What Have I Done to Deserve This? (film)

Infobox Film
name = What Have I Done to Deserve This?


caption = Original Spanish poster. Pictured: Carmen Maura
writer = Pedro Almodóvar
starring = Carmen Maura
Luis Hostalot
Verónica Forqué
director = Pedro Almodóvar
producer =
distributor =
released = October 25 1984 (Spain)
runtime = 101 Min
language = Spanish
English
imdb_id = 0088461
budget =

"What Have I Done to Deserve This?" ( _es. ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?) is a 1984 film by Pedro Almodóvar. The title is sometimes given with an exclamation mark at the end rather than a question mark.

Almodóvar has described his fourth film as a homage to Italian Neorealism, although this tribute also involves jokes about paedophilia, prostitution, and a telekenetic child. The film, set in the towerblocks around Madrid, depicts female frustration and family breakdown, echoing Jean-Luc Godard's "Two or Three Things I Know About Her" but with Almodóvar's unique approach to filmmaking. Carmen Maura has often worked for Almodóvar, she became a synonym of strong woman and also a gay icon for her role as a transsexual in La ley del deseo.

Plot

The film is a slice of a housewife's life in 80's Madrid. Gloria (Carmen Maura) lives in a small and cheap apartment with husband and two children: the declared homosexual Miguel (12) and the cocaine pusher Toni (14). Her husband, Antonio, often dreams of a German woman he broke up with before he married Gloria.

Gloria's mother-in-law, a frugal and unhappy woman who hides her magdalena cakes and desperately wants to move back to the country, is another addition to the poor woman's struggle. Crystal, a prostitute who lives next door, is Gloria's best friend and provides one of the few rays of sunshine in Gloria's life.

When Gloria's husband assaults her in the kitchen, Gloria accidentally kills him after hitting him with a ham leg. Toni's iguana, Money, is the only witness to the crime. Gloria successfully evades the investigators and is never tied to the murder.

There are many subplots intertwined with the main narrative with characters including a writer, his beauty-obsessed wife and an impotent policeman frustrated by his lack of sexual power.

Trivia

* A song called "What Have I Done To Deserve This" is included in Pet Shop Boys' album Actually. The duo are gay icons as well.
* German lyrical music is played throughout the movie.

External links

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