{ "id": "epe4y5c2p4", "slug": "what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this", "title": "What Have I Done to Deserve This?", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "label": "Released 1939 to 1997", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "What Have I Done to Deserve This? (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?) is Pedro Almodóvar's 1984 Spanish comedy-drama, his fourth film, starring Carmen Maura as Gloria, an amphetamine-addicted housewife in a Madrid outskirts flat, an Italian-neorealist homage from the Movida era.", "snippet": "What Have I Done to Deserve This? (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?) is Pedro Almodóvar's 1984 Spanish comedy-drama, his fourth film, starring Carmen Maura as Gloria, an amphetamine-addicted housewife in a Madrid outskirts flat, an Italian-neorealist homage from the Movida era.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "markdown": "# What Have I Done to Deserve This?\n\n**What Have I Done to Deserve This?** (Spanish: *¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?*) is a 1984 Spanish comedy-drama directed by [Pedro Almodóvar](https://www.edgepedia.org/pedro-almodovar), his fourth feature film, about a frustrated Madrid housewife whose household slides into crisis.[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583) It stars Carmen Maura as Gloria, with Verónica Forqué, Chus Lampreave, Gonzalo Suárez, Ángel de Andrés-López, Kiti Manver, and Luis Hostalot in supporting roles.[2](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=41583) The film runs 101 minutes and was classified in Spain as a comedy, not recommended for audiences under 13.[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583) • [3](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?* (also printed with double exclamation marks) |\n| Director and year | Pedro Almodóvar, 1984, Spain[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583) |\n| Position in filmography | Fourth feature, closing the run of Almodóvar's first four films made during the Movida period (1980–1984)[4](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1553997/) |\n| Lead performance | Carmen Maura as Gloria, an amphetamine-dependent housewife; Verónica Forqué as Cristal and Chus Lampreave as the grandmother[2](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=41583) • [3](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) |\n| Runtime and genre | 101 minutes; registered as a comedy by the ICAA, listed as drama on Filmin[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583) • [3](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) |\n| Spanish release | 25 October 1984; France followed in 1987 and the United Kingdom not until 19 November 2014[5](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/401363/) |\n| Spanish box office | 707,737.84 € from 424,869 admissions, as recorded by the ICAA[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583) |\n| Standing | Ranked number 17 in El País's 2025 jury poll of the 50 best Spanish films of the last half century[6](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and characters\n\nGloria (Carmen Maura) is a housewife who is badly married, addicted to amphetamines, and suffering withdrawal after her pharmacy stops supplying her.[3](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) • [7](https://www.mataderomadrid.org/programacion/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) She shares about 40 square meters of housing on the outskirts of Madrid with her husband Antonio, a taxi driver, her mother-in-law, two sons, and a lizard, while also working as a cleaning woman in other people's homes.[3](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) • [8](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/seminarios/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) Between Gloria and her husband stands the shadow of a German woman for whom he worked as a chauffeur in Berlin fifteen years earlier and with whom he is still in love.[3](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) Events then follow one another like a nightmare, in Filmin's synopsis.[3](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto)\n\nThe Festival Lumière cast list gives the character names: Luis Hostalot plays Polo, Ángel de Andrés López plays Antonio, Gonzalo Suárez plays Lucas, Verónica Forqué plays Cristal, Juan Martínez plays Toni, Chus Lampreave the grandmother, Kiti Mánver plays Juani, and Amparo Soler Leal plays Patricia.[9](https://2014.festival-lumiere.org/manifestations/qu%E2%80%99est-ce-que-j%E2%80%99ai-fait.html) Almodóvar's brother Agustín appears as a bank cashier, and the director himself plays a bus passenger.[9](https://2014.festival-lumiere.org/manifestations/qu%E2%80%99est-ce-que-j%E2%80%99ai-fait.html)\n\n## Production and context\n\nThe film was produced by Tesauro, S.A. (70 percent Spanish capital) and Kaktus Producciones Cinematográficas (30 percent), with Ángel Luis Fernández as cinematographer and Bernardo Bonezzi among the credited composers.