility as a comic
actor as the lesbian transsexual in
"Law of Desire." But as Pepa, she
finds a remarkable consistency
and credibility in a difficult role
that she has to achieve for the
story to succeed since she is rarely
off the screen. She is ably sup
ported by a cast of actors many
of whom have been in Almodov
ar's earlier films. Most notable is
and past paper people
tioned one and the famous three
fifths compromise, which resulted
from a dispute over how much
more liquor could be purchased
with public funds.)
If s not who you know or who
l know, it's who you dont know.
This applies to the Malays, who
run amok with wild abandon. I
really do not know them, and even
if I did, I'd probably pretend I didnt.
If s not who you know or dont
know. It's how long you can hold
out.
As l babble on paper yet again
this week, I write under the
auspices of my sixth DTH admin
istration. Yes, I've seen editors
come and go-. Hiday, Schmidt and
Rickert, Zook, Gerber, Lutes, and
now Kebschull. I am the kudzu of
DTH staffers.
Allow me to share an old arts
desk tradition with you, the
; reader with a zest fpr kinky mind-1
teasing. Assignment sheets begarr
on The Verge'
Julieta Serrano, who, as Lucia,
Ivan's insane ex-lover with the
makeup and wardrobe to prove
it, walks into the story for the
film's finale with all the power and
presence of a reincarnated female
Frankenstein. It is a marvel to
watch all the characters interact,
and a credit to all the actors that
they can convincingly pull off the
extraordinary events of this
wonderfully weird story.
With "Women on the verge,"
Almodovar has become the first
auteur European director to make
a name for himself in the United
States in quite a while. His prede
cessors came from the New Ger
man Cinema in the form of Fass
binder and Herzog. With them,
Almodovar shares a definite vision
for his films, which he develops
without compromise or apology.
However, he does not share their
bleak view of a dark world. His
world is a crazy place, where
stranger souls are given free rein.
And in "Women on the verge," it
is a sheer joy to watch.
with a DTH Musical Trivia Quiz of
the Week. Today I discovered an
artifact from last February still
stored in the computer system.
Consider, if you will, who sang
these lyrics and in which songs
they appeared.
i."Even an inferno can cool
down to an ember."
2 "What good are notebooks if
they wont help me survive?"
3. "We drown our doubts in dry
champagne and soothe our souls
with fine cocaine."
4. "l believe in coyotes and time
as an abstract."
Synthesis is the highest form of
knowledge. Let's all get drunk,
toast notebooks over a roaring
bonfire, and abstract time to the
point of rendering watches Swiss
anachronisms.
Sometimes it's not who or what
you know or dont know, nor how
long yoii hold out, but how bizarre
' you cnlvyithout ializing it. -'
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