La Chispa de la Vida (4 Stars)

I buy every film made by Alex de la Iglesia. You know that. He's my favourite European director. I don't understand why he hasn't achieved more popularity outside Spain. "La Chispa de la Vida" was made in 2011, but I haven't been able to buy it until now. The first Blu-ray release didn't have English subtitles. The new release corrected this error.

What I like most about Alex's films is the zany humour, often mixed with satire. "La Chispa de la Vida" surprised me, and not in a good way. The first 15 minutes are painfully boring. It's about a marketing executive, Roberto Gomez, who's looking for a job after being unemployed for two years. No humour at all. He rushes from interview to interview, asking for favours from old friends, but nobody wants him. His biggest success was at the start of his career. When he was 17 he created the advertising slogan for Coca-Cola, "La Chispa de la Vida", engl. "Life's little spark". This is what propelled him into his career, but what we see when we read between the lines is that it was just luck. He didn't have the skill to create slogans on a regular basis.

Roberto's wedding anniversary is coming up, and he wants to spend it in the hotel where he went for his honeymoon. He wants it to be a surprise, so he drives to Cartagena without telling his wife. The hotel isn't a hotel any more, it's become a museum. A Roman arena was discovered next to the hotel, so the museum was built as the entrance to the arena. Roberto falls off a platform, and a metal bar pierces his skull, driving deep into his brain. See the X-Ray picture. This was so horrible that I felt it in my stomach. I wanted to turn away. It wasn't a nice sight.

At this point I felt like turning  off the film. It was stomach-churning. Fortunately, I remained in front of my television. This was the turning point.

Roberto is still alive and able to communicate. The pain is bearable, despite having a metal rod in his brain. Doctors come and say it's too dangerous to move him. They have to operate where he's lying. But Roberto has an idea. He's lying in an arena surrounded by onlookers. It's the main news on every television channel. So why not make money from it? He rings his former colleagues from advertising companies, and they're excited. They want an interview with him. They say they'll pay him 20,000 Euros if he survives, or two million Euros if he dies.

This is sick humour, but highly entertaining. It was enough to make me forgive the slow beginning. We see how greed is stronger than wanting to save a person's life. It's an unusual film, in which the main character is shown lying on his back for almost all the film. Like Tim Roth in "Reservoir Dogs", except Roberto isn't screaming in pain. He's on his phone, making deals to become rich from his injury. If he survives.

I'm sure I'll watch it again, but next time I'll be prepared. I'll have a strong drink in my hand when the ugly scene happens.