[2](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=41583) • [8](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/seminarios/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto) The ICAA certified the film on 24 September 1984.[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583)\n\n**La Movida setting.** Almodóvar's first four films, made between 1980 and 1984, were created during the Spanish Movida movement that followed dictator Franco's death, a period corresponding to Spain's political transition toward democracy.[4](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1553997/) The critic José Luis Guarner, writing for a Spanish retrospective screening, described the film as Almodóvar's first deliberate attempt to submit himself to the discipline and conventions of classical cinematic narrative, an incursion into unexplored territory rather than a retreat to safe ground, and judged that on the whole he emerged the winner of the effort.[10](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3A523a566d-094f-4a4e-923d-7903a132d97e/af-programa-online-junio-2024.pdf)\n\nAlmodóvar has stated that he wanted the film as an homage to [Italian neorealism](https://www.edgepedia.org/italian-neorealism): while Cristal's apartment still offers the typical bright colors and kitsch furniture, Gloria lives in a more modest flat in southern Madrid.[11](https://setmeravelles.com/2015/11/26/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto-1984/) The critic Roberto Cueto wrote that the inhabitants of the new apartment blocks, with color television and the latest stereo equipment, would have delighted [Pier Paolo Pasolini](https://www.edgepedia.org/pier-paolo-pasolini), and that the delicate touches describing a marginalized humanity would have immensely delighted [Vittorio De Sica](https://www.edgepedia.org/vittorio-de-sica) of *Umberto D.*[8](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/seminarios/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto)\n\n## Style and themes\n\n**A film within the film.** The movie opens with a mise en abyme (a work containing a miniature copy of itself; film-within-film device), the first time Almodóvar used the device he later deployed in *La mala educación* and *Los abrazos rotos*: Carmen Maura, in character as Gloria, crosses a square where a film crew is unloading equipment, and Almodóvar's voice is heard giving instructions to the props men; he appears among the crowd and exchanges a few words with her.[12](https://dspace.unia.es/bitstream/handle/10334/3655/978-84-7993-267-1_2015_almodovar.pdf) Later, around minute fifteen, he appears on a television screen performing a playback of \"La bien pagá\" by Miguel de Molina with Fabio McNamara, with whom he had formed a musical group.[12](https://dspace.unia.es/bitstream/handle/10334/3655/978-84-7993-267-1_2015_almodovar.pdf)\n\nScholarship has read the film through its protagonist's failed suicide. An analysis in the *Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos* argues that the frustrated suicide of the female protagonists of this film and of *Costa Brava (Family Album)* (1995) is essential to understanding these women's position in relation to the gender models of 1980s and 1990s Spain, and that the act of suicide emerges from a series of sociological and gender circumstances rather than being a purely individual choice.[13](https://uottawa.scholarsportal.info/ottawa/index.php/rceh/article/view/3137) A University of Valladolid thesis identifies the film as the point where a formal change occurs in the director's cinema, moving from the underground toward more technical and careful filmmaking, with a more violent and less absurd narrative carrying a story loaded with reality.[14](https://uvadoc.uva.es/bitstream/handle/10324/70494/TFG-N.%202353.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)\n\n[El País](https://www.edgepedia.org/el-pais)'s retrospective entry places the film in a social lineage: twenty years after [Betty Friedan](https://www.edgepedia.org/betty-friedan) diagnosed \"the problem that has no name\" afflicting housewives, Almodóvar filmed his particular *Feminine Mystique* in a Spanish neorealist version, with Gloria cleaning houses for little money, resorting to amphetamines to endure her 40 square meters with an inept, machista husband, one son who works as a rent boy, another who deals drugs, and a neurotic mother-in-law.[6](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film circulated slowly outside Spain: after the Spanish release of 25 October 1984, it reached France on 3 June 1987, Italy on 23 September 1989, Portugal in 1990, Germany in 1991, and the United Kingdom only on 19 November 2014.[5](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/401363/) The ICAA records Spanish grosses of 707,737.84 € on 424,869 admissions.