The manifestation of women's desire after Franco's regime ended
The collapse of the Franco government in 1975 ended four decades of reactionary dictatorship in Span. People's living conditions and ideological consciousness have significantly distorted by social politics and mainstream values under the authoritarian rule. Women are confined to the roles of virgins and housewives by the church and the State in Francoist Spain, and they served the state exclusively through reproduction and guarding the morality of the county (Yang, 2016). As we can see, women's physical and psychological desires were utterly imprisoned by the regime at that time. Additionally, the school of psychoanalysis represented by Freud has claimed that the internal desire is the fundamental driving force of human activities, including Eros and libido, as well as the conflict, attack and destruction of death. Therefore, the collapse of Franco's regime and the beginning of re-democratization in the early 1980s, people's demand（especially women）for instinct desires increased explosively; and the administration of films by the new government also changed – film censorship system was abolished and replaced by the film rating system. And the democratic social environment provides Almodóvar with freedom and space in creation (Shao, 2013).
Furthermore, this Spanish director has publicly stated on many occasions that his films do not involve any history or political themes: "I am not interested in politics ", "I prefer to deny the past, and I do not even allow the events of Franco's reign in my films". He also mentioned that he was unwilling to make any films related to Franco's dictatorship: "...I don't recognize the existence of Francoism at all. This may be my revenge against Francoism: I hope it will neither become a memory nor a shadow.". However, in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the various manifestations of sex and violence, the setting of the absurd relationship between characters always revealing the memory of a bygone era in a grotesque way. Simultaneously, Almodóvar tried to re-examine people's desires with a sense of irreverent and self-reflexive exploration. In this film, almost all the female characters are full of desire (Shao, 2013). The shaping of the "marginal female" image and the demonstration of their desire also reflect the repressed instinctive demand of traditional Spanish women who have been oppressed before.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown depicts the emotional confusion and encounters of a group of women living in Madrid in the 1980s. The various female roles in this movie are portrayed as anxious, selfish, willful, and hysterical women, completely subverting the image of weak and submissive women under the patriarchal system. Besides, this group of marginal women's desires are mainly divided into three categories: the desires for emotional satisfaction, rebellious desire to break the rules and sexual desire.
1. The desires for emotional satisfaction
First, women in the movie always perform crazy behaviors in pursuit of love and emotional satisfaction. Lucia (Julieta Serrano) has deeply infatuated with her husband Iván (Fernando Guillén) for two decades. It is revealed eventually that Lucía's insanity, which caused her institutionalization, resulted in Carlos (Antonio Banderas) being brought up by his grandparents. Even after being released from the mental institution, she persisted in pursuing Iván through various clues (calls from the Pepa). Also, the pregnant Pepa was told that her love Iván would leave her for another woman. In the face of betrayal, her full of love turned into a chase in hysteria, hoping to find her Iván back. She called frantically to find his whereabouts. She suffers from insomnia, smokes against the doctor's advice, even burns the sheets and puts piles of sleeping pills in gazpacho (Fig.1). When Pepa did not receive any information from her lover, instead, her friend Candela (María Barranco) kept calling. She was enraged, imitating Lucia's hysterical behavior, and yanked the telephone out and threw it out the window (Fig.2) (Acevedo-Muñoz, 2006). Recalling during Franco's reign, women are confined to the family, repeating tedious family work and raising children. They are treated as free labor and reproductive tools without sentiment. Besides, women are taught that they belong to one man and one man only. In contrast, men are allowed to have intimate relationships with more than one woman (Yang, 2016). Therefore, Almodóvar's carefully designed women's crazy behavior for love in the film is a biting satire on the oppression of women in that dark period.
2. Rebellious desire to break the rules
Furthermore, in the previous dark years, women were controlled by their husbands in the family, and at the same time, they were bound by the rules, laws and dogma of the patriarchal society. Hence the image of a woman is always described as submissive and unaggressive. However, in the film, Iván's wife - who is deeply caught in the vortex of love, because of her husband's repeated betrayal and abandonment over the years, intends to go to the airport to shoot down Iván to serve as revenge (Fig.3). Her despair of love eventually turns into an urge to kill her husband, which is the desire for conflict and destruction. The act of shooting is considered a crime and a provocative challenge to the legal system. Besides, suicide is also one of the most common ways for characters in Almodóvar movies to destroy themselves. Candela once tried to commit suicide by jumping off the apartment because she found that she has fallen in love with a terrorist (Fig.4). In my view, the love (related to living), as well as the crime and suicide (related to death), constitute the theme of desire in this film. These women's extreme behaviors and crimes are also considered to be an exaggerated release of traditional Spanish women's rebellious desires.
3. Sexual desire
Thirdly, according to the criminal law under the previous dictatorship, it is illegal for a woman to have fornication or cohabitation with others. Women's virginity was considered very important, and women who lost their virginity before marriage are deemed to have humiliated their families and themselves (Yang, 2016). Nevertheless, in Almodóvar's film, Candela openly discusses the details of having sex with the guy she met last week (Fig.5). Also, Carlos' fiancée enjoyed the pleasure of sex without any help in her sleep and lost her virginity (Fig.6). The plots mentioned above reveal women's sexual needs and pleasure; thus, it also challenges and deconstructs orthodox morality and traditional gender culture of the past time.
In conclusion, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown always revealing the memory of a bygone era（Francoism）through these crazy woman's behaviors and desires. As we can see, desire constitutes the carrier of the film itself. Almodóvar's display and interpretation of marginal women desire have also become the movie's theme to a certain extent, and it reflects the repressed instinctive demand of traditional Spanish women.
References:
Acevedo-Muñoz, E. R. (2006). Melo-Thriller: Hitchcock, Genre and Nationalism in Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. In D. Boyd and R. Barton Palmer (Eds.). After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation and Intertextuality (pp.173-194). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Almodóvar, P. (1988). Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Spain: Laurenfilm, El Deseo.
Shao, W. (2013). Shenjing binling bengkui de nvren zhong de xibanya shehui [On Spanish Society through Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown]. Journal of Beijing International Studies University，4，69-74.
Yang, M. (2016). Amoduowa dianying zhong de bianyuan nvxing xingxiang fenxi [An analysis of the image of Marginal “Female”in Almodóvar’s film （Master’s Thesis）. Shandong University of Arts, Shandong, China.
