Average customer rating:
- Shocking
- Another Jewel in Pedro Almodóvar's Crown!
- This film is fill with peculiar humor taped with his own trademark.
- My favorite Almodovar movie
- Highly surreal black comedy
|
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Starring:
Ángel de Andrés López ,
José Manuel Bello ,
Beni ,
Diego Caretti , and
Verónica Forqué
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
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Similar Items:
-
Dark Habits
-
Viva Pedro - The Almodovar Collection (Talk to Her/ Bad Education/ All about My Mother/ Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown/ Live Flesh/ Flower of My Secret / Matador / Law of Desire)
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Volver
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Live Flesh
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The Flower of My Secret
ASIN: B00009XN3O
Release Date: 2003-09-09 |
Amazon.com
Pedro Almodóvar scored his first international hit with What Have I Done to Deserve This?, cementing his reputation as Spain's bad-boy director of darkly comedic melodramas. Many of the themes that dominate Almodóvar's later films are evident here, especially his sympathetic affection for downtrodden women like Gloria (Carmen Maura), an exhausted housewife who's addicted to No-Dōz tablets and spends 18-hour days cleaning apartments and tending (just barely) to her teenage sons (one deals drugs, the other offers sex to local perverts), neglectful husband, and looney-tunes mother-in-law--all of whom have a particular knack for getting on her nerves. Toss in a prostitute neighbor, an accidental murder, and a pet lizard named "Money," and you've got the makings of a soap opera by way of Luis Buñuel and John Waters, served up with Almodóvar's distinctive blend of compassionate humanity and kinky outrageousness. --Jeff Shannon
Description
5.1 subtitle control
Customer Reviews:
Shocking.......2007-07-13
Is this for bloody real? This is one weird family. Almost like the real, modern day Addams Family. Granny charges her own son for water. Son is a chauvinistic pig. A family living above poverty but way below comfortable. Sadness hidden behind daily lives of the people next to us
Another Jewel in Pedro Almodóvar's Crown!.......2006-09-15
Though the films by one of our geniuses of filmmaking in our times, Pedro Almodóvar, is making films now that are polished to perfection - Volver (2006), La Mala educación (2004), Hable con ella (2002), and Todo sobre mi madre (1999) - his early films such as this one '¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!' in retrospect contained all the identifying marks that would establish him as not only one of the bad boys of cinema, but also one of the sensitive cinematic psychologists. And everything he touches gleams.
In this 1984 story of a wildly dysfunctional family co-habiting in Madrid, the star is Gloria (Carmen Maura), a No-Doz addicted maid living in a tiny flat with her taxi driver/forger husband who perseverates on an aging German chanteuse for whom he once worked, two sons - one a hustler and the other a drug peddler - and a wacko mother-in-law who treats food like contraband, selling what she chooses to the family members. The turning point in this raucously fragile but funny family is the chance to make money: the father is coerced into forging Hitler's memoirs with a little help from his German chanteuse's influence,
Gloria bargains with a dentist for her hustler son's possession, ad infinitum!
But leave it to Almodóvar to pull it all off with just the right amount of madness and mayhem, and a jolly dollop of psychology about family interaction and women thrown in for good measure. The cast is a delight (including Almodóvar regulars Cecilia Roth and Verónica Forqué!) and the movie is so fast paced that it feels like a carnival ride - which is very much the way this marvelous director sees his early work. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, September 06
This film is fill with peculiar humor taped with his own trademark........2006-04-15
By far not my best Almodovar film, but it is a winner as is! The more films I get to see from this one-of-a-kind (as all pioneers!) director, the more I love his work.
In this 4th film of his, he starts out with his usual absurd, peculiar humor and his trademark hilarious characters. If you have seen any of these other films of his: 'Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap', 'Labyrinth of passion', 'Kika', 'Matador', 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' plus more, you know what to expect. Almodovar humor is unique and it's here. The big difference in this one is that from a point and on, Almodovar fits in a sad tone, slowing the pace down and converting the film to a drama half-way - despite the fact he does not leave out some humor element - in this very special Almodovar way. Carmen Maura makes here one of the most impressive roles of her career, she's very strong and credible like Gloria, the neighboring place; the supporting characters are all brilliant. I liked a lot Veronica Forque, Chus Lampreave and Kiti Manver. The movie has also some moments that can be surrealistic experiences that make the story incredibly real.
