What Have I Done to Deserve This? (film)
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| What Have I Done to Deserve This? | |
|---|---|
 Original Spanish poster. Pictured: Carmen Maura |
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| Directed by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Written by | Pedro Almodóvar |
| Starring | Carmen Maura Luis Hostalot Verónica Forqué |
| Release date(s) | October 25, 1984 (Spain) |
| Running time | 101 Min |
| Language | Spanish English |
| IMDb profile | |
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Spanish: ¿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.
[edit] 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, is a violent and sexist man, constantly dreaming about a German woman he broke-up with before he fell in love with 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. The only positive character is a prostitute, Crystal, who lives next-door and is Gloria's only true friend.
Due to a nervous breakdown, Gloria kills Antonio with a ham leg and Toni's iguana is the only one who witnesses the crime. Between sense of guilt, feminist pride and the development of crazy side stories also involving a pervert writer, his beauty-obsessed wife and an impotent policeman frustrated by his lack of sexual power, entrusted to the crime's solution Gloria only barely manages to survive.
[edit] 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.
[edit] External links
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