Page 73 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

On the one hand, the superimposed beehive backs are yet another example of special effects in
de la Iglesias work. More specifically, the image recalls Dalí and Buñuel's surrealist depiction of
corruption and putrefaction, which appeared in Un perro andaluz (Un chien andalou, 1928). More
recently it has resurfaced in the protagonist's nightmare in Bigas Luna's film Huevos de oro (Golden
Balls, 1993). The allusion to Dalí/Buñuel in Muertos de risa thus draws attention to the subversive,
critical potential of the film. It also connects de la Iglesias film to a particularly Spanish visual arts
tradition.
Humour plays an essential role in the film. In an interview that appears as supplementary matetial
to the D V D of Muertos de risa, de la Iglesia obsetves that Spanish comedy, unlike its American
counterpart, relies particularly strongly on the comedy team. In Refiguring Spain, Kinder draws
parallels between the unlikely duo of priest and rock store manager in Día de la bestia, and Don
Quixote and Sancho. 22 In Muertos de risa the manager takes the protagonists to a wax museum to view
the greats of Spanish humour, concentrating above all on Tip and Coll. Whereas the dialogue notes
other comedy teams like Abbott and Costello, for an international audience, the imaginary museum
of the film frames Tip and Coll as larger than life. In the 1970s Tip and Coll based their politically
topical humour, both in live performances and in their columns for the weekly Interviú, mostly on
word play. They symbolised Spain's transition to democracy and they reached their greatest popularity
during Adolfo Suárez's government. It bears remembering that Suárez was himself a former head of
R T V E , when it was popularly called 'el bunker' due to the extent that Franco controlled the national
television network.23 As Juan Carlos Martini writes in 1977 in his introduction to the collection Tip
y Coll Spain,

They have created an adult humouristic form, worthy of the Spain of today in the same way as
this current Spain is (or ought to be) worthy of the humour that Tip and Coll develop, with
notable elaboration, in each one of their performances, in each one of their articles, in each
one of their books. 24

In Muertos de risa the duality, which de la Iglesia emphasises as the basis of Spanish humour, is
moreover integral to the mise-en-scene and the narrative form. The over-the-top polyester 1970s,
seen from the moment of production in the 1990s, exaggerates the mise-en-scine. Bad taste is not just
a matter of their sequinned twin boys dressing for the stage, in jackets whose outlandish squiggles
recall television test patterns. Their stringy long hairstyles and leisure attire - for instance, Nino's
peach turtleneck, gold jewellery and wide-labelled, brown window-pane suit — all of the wardrobe,
is the basis for much of the film's appeal. We repeatedly laugh at ridiculously exaggerated attire on
male and female bodies alike. The mid-body framing, on 'buns' and 'packages' of a celebratory conga
line in the bar scene, 'Me pasó el día de juerga' ('I partied the day away'), does not let us miss the
heterosexual parade of polyester. (In passing, although Bruno/el Gran Wyoming has a nude close-
up oí his backside in bed with the camera at the level of his body, the adolescent male fantasy is the
only one satisfied through exhibitionary nudity in the film.) Still, getting retro right, a kind of visual
timing, is one reason to recognise and label de la Iglesia, John Waters and David Lynch together as
'directores de culto' as does the zine Dossiernegro.

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