I suppose this should do also for people who didn't like half of Almodovar films (the more offensive ones), maybe because things are more serious in this or maybe because one can distinguish the director's point more easily than in other, more hilariously absurd, almost surreal ones.
My favorite Almodovar movie.......2005-07-07
Along with "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown" this is my favorite from Almodovar. Almodovar's cinema is colorfull, symbollic, hilarious, absurd, and at times very brilliant. "What Have I done to deserve this" is a film which strikes me as being remarkably well organized and its meaning is grasped only after the entire film is digested.
Almodovar's style as a director falls somewhere between Sirk, Fassbinder, and Bunuel - a great combination of sound, image, lighting, color - mis en scene. I caution the viewer of this film not to take the subject matter of this film lightly - this is the work of a blossoming genius.
Highly surreal black comedy.......2005-04-24
This movie can and will make you laugh. Picture the highly disfunctional family living in Madrid in the mid-eighties: the overworked mom who is addicted to amphetamines; a chauvinistic cab-driving dad, who is infatuated with a love of his younger years, and beats his wife; a crazy grandma with a pet lizard, who is obsessed with going back to the town where she came from; the drug-dealing 14 year-old son who makes more money than both his parents combined; and the youngest son who gives sexual favors to men of age. Take them, add the wackiest neighbors (a chatty prostitute who has the most unexpected customers; and a childbeating single-mother with a daughter with special powers), and you are bound to be shocked left and right, unless you are able to see beyond the obvious. Almodovar's making a statement (or an over-statement at that), about how urban life is bound to deteriorate family life as the bread providers struggle to make ends meet.
With a more humorous approach to moviemaking than in his recent movies, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" is a black comedy that can stand well on its own. However, the one problem I have with it is that, in spite of the clear point he's trying to make, too many plot lines are started, many of which are not fully developed. You wonder why such or such scene had to be in the movie, if the character didn't end up being taken anywhere. Either this is the case or this version edited out some important moments in the stories of the different characters, but toward the end, you have an inevitable feel that you missed something in the movie, even if you "get it". Also, I have a problem with some of the elements presented (spoiler ahead), namely the highly surreal way in which the mom gives away her son to his dentist, a man in his thirties who is a clear sexual predator with an obsession for children.
This is why I give it 3 stars. It is far from his best movies, such as "Talk To Her", "All About My Mother", "Bad Education" and "Live Flesh".
Product Description
"Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: This 4-DVD Collection contains 4 Almodovar's movies:
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios):
A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner.
Pepi, Luci, Bom:
Almodovar's first film of life in Madrid during the punk era and not one for the squeamish. He covers everything from drugs and sexual violence, to female masochism.
Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas):
Yolanda sings in a seedy nightclub. When her boyfriend dies of an overdose, she fears the police and seeks refuge in a convent that saves women from the streets. These off-beat nuns include a heroin using abbess who loves Yolanda, one who writes romance novels under a pseudonym, another raising a tiger in the convent yard, and one who designs fabulous fashions and is in love with the local priest. They plan an evening extravaganza starring Yolanda to celebrate the abbess's birthday and to convince their wealthy patron not to abandon them.
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!):
A dysfunctional family in Madrid: Gloria is a cleaning lady, living in a crowded flat with Antonio, her surly husband, a cabby who adores an aging German singer he used to chauffeur; he's also a forger. One teen son sells heroin, the other sleeps with men... Can this chaos be tamed? SPECIAL FEATURES: Box Set, Interactive Menu, Multi-DVD Set, "
Amazon.com
Pedro Almodóvar scored his first international hit with What Have I Done to Deserve This?, cementing his reputation as Spain's bad-boy director of darkly comedic melodramas. Many of the themes that dominate Almodóvar's later films are evident here, especially his sympathetic affection for downtrodden women like Gloria (Carmen Maura), an exhausted housewife who's addicted to No-Dōz tablets and spends 18-hour days cleaning apartments and tending (just barely) to her teenage sons (one deals drugs, the other offers sex to local perverts), neglectful husband, and looney-tunes mother-in-law--all of whom have a particular knack for getting on her nerves. Toss in a prostitute neighbor, an accidental murder, and a pet lizard named "Money," and you've got the makings of a soap opera by way of Luis Buñuel and John Waters, served up with Almodóvar's distinctive blend of compassionate humanity and kinky outrageousness. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews:
Shocking.......2007-07-13
Is this for bloody real? This is one weird family. Almost like the real, modern day Addams Family. Granny charges her own son for water. Son is a chauvinistic pig. A family living above poverty but way below comfortable. Sadness hidden behind daily lives of the people next to us
Another Jewel in Pedro Almodóvar's Crown!.......2006-09-15
Though the films by one of our geniuses of filmmaking in our times, Pedro Almodóvar, is making films now that are polished to perfection - Volver (2006), La Mala educación (2004), Hable con ella (2002), and Todo sobre mi madre (1999) - his early films such as this one '¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!' in retrospect contained all the identifying marks that would establish him as not only one of the bad boys of cinema, but also one of the sensitive cinematic psychologists. And everything he touches gleams.
