0:04

Hola, listeners. I'm Martina Castro, and

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it's time for another session of

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Duos Film Club, the latest season

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of the Duolingo Spanish Podcast. This

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season, we're exploring some of the most

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iconic Spanish-language films. Whether you've

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seen them or not, you're going to learn

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what makes these movies so special in our

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signature bilingual format. It's

0:39

impossible to talk about Spanish-language

0:41

cinema and not talk about

0:43

director Pedro Almodovar. We

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heard from listeners that he was a must for

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Duos Film Club. He has so many

0:49

successful movies that it was hard to choose just

0:52

one. But for today's episode,

0:54

we went with Mujeres al borde de

0:56

una tache de Nervios, or Women on

0:58

the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. It's

1:01

a classic for a reason. The

1:03

writing is hilarious, the cinematography

1:06

is vibrant, and the film

1:08

catapulted both Almodovar and a

1:10

young Antonio Banderas to fame.

1:14

Joining us for Madrid

1:17

is our guest, David

1:19

Bernal. He's

1:36

a movie critic and has written for various

1:38

publications in Spain. He's actually

1:40

so obsessed with Almodovar that he's writing

1:42

his doctoral thesis about him. David

1:45

will share why he and so many other

1:47

Spaniards believe that Pedro Almodovar is much more

1:49

than just a movie director. He

1:52

is a true icon. So,

1:57

grab some popcorn and get comfy as we

1:59

dive into the next episode. dive into this

2:01

film and experience the wild and changing times

2:03

of Spain in the 1980s. Please

2:07

note that Mujeres Al Borde de

2:09

Matacadenervios is rated R, but today's

2:11

episode is family-friendly. And

2:13

one more quick note, keep an ear out to

2:16

the accent from Spain, where the C,

2:18

which often sounds like an S sound, is

2:21

instead pronounced with a th sound.

2:24

So, Censuro El

2:26

Sine sounds like Censuro

2:28

El Sine. To

2:35

understand why Pedro Almodovar's movies are so

2:37

iconic, we have to start with his

2:40

personal story. Almodovar grew up in

2:42

Spain, in a small country town in the 1950s.

2:44

This was after the

2:46

Spanish Civil War, and the dictator

2:48

Francisco Franco had taken power. David

2:51

says it was a very difficult time

2:53

in the country, socially and

2:55

economically. During his dictatorship,

2:58

Franco censured, or Censuro,

3:00

movies, the media, and

3:02

much more. Almodovar

3:23

was raised by his mother and

3:25

other women in town, so he

3:28

saw firsthand how they barely

3:52

had any rights under Franco's rule.

3:55

Women often had to ask permission

3:57

to work. Divorce was illegal. had

4:00

limited opportunities for education. In

4:02

Pedro's hometown, many women didn't know how to

4:05

read, so his mother often read their

4:07

mail for them. David says that

4:09

the young Pedro loved listening to his mother

4:11

read these letters, especially when she

4:13

got creative. Un

4:16

día, Pedro discovered that his mom invented

4:18

the part of the carton of the

4:20

carton. He was

4:22

the one who was the one. But,

4:24

mother, because she was a child,

4:27

she didn't know the carton. And

4:30

he was the one who was the one. Because

4:32

he was the one who was the

4:34

one. In this moment,

4:37

the mother intended that the fiction

4:39

would be the one to live

4:41

with. This is why, for

4:43

the most part, the speliculus of the world,

4:46

the father of the director, who is

4:49

the one. Almodovar

4:54

followed his passion for storytelling to Madrid. And

4:56

by the early 1980s, the

4:58

dictatorship finally ended and Spain moved

5:01

towards a democracy. The

5:03

transition unleashed an explosion of

5:05

creativity, which would reshape Almodovar's

5:07

life, his career, and all

5:09

of Spanish society. This

5:11

period was called La Movida

5:14

Madrileña. La Movida

5:16

Madrileña for una responsta a la dicta

5:18

lura. Espefiálmente en Madríf.

5:21

Por cábía mucha gente jóven que es

5:23

espressaba con el arte. Naceron

5:26

grupos de musica, pintores

5:29

y directores, como peder almodovar.

