The Ferpect Crime (4 Stars)

Sometimes I don't understand myself. Alex de la Iglesia is one of my three favourite directors, alongside Sion Sono and Zhang Yimou. In the case of the last two directors it's difficult for me to buy all their films, because some have never been released with English subtitles. But at the moment my collection of Alex de la Iglesia's films is almost complete. "Dying of Laughter" (1999) has recently been released for the first time with English subtitles. I thought it was impossible to buy "The Baby's Room" (2006), but this week I discovered that it's available dubbed into German. That's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. I've ordered it, and when it arrives I'll have all 18 of his films.

Some time in the near future I'll do a marathon of his films, watching them all in chronological order, but I'll watch a few now, especially the ones I'm currently buying. While looking through my collection I saw "Crimen Ferpecto" ("The Ferpect Crime") and realised I couldn't remember what it's about. So I checked my alphabetical list of posts to see when I last watched it. Huh? It's not listed. So when did I buy it? According to Amazon, I bought it in 2008, two years before I started writing my blog. So I haven't watched it for almost 18 years? That's crazy!

"The Ferpect Crime" looks like a black comedy about murder and ambition, but beneath the farce it's really a vicious attack on the cult of appearance. Rafael believes that women only have value if they fit the glamorous image sold by department stores, fashion adverts and television. He's obsessed with beauty, charm and social status; so obsessed that he completely overlooks the humanity of the women around him.

The film's masterstroke is the character of Lourdes. Rafael dismisses her because she doesn't match the conventional standards of attractiveness pushed by consumer culture, yet she's the only person in the story who genuinely sees through him. De la Iglesia exposes the shallowness of judging women purely by appearance; the supposedly "perfect" world Rafael chases is hollow, artificial and morally rotten. Beauty in the film becomes another product on display, no different from the expensive goods in the department store.

What makes the satire work so well is that the film never turns into a lecture. It's fast, cruel and very funny, but underneath the dark humour there's a real sadness about how easily people absorb these superficial standards. By the end, Rafael's obsession with appearances has trapped him in a life that's far uglier than the woman he mocked.