Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
DVD Description
The most celebrated Spanish filmmaker since Buñuel, director, screenwriter, composer and actor Pedro Almodóvar was born in Calzada de Calatrava, La Mancha, in 1951. Aged sixteen Almodóvar moved to Madrid and purchased his first movie camera and became familiar with what would later drive his formative films: the dramas and miseries of the Spanish middle classes at the beginning of the age of consumerism. Gradually graduating to 16mm, the completion of Almodóvar’s first feature, Pepe, Luci, Bom (1980) coincided with the birth of democracy in Spain.
The films in this box set include the director’s outrageous début– inspired by his time fronting a glam rock punk band – alongside Dark Habits (1983), What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988). As well as sealing the collaborations that Almodóvar had made with the actors he met from his days in an independent theatre group (including Carmen Maura), the films from this period also display his acute visual style and recurring thematic obsessions such as sexual violence, female masochism and addiction. It was this epoch that also bought the first of numerous Academy Award nominations for Women on the Verge.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN, SPECIAL FEATURES: Box Set, Interactive Menu, Multi-DVD Set, SYNOPSIS: This 4-DVD Collection contains 4 Almodovar's movies:
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ( Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios ):
A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner.
Pepi, Luci, Bom:
Almodovar's first film of life in Madrid during the punk era and not one for the squeamish. He covers everything from drugs and sexual violence, to female masochism.
Dark Habits ( Entre tinieblas ):
Yolanda sings in a seedy nightclub. When her boyfriend dies of an overdose, she fears the police and seeks refuge in a convent that saves women from the streets. These off-beat nuns include a heroin using abbess who loves Yolanda, one who writes romance novels under a pseudonym, another raising a tiger in the convent yard, and one who designs fabulous fashions and is in love with the local priest. They plan an evening extravaganza starring Yolanda to celebrate the abbess's birthday and to convince their wealthy patron not to abandon them.
What Have I Done to Deserve This? ( Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!! ):
A dysfunctional family in Madrid: Gloria is a cleaning lady, hooked on No-Doze, living in a crowded flat ...Pedro Almodovar 4-DVD Collection ( Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown / Pepi, Luci, Bom ) ( Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios / Qué he hecho )
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ( Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios ):
A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner.
Pepi, Luci, Bom:
Almodovar's first film of life in Madrid during the punk era and not one for the squeamish. He covers everything from drugs and sexual violence, to female masochism.
Dark Habits ( Entre tinieblas ):
Yolanda sings in a seedy nightclub. When her boyfriend dies of an overdose, she fears the police and seeks refuge in a convent that saves women from the streets. These off-beat nuns include a heroin using abbess who loves Yolanda, one who writes romance novels under a pseudonym, another raising a tiger in the convent yard, and one who designs fabulous fashions and is in love with the local priest. They plan an evening extravaganza starring Yolanda to celebrate the abbess's birthday and to convince their wealthy patron not to abandon them.
What Have I Done to Deserve This? ( Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!! ):
A dysfunctional family in Madrid: Gloria is a cleaning lady, hooked on No-Doze, living in a crowded flat ...Pedro Almodovar 4-DVD Collection ( Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown / Pepi, Luci, Bom ) ( Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios / Qué he hecho )
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
In 'Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown', Pedro Almodovar subtley overturns traditional gender stereotypes. Outside of the shennanigans she encounters from place to place, Pepa takes stock of her situation in the taxi that carries her between buildings. Its here she recognizes that the mechanics of motorcycles are much easier to fathom than those of male psychology. Ivan's first wife Lucia, remains in the 60's fashion she was wearing when he left her. It's almost as if time stopped for her the moment he left. The array of colours seem to be used as a metaphor for the full and intense emotions of the women involved, compared to the grey and black of Carlos and Ivan.
Apparently Almodovar had to film the balcony scenes in a studio because the downtown skyline of Madrid is now just a sea of office and apartment buildings. Almodovar has never made any secret of the fact that a director should "never borrow, but steal if it is justified" from another director. Witness his homage to Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' when Pepa looks across the street into Lucia's apartment building.
It's ironic that in his native Spain, Pedro Almodovar finally broke free from being described as a 'cult' director to being appreciated by a wider audience with the massive success of this film. Meanwhile in the U.S., the film was specifically marketed by Orion as a 'minority' picture aimed at an Hispanic and female audience. They must have been pleasantly surprised when the audiences for this film crossed racial and gender barriers.
70 of 75 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
After I have ordered everything from Almodovars collection, I read the customer review that there were no english subtitles for the films. I was frustrated and wrote an email to amazon to confirm it. They said that it was correct NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES. I paniced and try to buy the films from Play.com which they say they had subtitles. Fortunately :) they couldnt accept my card. When my order finally came from amazon I have checked every single film. To my surprise there were english subtitles to every single one of them. I was really really happy. I think amazon should review the dvds of Almodovar and put that there are english subtitles on the description since it is very misleading for customers. Thank God play.com didnt accept my credit card, which by the way is a terrible site with no customer support.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This box set contains four films - two duds and two gems - which constitute a good introduction to the early work of writer/director Pedro Almodovar. There are English subtitles for all four films, as well as critical introductions to three of them by Jose Arroyo. These introductions, spoken to camera, help to establish a context for each film; although I personally do not agree with all of the judgements Arroya makes in them.
