Almodovar the omniscient knower and portrayer of all conjugating human emotions first stepped onto his now-accustomed plinth of global recognition with the release of his neurotic comedy, Women on the verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios). Starring one of Almodovar’s favorite actress Carmen Maura, who also appeared in a majority number of Almodovar films starting from his first film Pepi Luci Bom, to most of his next films- until they reached a professional break up in the 1990’s and re-united in Almodovar’s recent smash hit Volver, this film turned Almodovar into an international cinematic sparkler.

A ludicrous film where the director captures a jazzy portrait of feminine emotions, and rolls it out with an artwork that draws a rainbow of vibrantly dramatic structures and sentiments; Women on the Verge… is a film that frothily shows you the tragic impasses of four interrelated women, joined together with an enervating universal problem- each by their own inconsistent and volatile men.

TV actress Pepa (Carmen Maura) subsequent to being jilted for another woman by her swaying lover Ivan, (Fernando Guillen) sets out desperately to seek an imperative final meeting with him, one that could bring him back to her. But Pepa’s glum enterprise is intervened by a multitude of equally distraught women- Her model friend Candela (Maria Barranco) rushes into Pepa’s hysterical house, flustered to have linked herself with her recently discovered Shiite- terrorist- boyfriend; added to the scene is Ivan’s previously forsaken mad cap wife Lucia (Julieta Serrano) who runs wildly amok with a gun in her hand to seek her vengeance against Ivan; still supplementing to the scene is Ivan’s son Carlos (Antonio Banderas) who incidentally comes into sight, house hunting with his horse faced fiancé Marissa (Rossy de Palma) . Add to it a tray of some fishy gazpacho, an enquiring police incursion, a floor full of fainted people, and cages of noisy chickens. You have Women on the verge of a Nervous breakdown!

Pedro Almodovar’s words in an interview once said “I feel that women live in a more light-hearted world. They have fewer prejudices. They’re better at surviving but they’re also better at living.” The film was Almodovar’s first international breakthrough to give us a glimpse of the same, with the final scene in the movie summing up this belief of Almodovar’s at its emotional best- a still in which a worn out Pepa returns home after an exhausting epoch of delirious frenzy and her final hiatal encounter with Ivan, and spends time with a gazpacho recovered Marissa as they exchange with each other a transient conversation full of womanly composedness, and serenity.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was Almodovar’s first celebrated homage to the breed of women that he passionately adulates- those who are struggled survivors, epitomes of tranquil and lasting fighters. A movie that remarkably flaunts the fêted female experience, the film understandably marks his breakthrough to the international arena, but my perpetual personal favorite remains his 2002 Academy accolades and heart winning film, Talk To Her.

Here’s a glimpse of this neurotic comedy

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