In this 1984 story of a wildly dysfunctional family co-habiting in Madrid, the star is Gloria (Carmen Maura), a No-Doz addicted maid living in a tiny flat with her taxi driver/forger husband who perseverates on an aging German chanteuse for whom he once worked, two sons - one a hustler and the other a drug peddler - and a wacko mother-in-law who treats food like contraband, selling what she chooses to the family members. The turning point in this raucously fragile but funny family is the chance to make money: the father is coerced into forging Hitler's memoirs with a little help from his German chanteuse's influence,
Gloria bargains with a dentist for her hustler son's possession, ad infinitum!
But leave it to Almodóvar to pull it all off with just the right amount of madness and mayhem, and a jolly dollop of psychology about family interaction and women thrown in for good measure. The cast is a delight (including Almodóvar regulars Cecilia Roth and Verónica Forqué!) and the movie is so fast paced that it feels like a carnival ride - which is very much the way this marvelous director sees his early work. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, September 06
This film is fill with peculiar humor taped with his own trademark........2006-04-15
By far not my best Almodovar film, but it is a winner as is! The more films I get to see from this one-of-a-kind (as all pioneers!) director, the more I love his work.
In this 4th film of his, he starts out with his usual absurd, peculiar humor and his trademark hilarious characters. If you have seen any of these other films of his: 'Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap', 'Labyrinth of passion', 'Kika', 'Matador', 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' plus more, you know what to expect. Almodovar humor is unique and it's here. The big difference in this one is that from a point and on, Almodovar fits in a sad tone, slowing the pace down and converting the film to a drama half-way - despite the fact he does not leave out some humor element - in this very special Almodovar way. Carmen Maura makes here one of the most impressive roles of her career, she's very strong and credible like Gloria, the neighboring place; the supporting characters are all brilliant. I liked a lot Veronica Forque, Chus Lampreave and Kiti Manver. The movie has also some moments that can be surrealistic experiences that make the story incredibly real.
I suppose this should do also for people who didn't like half of Almodovar films (the more offensive ones), maybe because things are more serious in this or maybe because one can distinguish the director's point more easily than in other, more hilariously absurd, almost surreal ones.
My favorite Almodovar movie.......2005-07-07
Along with "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown" this is my favorite from Almodovar. Almodovar's cinema is colorfull, symbollic, hilarious, absurd, and at times very brilliant. "What Have I done to deserve this" is a film which strikes me as being remarkably well organized and its meaning is grasped only after the entire film is digested.
Almodovar's style as a director falls somewhere between Sirk, Fassbinder, and Bunuel - a great combination of sound, image, lighting, color - mis en scene. I caution the viewer of this film not to take the subject matter of this film lightly - this is the work of a blossoming genius.
Highly surreal black comedy.......2005-04-24
This movie can and will make you laugh. Picture the highly disfunctional family living in Madrid in the mid-eighties: the overworked mom who is addicted to amphetamines; a chauvinistic cab-driving dad, who is infatuated with a love of his younger years, and beats his wife; a crazy grandma with a pet lizard, who is obsessed with going back to the town where she came from; the drug-dealing 14 year-old son who makes more money than both his parents combined; and the youngest son who gives sexual favors to men of age. Take them, add the wackiest neighbors (a chatty prostitute who has the most unexpected customers; and a childbeating single-mother with a daughter with special powers), and you are bound to be shocked left and right, unless you are able to see beyond the obvious. Almodovar's making a statement (or an over-statement at that), about how urban life is bound to deteriorate family life as the bread providers struggle to make ends meet.
