WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS? (64)

Directed by: Pedro Almodovar (1984)

Starring: Carmen Maura, Veronica Forque, Chus Lampreave

The Pitch: Gloria is a typical Spanish housewife. Her elder son is a drug-dealer, the younger a 12-year-old catamite. Her husband used to be chauffeur to a Nazi. Her neighbours include a whore and a telekinetic little girl. It's no wonder she's on drugs.

Theo Sez: An early Almodovar that actually makes a lot more sense in the context of his most recent, more "mature" work (FLOWER OF MY SECRET and, by all accounts, LIVE FLESH) : the hedonistic farce and wild-party fizz of WOMEN ON THE VERGE seems increasingly like an aberration. Not that it doesn't have its share of shocking, "irresponsible" moments - our heroine's already shagging a complete stranger not five minutes into the film, and the bit where she sells off her younger son to a paedophile dentist is also, er, a little startling - but, for all the outlandish goings-on, the mood is generally wry and rueful, stronger on sympathetic observation than campy comedy or garish colours, painting a Madrid that's both OTT comic playground and urban hellhole (the theme of leaving the city for the cleaner, purer life of the village - so important to FLOWER OF MY SECRET - also appears here, reminding us of Almodovar's own rural roots). The characters' various excesses, sexual and otherwise, are part of a bigger picture, a whole world gone crazy - everyone's a bit bizarre here, the grandmother obsessive about combing her grandson's hair, the father forever playing old German torch-songs at full blast ; it's acrid but somehow innocent, like a more twisted version of YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. The overall impression is of a humanistic, even tender film-maker ; and a much more interesting one than his campier, more party-loving acolytes would probably imagine.