Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

The film revolves around Pepa, and the stories of the other women kind of mix into hers. So I think that all the women that Pepa encounters represent extreme, stereotypical aspects of herself and her emotions. It is apparent from the beginning of the film that Pepa has a relationship with Ivan that strongly affects her emotions. She goes from being sad, to angry, vengeful, and later, to being independent. Candela represents how depressed and victimized Pepa felt; Lucia showed how angry, psychotic Ivan made her (Pepa); Paulina might have embodied Pepa’s disgust for herself at letting a man (Ivan) trouble her so much; and since Marisa is in such a deep sleep, then wakes up at the end, it seems she represents the way Pepa “wakes up” about Ivan, and decides she doesn’t need him in her life.

The telephone represents a connection to another person. Pepa is always waiting for Ivan to call her, to reach out and reconnect with her, but he only leaves messages. The messages don’t represent a real connection, especially since they seem so disembodied from the person (Ivan) who leaves them. Though we see Ivan in the beginning of the film, we are led throughout the film to think of him as voice. Ivan uses his voice, or his language, to deceive. This even shows in his career of doing voiceovers, which require imitation and deception. So when Pepa rips the phone from the wall, throws it through a window, and breaks it, we can see her struggle to sever the fake connection she has with Ivan. At some points she attempts to have the telephone fixed, which meant that she still wanted to renew her connection to Ivan. However, she eventually realizes that nothing real can exist between them, and breaks the connection for good.

This film is probably comedic to empower women. I think the point is to play on stereotypes of how women react while in relationships. It shows them as angry, jealous, psychotic, murderous, controlling, or suicidal, or in other words, constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The women in this movie experience serious problems, but stereotypes are funny because they have a way of being ridiculous to the point that you laugh at them. For example, Pepa faints a few times in the movie, and seems dependent on pills to make it through her day, which is a stereotype that women are weak or nervous. It is sad, but made to seem very funny. Since women in the film are acting out these stereotypes and making fun of themselves, it takes the power away from men to stereotype women in order to insult them.