5:32

La Movida Madrileña fues su escuela

5:34

de vida. Ese periódo,

5:36

también fú importante para sus

5:38

speliculas. Y lo vemos

5:40

en mujerez al borde de una taker de

5:43

nervios. La cultura y

5:45

los personajes, como todas esa

5:47

mujerez fuertes en dependientes. Que vemos

5:50

a la spelicula, de

5:52

muestran la importancia de tuvo ese mo

5:54

vimiento. Okay,

5:57

now that we know more about what Spain was like in the

5:59

1980s, We're ready to

6:01

talk about the movie and its

6:03

impressive women. The

6:05

movie follows the twists and turns of their lives

6:08

in Madrid in the late 1980s. And

6:11

in it, we see how the main

6:13

characters break down stereotypes. It

6:15

starts with Pepa, a voice director who's

6:17

heartbroken. We see how

6:19

she suffers, or sufre, when

6:21

her boyfriend Ivan suddenly leaves

6:24

her. The story

6:26

is simply universal. Pepa

6:29

sufre por amor, y es

6:31

es algo que todos emos vivido. Pedro

6:35

Almodovar transformo estas situation

6:37

en algo orazioso. Lo

6:40

hace, cola ayuda de

6:42

varos personajes extravagances, caminudo

6:44

seven de las peliculas de Almodovar.

6:48

While searching for her ex, Pepa encounters

6:50

a cast of quirky characters. They

6:53

include her friend, Candela, who's entangled

6:55

in a messy romance, and

6:57

Marisa, who's dating Ivan's son.

7:00

With these women, the movie introduces

7:03

us to the director's distinctive

7:05

style and his quote, chicas

7:07

almodovar, women who break norms,

7:10

or estandares. La

7:12

chicas almodovar son mujeres

7:14

fuertes, compación por

7:17

su cultura. Pedro que

7:19

no tiene miedo de ire en contra

7:21

de los estandares de las ociras. La

7:24

chicas almodovar son actrices

7:26

como carme maura de

7:28

mujeres y otras como

7:31

penelo pecuros. Son

7:33

mujeres tenares que

7:35

no sígen los estandares clácicos de

7:37

la vegésa. La

7:39

chicas almodovar son mujeres no

7:42

conventionales. Y eso las

7:44

ase unica. To

7:48

this day, it's refreshing to see

7:50

different standards of beauty, or beyessa,

7:52

on screen. Despite the

7:54

movie's romantic plot, it also touches on

7:56

some darker themes, including betrayal

7:59

and psychological abuse. Through

8:01

it all, these women find the strength

8:03

to survive, together. Over

8:30

the course of his 50-year career, Almodovar has made over 20 feature

8:32

films. So you might wonder

8:41

why Duo's film club picked this one.

8:44

Well, first of all, the movie celebrates

8:46

women. We see them

8:48

owning their freedoms and inner strength

8:50

after enduring decades of repression under

8:53

Flanko. That set Almodovar

8:55

apart back then and still does to

8:57

this day. Another reason why

8:59

we picked Mujeres is because after it was released

9:01

in 1988, it launched Almodovar's international

9:05

career. Almodovar's earlier films

9:07

during the Movida Madrileña were

9:29

more experimental, but Mujeres is

9:31

a classic Spanish film. And

9:33

while Almodovar's style has become

9:35

more sophisticated over time, Mujeres

9:37

is a super accessible movie,

9:40

with relatable characters and themes. In

9:42

fact, it turned Almodovar's name into a

9:44

new word. The video explains

9:47

what makes something quote Almodovariano.

10:00

Clearly, Almodovar has had

10:02

a huge impact on

10:05

Spain, cinema, and language, but he's also touched

10:25

people's personal loves, like our

10:27

guest, David. Now

10:54

you get a chance to deepen your understanding of the film

10:56

in our segment, Onle Play, or

10:58

Press Play. This is where we

11:00

play a scene from the movie so you can enjoy an

11:02

extra learning moment. We

11:08

picked today's scene because it showcases some

11:11

of the powerful acting in Mujeres. We

11:13

see that Pepa is becoming desperate, literally

11:16

on the verge of a nervous breakdown,

11:18

as she tries to

11:20

reach her ex-boyfriend, Yvonne. She

11:22

calls his home, even though she knows he probably

11:24

won't answer. Instead, another important

11:27

woman in the movie picks up

11:29

the phone. It's Yvonne's

11:31

wife, Lucia. Things

11:33

get tense pretty quickly. The

11:36

scene starts with Pepa inside an old school

11:39

phone booth at work, and a bright

11:41

red phone rings. We

12:00

just heard two of the most respected

12:02

actresses in Spain, Carmen Mauda as Pepper

12:04

and Julieta Serrano

12:12

as Lucia. With only

12:14

a few minds, they bring these characters to

12:17

life. Two resilient women who

12:19

are being mistreated by the same man. Zivid

12:22

says it's interesting how the scene sets

12:24

up another important theme in the movie,

12:26

communication and all the ways it can

12:28

go wrong. Whether

12:56

you've seen Mujeres or not,

12:59

we're pretty sure today's Fun

13:02

Facts or Sato Scuriosos will

13:16

teach you something new about the movie. Okay,

13:20

Fun Facts number one is about color.

13:23

One of the opening scenes features

13:25

Peppa's ex-boyfriend and it's a man's

13:27

world with images in black and

13:29

white. But soon we learn

13:31

that Peppa lives life in vibrant color

13:33

and there's one hue that stands out,

13:36

red. The red is

13:38

the color of the red. Speaking

14:00

of the color red, Fun Fact number

14:03

two is about the bright red tomato

14:05

soup that Deba makes, called gazpacho. Not

14:08

only does gazpacho play an important role

14:10

in the film, it's also a staple

14:12

in Spanish cuisine. Speaking of

14:14

the color red, all of the fun

14:21

fact number three takes us

14:24

to the street. Almodovar

14:45

and his movies are so iconic

14:47

that there's something called La Rúsa

14:49

Almodovar. It's one of several

14:51

tours that takes you to some locations

14:53

where he's filmed, including Pepa's penthouse in

14:56

the heart of Madrid. Okay

15:22

for those who've seen the movie, we have one

15:25

more bonus trivia to share. It's a spoiler. So

15:29

if you haven't seen Mujeres, now's the time to skip

15:31

ahead to the end or come back when you've watched

15:34

it. Okay,

15:36

ready? So, this spoiler

15:38

is about one of the narrative elements

15:41

we mentioned, the gazpacho soup. In

15:43

the movie, Deba spikes it with

15:45

sleeping pills. The character Marisa accidentally

15:48

drinks it, and then she has

15:50

a very interesting dream. Well,

15:52

this was such an intriguing twist

15:55

that Almodovar returned it to the

15:57

gazpacho and, as David explains, made

15:59

it an Easter. egg in some of his later homes.

16:30

Now you're ready to enjoy

16:32

Mujeres al Borde de Una

16:34

Tache de Nervios and so many more films

16:47

by Pedro Almodovar. Thank

16:49

you to our guest David Bednall. We

16:51

wish you the best of luck in

16:53

your thesis about Almodovar. Muchas gracias.

16:56

Y es espero nadirí. This

17:00

episode was written by Sally Goldman, a

17:02

journalist and writer based in Buenos Aires.

17:04

And if you want to get ahead for

17:07

next week's Film Club, we're diving into the

17:09

Spanish version of the beloved animated Pixar film

17:11

Coco. We would love

17:13

to know what you thought of this

17:15

episode. You can write us an email

17:17

at podcast.duolingo.com or send us an

17:19

audio message on WhatsApp at test1-703-9539369. You're good to

17:22

say your name and where you're from.

17:28

If you liked this episode,

17:30

please share it. You can

17:32

find the audio and the transcript

17:35

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18:00

Duolingo Spanish Podcast is produced by

18:02

Duolingo and Avente Media. I am

18:04

the executive producer and your host,

18:06

Christina Castro. Gracias por esco che.