Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown

1988 farce from Pedro Almodovar. Going into this viewing we were agnostic about this director, but after this we are (almost literally) hungry for more, especially on the big screen. Almodovar's film is an unabashedly feminist celebration of women, life, and breaking boundaries.
The farce structure means that the plot, to say the least, takes a back seat? What's happening? Who knows, who cares, one just chortles at random moments and drinks on the joy of the screen and the movements. The one time the plot does become central, the chase and the airport, is probably the weakest moment of the film, where it does rather fall down for ten minutes before picking back up for a fine ending.
We start with the male, black and white, mannered view, but the last comment of the women plunges us into a world where the women dominate the surroundings, the language, and the men. They burst out of their hatches, control the men's voices down telephones, shout their own news. The camera quite literally watches them take things 'too far', out of shot, blowing through cluttered enviroments with excess, excess. Whenever one of the manipulated men makes a comment we know they are about to be steamrollered. Almodovar clearly loves women, of all ages and kinds. The camera is never a voyeaur, rather it strokes the enviroment and relishes, tactilely but not laciviously, the female body, especially the claves, for some reason.
The colour is another aspect to dwell on, and to celebrate. The clothes changes and the matching colour schemes give us a magazine-like fantasy world, again of overflowing and random pleasures in exuberance. The scheme of threes, of three objects of one colour, moving left to right in stronger shades, shows how the mis-en-scene is secondary to this visual wonder.
Almodovar's film is of exuberance, joy, and celebration. Forget about the plot, which whenever comes to the surface can over-dull the visuals (not that the plot is bad; the close ups on sincere emotions work well) which, though perhaps flagging from sheer energy at times, the vast majority of the film light up our screen and eyes. A lovely experience.