With a more humorous approach to moviemaking than in his recent movies, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" is a black comedy that can stand well on its own. However, the one problem I have with it is that, in spite of the clear point he's trying to make, too many plot lines are started, many of which are not fully developed. You wonder why such or such scene had to be in the movie, if the character didn't end up being taken anywhere. Either this is the case or this version edited out some important moments in the stories of the different characters, but toward the end, you have an inevitable feel that you missed something in the movie, even if you "get it". Also, I have a problem with some of the elements presented (spoiler ahead), namely the highly surreal way in which the mom gives away her son to his dentist, a man in his thirties who is a clear sexual predator with an obsession for children.
This is why I give it 3 stars. It is far from his best movies, such as "Talk To Her", "All About My Mother", "Bad Education" and "Live Flesh".
![Law of Desire [Region 2 Import]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21PrnnI3FXL.jpg)
Average customer rating:
|
Law of Desire [Region 2 Import]
Director:
Pedro Almodovar
Manufacturer: Optimum World
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
Genres
| DVD
| Video
| Action & Adventure
| African American Cinema
| Animation
| Anime & Manga
| Art House & International
| Classics
| Comedy
| Cult Movies
| Documentary
| Drama
| Educational
| Fitness & Yoga
| Gay & Lesbian
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| Kids & Family
| Military & War
| Music Video & Concerts
| Musicals & Performing Arts
| Mystery & Suspense
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Special Interests
| Sports
| Television
| Westerns
Product Features:
- Introduction by Jose Arroyo
- Trailer
- 16 page extract from 'Almodovar on Almodovar
- Faber and Faber
- Spanish with English Subtitles
ASIN: B000NO6V6A |
![The Almadovar Collection (Feature: Women On The Verge.../Pepi, Luci, Bom/ What Have I Done... /Dark Habits) [Non-US Format, Region 2, Pal, in Spanish, English Subtitles]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/2115D2QD36L.jpg)
Average customer rating:
|
The Almadovar Collection (Feature: Women On The Verge.../Pepi, Luci, Bom/ What Have I Done... /Dark Habits) [Non-US Format, Region 2, Pal, in Spanish, English Subtitles]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
Genres
| DVD
| Video
| Action & Adventure
| African American Cinema
| Animation
| Anime & Manga
| Art House & International
| Classics
| Comedy
| Cult Movies
| Documentary
| Drama
| Educational
| Fitness & Yoga
| Gay & Lesbian
| Horror
| Kids & Family
| Military & War
| Music Video & Concerts
| Musicals & Performing Arts
| Mystery & Suspense
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Special Interests
| Sports
| Television
| Westerns
Product Features:
- Pal,Region 2 encoding (Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East including Egypt).
- Requires multi-region DVD player for the US.
- Spanish Audio Track, English Subtitles
ASIN: 8373615814 |
Product Description
4 DVD Box Set Features: 1)Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 2)What Have I Done to Deserve This? 3)Dark Habits, and never released in the US 4) Pepi, Luci, Bom y Otras Chicas del Montón.
DVD:
- Where the Heart Is
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Vista Series)
- Wild Hogs (Widescreen Edition)
- A Fish Called Wanda
- A Letter to Three Wives
- A Mighty Wind
- About a Boy (Widescreen Edition)
- An Evening With Kevin Smith 2 - Evening Harder
- Angels in the Outfield
- As Time Goes By - Complete Series 6
DVD
DVD
![Que He Hecho Yo Para Merecer Esto (What Have I Done To Deserve This?) [NTSC/REGION 1& 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21wPuX%2BKVTL.jpg)
![Pedro Almodovar 3 DVD Pack (Kika, Law Of Desire and What Have I Done To Deserve This?) [NTSC/REGION 1 & 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21H8ND9KWML.jpg)
![High Heels (Tacones lejanos) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import -Germany ]](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000AYGC8U.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
![What Have I Done to Deserve This? [Region 2]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/214NKZC1MZL.jpg)