Growing up

Annetta 2022-01-07 15:54:03

The cheesy Spanish movie has a simple plot and noisy scenes. It is about the emotional entanglement between a passionate man and several women, and the pain, madness, collapse, and growth that this brings to the women. The movie uses vulgar colors, grotesque props and exaggerated tasks to render and highlight the theme, allowing the audience, especially female audiences, to laugh and even disdain the bizarre thoughts and behaviors of the characters in the play. I have to admit that Almodovar actually understands women.

Who didn't have a moment of sadness for a broken relationship? Who doesn't have a moment of anger and resentment over a man's lies? Who didn't want to indulge in the depravity that never superseded in the time of desperation? Who doesn't have the urge to destroy everything in the heart filled with resentment? If you have had similar experiences and feelings, why can't you understand and accept the behaviors that produce the same emotions? When women themselves cannot understand and respect women, who can we expect to save women?

Perhaps, no matter how you think or behave, you should not be too harsh. Because before we criticize, we should lift the veil behind our thoughts and behaviors and see what lies behind them.

Why are the women in the movie "on the verge of mental breakdown"? Don't tell me it's because of love. It is not so much love, as it is the whole society, including the love chains that women put on themselves. For a long time, we have always been led by such remarks: Women are made of water, women are emotional, women are born for love, and women should be tender. When society refers to successful women as strong women, does it also imply that normal women should be weak women like Xiaoniai? Whether it is tradition or reality, it seems to be showing us the "fact": love makes the earth work, women should be dizzy, fall, and get up. Every pore is waiting to feel life, and then suffer disillusionment. Therefore, when the sole purpose of life, love, also ends in deception and destruction, "nervous breakdown" becomes the only reasonable ending for women.

However, is this the case? Should this be the case? A woman's life is just Cinderella, a sleeping beauty, waiting for the prince's salvation? In the movie, Almodovar tells us that it is not. After experiencing heartache, craziness, and despair, Peba finally awoke and found herself on the verge of collapse. As a result, we saw that at the airport, when Ivan wanted to redeem this relationship and compensate Peba, Peba resolutely refused. Rolling in the mud of love, got up, cleaned himself up again, and Peba grew up.

Peba has grown up, how about you?
Don't believe that there is a prince. A woman is not a Cinderella waiting for salvation. Love is not a flower, it is just the soil for nurturing flowers. You have loved, you have been loved, you have been hurt, and you have hurt others. Then you grow up. You discover, it turns out, the real flower is your life.

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Extended Reading

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown quotes

  • Pepa: Hello. I'm the mother of the notorious Crossroads Killer. When my son comes home after one of his famous crimes, his clothes are just filthy.

    [Pepa holds up a bloody shirt. The police arrive]

    Policía I: Where are the clothes your son wore...

    Policía II: At the time of the murder?

    [Pepa takes a clean shirt out of the dryer]

    Pepa: Right here. Sparkling clean.

    Policía I: No trace of blood.

    Policía II: Or guts.

    Policía I: Unbelievable!

    [Pepa holds up a box of detergent]

    Pepa: Ecce Homo. It's unbelievable.

  • Pepa: You could have killed yourself!

    Candela: That was the idea. I'm desperate.

    Pepa: So am I, but I don't jump off terraces.

    Candela: I didn't know where to go. I couldn't face my folks. It's bad enough that I became a model.