[1](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583)\n\n**Poster attribution.** The Encadenados retrospective states that the release poster was designed by Iván Zulueta, as with all of Almodóvar's early films, while El País's 2025 list calls it \"the iconic poster by Ceesepe\"; the two accounts disagree on the designer.[15](https://encadenados.org/monograficos/no-060-monografico-pedro-almodovar/ique-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto-1984/) • [6](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html)\n\nIn 2025, a jury of 53 cultural journalists and film experts convened by El País, voting on 215 films, placed it at number 17 among the best Spanish films of the half century since Franco's death, with the entry singling out Maura's performance and lines by Chus Lampreave that have become part of Spanish film history.[6](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html) The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive has screened it under the English title *What Have I Done to Deserve This?*[16](https://bampfa.org/sites/default/files/BAMPFA_Program-Guide_2017_JJA.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [¿QUE HE HECHO YO PARA MERECER ESTO?, ICAA Film Database, file 41583](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=41583)\n2. [¿QUE HE HECHO YO PARA MERECER ESTO?, ICAA film file PDF (Catálogo de Cine Español)](https://infoicaa.mcu.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/GetPdf?Pelicula=41583)\n3. [¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?, Filmin](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto)\n4. [Subtitling Audiovisual Humour: The Case of 'Early Almodóvar' Films during 'La Movida' in Spain (1980-1984), UCL Discovery](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1553997/)\n5. [¿QUÉ HE HECHO YO PARA MERECER ESTO?, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/401363/)\n6. [Las 50 mejores películas españolas del último medio siglo, El País Babelia, 10 May 2025](https://elpais.com/babelia/2025-05-10/las-50-mejores-peliculas-espanolas-del-ultimo-medio-siglo.html)\n7. [¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?, Matadero Madrid](https://www.mataderomadrid.org/programacion/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto)\n8. [Clásicos del Cine Español: ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?, Institut Valencià de Cultura](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/seminarios/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto)\n9. [¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!, Festival Lumière 2014](https://2014.festival-lumiere.org/manifestations/qu%E2%80%99est-ce-que-j%E2%80%99ai-fait.html)\n10. [¿QUÉ HE HECHO YO PARA MERECER ESTO? (Pedro Almodóvar, 1984), program notes, Ministerio de Cultura de España](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3A523a566d-094f-4a4e-923d-7903a132d97e/af-programa-online-junio-2024.pdf)\n11. [¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto! (1984), setmeravelles](https://setmeravelles.com/2015/11/26/que-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto-1984/)\n12. [¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?, el autor en su estudio, Universidad Internacional de Andalucía](https://dspace.unia.es/bitstream/handle/10334/3655/978-84-7993-267-1_2015_almodovar.pdf)\n13. [Feminine and Failed Suicides in Spanish Cinema, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos](https://uottawa.scholarsportal.info/ottawa/index.php/rceh/article/view/3137)\n14. [Gender roles in Spanish cinema thesis material, UVaDoc, Universidad de Valladolid](https://uvadoc.uva.es/bitstream/handle/10324/70494/TFG-N.%202353.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)\n15. [¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? (1984), Encadenados, revista de cine](https://encadenados.org/monograficos/no-060-monografico-pedro-almodovar/ique-he-hecho-yo-para-merecer-esto-1984/)\n16. [BAMPFA Program Guide (2017), Pedro Almodóvar series](https://bampfa.org/sites/default/files/BAMPFA_Program-Guide_2017_JJA.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1939 to 1997*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"What Have I Done to Deserve This?\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[What Have I Done to Deserve This?](https://www.edgepedia.org/what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this](https://www.edgepedia.org/what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"What Have I Done to Deserve This?\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/what-have-i-done-to-deserve-this. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "What Have I Done to Deserve This? is Pedro Almodóvar's 1984 Spanish comedy-drama, his fourth film, starring Carmen Maura as Gloria, an amphetamine-addicted housewife in a Madrid outskirts flat, an Italian-neorealist homage from the Movida era." }