¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!! - P. Almodóvar (1984)

When I say I like small films I'm not sure if I mean films with no complications or extravagance or films about common ordinary people. This is probably the latter and I would call it a small film but it is mildly flaboyant. Well it's Almodóvar after all (though in this film it isn't over the top).

You could say this film is related to El Cochecito and El pisito in the dark comedy/ satire of Spanish cinema. It's also a film of its time... if the others were the late 50s/early 60s this is definitely an 80s film.

Almodóvar is known for exaggeration in everything (colours, performances, sets, situations). What I like about this film is that it's absurd and strange but still very measured. It does keep a healthy simple portrait of everyday people.. who are a little crazy, yes, but that's how it is.

Carmen Maura is always great. I'm never sure if she plays only one character, but it certainly is a very human one, with strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly one you empathise with and understand despite everything. Chus Lampreave, who was also in Ferreri's films, is definitely an Esperpento character.

What Have I Done to Deserve This? isn't a comedy. But it isn't a drama either. It's something in between both. A good something.

¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!

Voyage to Cythera - Theo Angelopoulos (1984)

I think being a director is a very difficult thing to try to do. Being a great director is something only a few can achieve. Theo Angelopoulos is one of those few. He makes difficult, intricate films. 

Voyage to Cythera is a film about an old man returning home. It's a film about love. It's a film about encounters. It's a film about politics. It's a film about many things. That's why it's not easily comprehended. 

What makes it a director's film? The use of very long shots, neverending scenes beautifully staged. You wonder how you can think of such a way of presenting a subject and then actually turning it into a film.

When you think of Greece you might expect blue skies and sunny beaches... well there's nothing of that in Angelopoulos cinema. Grey overcast days are Greece too. I like that.

«In VOYAGE TO CYTHERA the voyage is really a reworking of the myth of the Return of Odysseus according to a myth which preceded Homer. Similar to Dante's version, there is a pre-Homeric version that Odysseus set sail again after reaching Ithaca. So the film becomes more a leaving than a homecoming. I have a soft spot for the ancient writings. There really is nothing new. We are all just revising and reconsidering ideas that the ancients first treated.»

Theo Angelopoulos 

Taxidi sta Kythira