The gems - "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" and "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" - are two very different films which happen to be united by powerful and authoritative central performances from Carmen Maura, in both. "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" is a superb mixture of social realism, comedy, drama and fantasy which neverthless does not shy away from showing you the awfulness of the lives of Madrid's urban poor; whilst "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" is a fast, clever, funny and farcical comedy set at the other end of the social spectrum - amongst Madrid's media rich. I think that "What Have I Done To Deserve This?", being the more trenchant of the two, is the better film.
The duds (as I have, perhaps unfairly, termed them) are "Pepi, Luci, Bom" and "Dark Habits". The first of the two was also Almodovar's first feature film, so perhaps it is asking too much to expect it to be perfect. Shot on 16mm film, it is grainy and episodic (with some of the episodes working better than others) and appears to owe stylistic debts to both "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and punk rock. Some of the ideas it contains - such as the opera singing punk rock avengers - are good, whilst others are not so good. It's that sort of a film - grainy, patchy and early in the director's career.
"Dark Habits" is an artistic failure which neverthless contains some interesting and entertaining elements. One of the problems with the film is that the central performance is weaker than those of the supporting actors. This leaves the heart of the film somewhat blank. But for someone like myself, who has no background in religion, "Dark Habits" did explain something of why people are drawn to Christian religious orders in the first place, and what kind of people make them up. This, in turn, makes sadism, masochism and sexual deviancy within the church (in this case, the sisterhood) much easier to understand. The drug taking lesbian nuns of "Dark Habits", then, no longer seem quite so far fetched...
My own personal ratings would be as follows:
"What Have I Done To Deserve This?" - five stars.
"Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" - four stars.
"Pepi, Luci, Bom" - three stars.
"Dark Habits" - three stars.
To the box set as a whole (and because it contains two of Almodovar's early best) I am giving four stars.
The gems - "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" and "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" - are two very different films which happen to be united by powerful and authoritative central performances from Carmen Maura, in both. "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" is a superb mixture of social realism, comedy, drama and fantasy which neverthless does not shy away from showing you the awfulness of the lives of Madrid's urban poor; whilst "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" is a fast, clever, funny and farcical comedy set at the other end of the social spectrum - amongst Madrid's media rich. I think that "What Have I Done To Deserve This?", being the more trenchant of the two, is the better film.
The duds (as I have, perhaps unfairly, termed them) are "Pepi, Luci, Bom" and "Dark Habits". The first of the two was also Almodovar's first feature film, so perhaps it is asking too much to expect it to be perfect. Shot on 16mm film, it is grainy and episodic (with some of the episodes working better than others) and appears to owe stylistic debts to both "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and punk rock. Some of the ideas it contains - such as the opera singing punk rock avengers - are good, whilst others are not so good. It's that sort of a film - grainy, patchy and early in the director's career.
"Dark Habits" is an artistic failure which neverthless contains some interesting and entertaining elements. One of the problems with the film is that the central performance is weaker than those of the supporting actors. This leaves the heart of the film somewhat blank. But for someone like myself, who has no background in religion, "Dark Habits" did explain something of why people are drawn to Christian religious orders in the first place, and what kind of people make them up. This, in turn, makes sadism, masochism and sexual deviancy within the church (in this case, the sisterhood) much easier to understand. The drug taking lesbian nuns of "Dark Habits", then, no longer seem quite so far fetched...
My own personal ratings would be as follows:
"What Have I Done To Deserve This?" - five stars.
"Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" - four stars.
"Pepi, Luci, Bom" - three stars.
"Dark Habits" - three stars.
To the box set as a whole (and because it contains two of Almodovar's early best) I am giving four stars.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The subtitle isn't good
The subtitle is pasted on the films. There is no option of watching it with and without the subtitles. Read more
Published 3 months ago by ringokun
Good
Very happy with product, it was a present for my girlfriend and she was happy with the DVD set. Very quick delivery. Cheers.
Published 5 months ago by Alex
Examiner
His plots might at times be quite absurd but there is nothing dull about Almodovar's films. All three are very well worth watching, especially 'Women on the verge of a nervous... Read more
Published 13 months ago by cicero
Fun, inventive farce
Great fun, as Almodovar's visual sophistication continues to expand from film to film, and his ability to create a subtle mix of the campy, the surreal, and real emotion grows ever... Read more
Published 22 months ago by K. Gordon
The Almodovar Collection
I bought this DVD Set as a gift for my daughter who is studying Spanish. The service was good and the DVD's arrived on time in good condition.
Published on 8 Dec 2009 by B. Lyne
Good set for fans
I thought from the product picture I'd get 4 seperate DVDs in a box case like with other DVDs box sets I've had but actually this is more like a fold out cardboard DVD cover with... Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2009 by Laurita D
Almodovar collection.
If you are a fan of Almodovar this collection will not disappoint. The best film in this set is the classic "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown". Read more
Published on 19 May 2009 by Rusty Mitchel
fantastic
this is the most excellent box set on amazon at the moment
Almodovar is a comic genius
Almodovar is a comic genius
Published on 14 April 2008 by John G. Lynch
Wish I didn't buy it!
Think this collection is the biggest load of cr###. Anyone that reports it is fantastic is suffering from the "Kings New Clothes Syndrome". Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2007 by KPC
ALMODOVAR ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
"Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown" was nominated for the 1988 Acamedy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it didn't obtain the OSCAR. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2003 by CHRISTIAN
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
