What Have I Done to Deserve This?

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

1984 / 101min / DCP

Shackled to an abusive husband, a castigating soft drink addict mother-in-law, and two disappointing sons—one peddles dope, the other courts the attention of pedophiles—cash-strapped Madrid cleaning lady and housewife Gloria (Maura, superb) barely makes it through her days with the help of a steady diet of amphetamines… and that’s before her spouse comes up with the brilliant idea of forging Hitler’s diaries. A heady cocktail of melodrama, neorealist squalor, and stinging satire, setting its sights on post-Franco consumerism, Almodóvar’s fourth film went a long way toward establishing him—and his muse, Maura—as major new players on the international arthouse circuit.