Dying of Laughter

A black comedy set across thirty years in Spain. Nino and Bruno work in the provinces without knowing each other. One wants to be a singer, the other a comedian; neither is getting anywhere. One night on stage one of them slaps the other. The room laughs, and that slap becomes their profession. From there the film is a rise. Television programmes, records, tours, money and national fame. The act is always the same. Bruno talks, Nino is hit, and the audience watches it for years. The two hate each other. They do not speak offstage, they arrive in separate cars, and they hit a little harder every time. What the narrative is interested in is not comedy but dependence: neither is anything without the other; they try to separate repeatedly and come back every time. The period is inside the narrative. Franco's death, the years of transition, an attempted coup and television turning to colour pass in the background in turn, and their careers attach to them. The tone keeps darkening. A film that opens as comedy turns into a reckoning that ends with guns. The finale takes place on live television with the whole country watching. Santiago Segura, El Gran Wyoming and Álex Angulo are in the cast. Álex de la Iglesia directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes Spanish black comedy and a hard tone. Who it is not for: anyone looking for sympathy; both characters are unbearable and the film never softens them.