Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

"A new comedy about someone you know."

1988 1h 28m ES

👍

7.4

SOLID

🔥

94%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 1,043🍅94%Rotten Tomatoes●85Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 50,214

ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.

“A new comedy about someone you know.”

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Where to watch · US

Cast

Carmen Maura
Pepa
Antonio Banderas
Carlos
Julieta Serrano
Lucía
María Barranco
Candela
Rossy de Palma
Marisa
Kiti Mánver
Paulina Morales
Guillermo Montesinos
Taxi Driver
Chus Lampreave
Jehovah's Witness Goalkeeper

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Writers: Pedro Almodóvar
Languages: Spanish
Countries: Spain

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

88 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $15M — a 21.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

38 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, shot by José Luis Alcaine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Bernardo Bonezzi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor José Salcedo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas and Julieta Serrano carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Pedro Almodóvar directs. José Luis Alcaine behind the camera. Bernardo Bonezzi scores. José Salcedo cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Spain. Dialogue in Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

188 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $15M — a 21.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
438 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
5Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, shot by José Luis Alcaine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Bernardo Bonezzi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor José Salcedo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas and Julieta Serrano carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "A new comedy about someone you know.".
10IMDB entry: tt0095675 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 20 themes, including "infidelity", "friendship", "airport", "madrid, spain".
12Released under 15 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: José Luis Alcaine
Original score: Bernardo Bonezzi
Editing: José Salcedo
Makeup / hair: Jesús Moncusi
Runtime: 88 min · 1h 28m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $700,000
Box office: $14,979,298
Return: 2140% of budget
Original language: ES
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 85/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 50,214 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 22 wins & 24 nominations total

Young European Film of the Year
European Film Award for Best Actress

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Pedro Almodóvar

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-04-11
★ 7/10
"I was a virgin this morning, but I'm not sure now...". Well after ninety minutes of these shenanigans, I'm surprised she was even certain about the morning. The story follows actress "Pepa" (Carmen Maura) who is despondent after being left by boyfriend "Iván" (Fernando Guillén). Determined to find out why, and pregnant, she contacts his former wife "Lucia" (Julieta Serrano), herself fresh from a lengthy stint in a sanatorium and living with her rather geeky looking twenty-something son "Carlos" (Antonio Banderas) but they can't really shed much light on his behaviour either. Whilst all this is going on, a group of terrorists is believed to have carried out an atrocity in Madrid and it might be that her best friend "Candela" (Marisa Barranco) could be mixed up as she had them stay in her apartment for an evening of furious jogging - so now she's in hiding. With the media and the cops on the trail of the killers, Pedro Almodóvar now crams enough slapstick comedy into this to rival anything Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau ever did. There's nothing nor anybody left out - even a bleach blond gay guy and some ridiculous high heeled antics to keep the pace rocketing along til a denouement that closes the story, but that hardly matters. This is about the characters and both Maura and and Barranco are on entertaining form delivering a pithy and humorous script as the plot lurches from the daft to the dafter. Well worth a watch this.

Production companies