Salvador Mallo is a veteran film director, afflicted by multiple ailments, the worst of which is his inability to continue filming. His physical condition doesn't allow it and, if he can't film again, his life has no meaning. The mixture of medications, along with an occasional flirtation with heroin, means that Salvador spends most of his day prostrate. This drowsy state transports him back to reflect on his childhood in the 60s, when he emigrated with his parents to Paterna, a village in Valencia, in search of prosperity, and the struggles and improvising his Mother made so that the family could survive. The appearance of his first desire and his first adult love in the Madrid of the 80s. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need he also finds his salvation.
When Iván (Fernando Guillén) jilts long-time lover, actress Pepa (Carmen Maura), she plans her suicide; lacing her gazpacho soup with barbiturates. She is, however saved by her best friend Candela (Maria Barranco), a fugitive from the law. Further adding to the chaos, Ivan's son (Antonio Banderas) and his finance Marisa (Rossy de Palma) turn up at the apartment. Bored with the situation, Marisa inadvertently ingests the gazpacho and as she blissfully snoozes, her fiancé inaugurates an affair with Carmen's fugitive friend. Pedro Almodóvar directs this fact-moving, surreal farce of obsessive love, garnering him an Academy Award® nomination. Extras: Around Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Introduction by José Arroyo Trailer
A film director reflects on the choices he's made in life as past and present come crashing down around him.
A love story with strings attached! Recently released from a mental institution Ricky (Banderas) sets in motion his grand plan. Hunting down the porn star with whom he once had sex Ricky tries to convince her to be his wife. However when she's somewhat reluctant to say the least to take up his offer of marriage he vows to tie her down to endear himself to her...
Creating 'one of the jauntiest of all war-of-the-sexes comedies' (Pauline Kael), Pedro Almodovar, Spain's premiere writer-director, creates an off-kilter universe of madness, mayhem and pure fun. Nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and co-starring Antonio Banderas, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown is 'a wild, wanton, wickedly witty farce' (People)!; ; High atop one of Spain's poshest penthouses, three women have come to the end of their mental ropes. ...
A collection of films from acclaimed Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar comprising: Dark Habits (1983): Nothing is quite what it seems in this early Almodovar comedy in which the unconventional nuns of a dilapidated Madrid convent write soft porn get high and still find time to design fabulous evening wear! Pepi Luci Bom (1980): Pepi (Carmen Maura) is an unemployed heiress whose illegal plants indiscreetly placed on the balcony lead to an unwelcome visit from a police
In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) pregnant actress Pepa (Carmen Maura) is distraught by a break-up with her actor boyfriend Ivn (Fernando Guilln) and prepares a gazpacho laced with sleeping pills. She is however saved from suicide by her best friend Candela (Mara Barranco) a fugitive from justice. Pepa's ex-lover's grown son (Antonio Banderas) arrives with wife-to-be Marisa (Rossy de Palma) in answer to Carmen's ""room to let"" newspaper ad. Marisa inadvertently ingests the gazpacho and as she blissfully snoozes her fianc inaugurates an affair with Carmen's fugitive friend.
Based on an Ian McEwen novel, The Comfort of Strangers is directed by Paul Schrader at his most portentous. A young couple holidaying in Venice are taken up by an older more sophisticated pair. Christopher Walken as the Eurotrashy Roberto portrays with considerable vigour the sort of smooth stranger from whom anyone who has ever seen this sort of movie ought to run a mile, and Helen Mirren as his complaisant wife is hardly less sinister. Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson are believably obtuse as the lovers who fail to understand exactly what they are being sucked into. This ought to be a far better film than it is: Harold Pinter's script is elliptically menacing and Angelo Badalamenti's score attractively gloomy. But in the end The Comfort of Strangers presents a rather low-rent vision of decadence: Roberto's praise of Margaret Thatcher and habit of photographing the unwary and beautiful are not quite enough to make the film's shocking climax entirely plausible. The DVD contains no additional features other than the obligatory theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney
When Iván (Fernando Guillén) jilts long-time lover, actress Pepa (Carmen Maura), she plans her suicide; lacing her gazpacho soup with barbiturates. She is, however saved by her best friend Candela (Maria Barranco), a fugitive from the law. Further adding to the chaos, Ivan's son (Antonio Banderas) and his finance Marisa (Rossy de Palma) turn up at the apartment. Bored with the situation, Marisa inadvertently ingests the gazpacho and as she blissfully snoozes, her fiancé inaugurates an affair with Carmen's fugitive friend. Pedro Almodóvar directs this fact-moving, surreal farce of obsessive love, garnering him an Academy Award® nomination. Extras: Around Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Introduction by José Arroyo Trailer
At his school in Madrid ex-bullfighter Diego Montes teaches his students the Corridor - 'the art of the kill'. Trainee bullfighter Angelo sexually repressed and mother fixated is taunted about his suspected homosexuality by Diego. To prove his masculinity Angel attempts to assault Diego's girlfriend. Failing in his attempt and consumed by guilt he confesses to murders he did not commit - the victims are killed with bullfighting instruments at the moment of sexual climax. Angel is
At his school in Madrid ex-bullfighter Diego Montes teaches his students the Corridor - ‘the art of the kill’. Trainee bullfighter Angelo sexually repressed and mother fixated is taunted about his suspected homosexuality by Diego. To prove his masculinity Angel attempts to assault Diego’s girlfriend. Failing in his attempt and consumed by guilt he confesses to murders he did not commit – the victims are killed with bullfighting instruments at the moment of sexual climax. Angel is defended by lawyer Maria Cardenal the real killer who is obsessed with Diego uses Angel to draw the maestro Matador into one last confrontation. Matador is a darkly comic and seductive celebration of Spanish desire repression and bullfighting inspired by the Hollywood melodrama 'Duel In The Sun'.
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy