Greenpoint, October, 2015

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Taxi Movies (8)

Backseat vanity mirror!
The plot in Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown defies easy summary. There are betrayals, suicide attempts, spiked gazpacho, Johnny Guitar in Spanish, terrorist plots, and a near-lethal LP tossed from a balcony. While most of the movie takes place in a fantastic modernist Madrid apartment, several key moments involve taxis.

Muy peligroso!
Somehow it's always the same mambo-loving taxi driver (Guillermo Montesinos) that our heroine Pepa (Carmen Laura--that's her in the rearview mirror) hails. There's even a high-speed chase to the airport involving the taxi and a highjacked motorcyclist (and his girlfriend, of course). The over-the-top interior decorations of the cab is classic Almodóvar kitsch with a heart of gold. (The cab, according to this site with more photos, is a Peugeot 505.)


Here's the trailer (which sadly does not include the Mambo-Taxi):

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