Film: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown & Run, Lola, Run (Double Feature)

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
Creating “one of the jauntiest of all war-of-the-sexes comedies” (Pauline Kael), Pedro Almodóvar, 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. Super-sexy Pepa (Carmen Maura) is forever teetering around atop her skyscraper spikes as she obsesses over Iván (Fernando Guillén), the lover who just jilted her over the answering machine! Her neurotic best friend Candela (María Barranco) is seeking refuge at Pepa’s place because she recently realized her lover is a Shiite terrorist. And Iván’s ex-wife Lucía (Julieta Serrano) was just released from a 20-year stint in a mental institution. They’re all mighty mad — in fact, they’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and one of them is about to commit murder unless the other half-crazed femmes fatales can stop her! (Sony Pictures)

DIRECTOR Pedro Almodóvar
WRITER Pedro Almodóvar
STARRING Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, María Barranco, Rossy de Palma, Kiti Manver
YEAR 1988
RATED R
COUNTRY Spain
FORMAT English subtitled 35mm
RUNNING TIME 89 minutes

RUN LOLA RUN
A thrilling post-MTV, roller-coaster ride, Run Lola Run is the internationally acclaimed sensation about two star-crossed lovers who have only minutes to change the course of their lives. Time is running out for Lola (Franka Potente). She’s just received a frantic phone call from her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), who’s lost a small fortune belonging to his mobster boss. If Lola doesn’t replace the money in twenty minutes, Manni will surely suffer severe consequences. Set to a throbbing techno score, “Lola’s like a human stun gun!” Peter Rainer, New York Magazine. (Sony Pictures)

“It’s a furiously kinetic display of pyrotechnics from the director Tom Tykwer, who fuses lightning-fast visual tricks, tirelessly shifting styles and the arbitrary possibilities of interactive storytelling” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times

DIRECTOR Tom Tykwer
WRITER Tom Tykwer
STARRING Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Armin Rohde
YEAR 1998
COUNTRY Germany
FORMAT English subtitled 35mm
RUNNING TIME 80 minutes