Crimen ferpecto (Ferpect Crime)

Crimenferpecto
Originally uploaded by dinrao.

This film by director Alex de la Iglesia was showing in town as part of a theater's Spanish Film Festival. A bunch of us piled into a car and headed through the city to reach there. It was a dark rainy night, and all the sidewalk cafes boasted inviting italian names. The film is a dark comedy about a departmental store champion and rake (Rafael) who accidently kills his rival for the position of floor manager and tries to cover it up with the help of one of the girls (Lourdes) who works there. The catch is, Lourdes is really 'ugly' and to top it madly in love with Rafael. So the film is essentially a comedy of friction, as Rafael desperately tries to retain his status as the king of the shop floor while trying to keep the girl from blackmailing her way into his life.
The movie is hilarious, it's been a long time since I actually laughed out loud in a theatre. And the situations presented by the plot are so surreal and hypnotic, that I found myself going along for the ride. The movie has everything: politics in the workplace, gender fights, the concept of beauty and even fashion. However, the plot starts unravelling at the end and the conclusion is satisfactory at best.
Cool scenes: the scene where Rafael rents a whole slew of murder movies in order to plan a murder, and one of the films he rents is called "Crimen Ferpecto"- delightfully self referential; the scene where Rafael meets Lourdes's family, and especially Lourdes's dad's collection of all sorts of miniature things; the scene where Lourdes proposes to Rafael on Live TV.