Themes: Success is the Best Revenge, Work Ethics, Rags To Riches
Main Cast: Santiago Segura, El Gran Wyoming, Alex Angulo, Carla Hidalgo, Eduardo Gomez
Release Year: 1999
Country: ES
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
Show business legend is full of stories about comedy teams who don't get along offstage, but Muertos De Risa/Dying Of Laughter takes this notion to new heights in this story about two comedians who hate each other so much that it leads to attempted murder. In the early 1970's, Nino (Santiago Segura) is a nightclub singer whose career is going nowhere, and Bruno (El Gran Wyoming) is a comic who isn't doing any better. A talent agent, Julian (Alex Angulo), teams them up for a sketch on a popular TV show, and when Nino is suddenly stricken with stage fright on camera and can't speak, Bruno impulsively slaps him. The audience finds this hilarious, and their career as a duo is off and running -- while their personal relationship starts at a low point and keeps getting worse. Over time, Bruno steals Nino's girlfriend, Nino gets arrested for dealing drugs, the act periodically breaks up and reunites, and in the midst of a New Year's Eve broadcast in 1992, the two exchange gunfire on live TV. Starring two of Spain's most popular comedians, Muertos De Risa/Dying Of Laughter was massively popular in its initial release, and boasts exacting recreations of the look and mood of each decade presented, as well as witty references to Spain's contemporary political and social history. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Gleefully playing off of the stereotypically perceived obsessive dark sides lurking just beneath the jovial humor of comics and comedic actors, Alex de la Iglesia takes the concept of the disturbed comedian to new levels in the hilariously bleak Dying of Laughter. Committing itself to the dark side of humor inhabited by such cinematic characters as Rupert Pupkin and Shakes the Clown, with a twist of the dysfunctional perceptions of such comic teams as Lewis and Martin, de la Iglesia serves up a hatred so fatalistic that at the black-hearted core, all we can do is to laugh at the pain. Nino and Bruno (Santiago Segura and El Gran Wyoming) shoot to comic stardom as the perfect comedic pairing of the suave ladies' man and the fat clown who gets slapped -- literally. As the resentment, rage, and jealousy between the comedic duo builds to a fever pitch (Nino wants Bruno's mojo, while Bruno pines over Nino's impeccable natural comic abilities), viewers receive a biting crash course in how to fracture a fragile showbiz ego and the fine art of bitterly spiteful revenge. The tables are constantly turned as murder, sabotage, humiliation, and the sadistic satisfaction of watching one suffer while the other thrives drives the film -- and Nino and Bruno -- to a shootout on live television. Spitting venom with their spiteful last breaths as the studio audience nearly explodes with laughter and approval, de la Iglesia turns a distorted mirror on the naïvety of humor extracted from suffering. Thought not as strikingly visual or kinetic as de la Iglesia's earlier films, it still bears the distinct mark of his unique vision by delivering on it's all too telling, humorously gaudy period re-creation as it follows the ill-fated duo from its infancy in the 1970s to the present. Creative and surreal touches such as the viewer bearing witness as Nino and Bruno literally rot from the inside as they merrily sign autographs for children are a powerful testament to de La Iglesia's use of special effects as a means of communication rather than a display of technical merit, and are used refreshingly sparingly, signaling the directors confidence in his audience as well as his own abilities. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Cast
Santiago Segura - Nino
El Gran Wyoming - Bruno
Alex Angulo - Julian
Carla Hidalgo - Laura
Eduardo Gomez - El Pobre Tino
Credit
Biaffra y Arri - Art Director, Álex de la Iglesia - Director, Teresa Font - Editor, Roque Banos - Composer (Music Score), Flavio M. LaBiano - Cinematographer, Andrés Vicente Gómez - Producer, Antonio Rodriguez - Sound/Sound Designer, Álex de la Iglesia - Screenwriter, Jorge Guerricaechevarría - Screenwriter
