An interesting, if not quite as successful, dry run for his latest film, The Last Circus. Both deal intensively with the entertainment industry, and a kind of decimation of Spain's humanity brought on by the fascist government. While The Last Circus takes place entirely within the fascist regime, climaxing just as Franco was about to die, this continues from that ending in to the present. Both suggest that Franco's influence continues to be felt in modern Spain, the only difference is literal (in Dying of Laughter) versus figurative (in The Last Circus). The difference between the two comes down to how far de la Iglesia is willing to push the audience. In The Last Circus he pushes them to the brink, then jumps so far into the abyss that there is no hope for escape. Dying of Laughter is a little nicer, only forcing the audience to lean uncomfortably far over the edge.
I'm not quite sure what to say about it, really, that I didn't already say about The Last Circus. The movies are honestly that similar. Both involve a duo of public entertainers who privately despise each other, coveting what the other one can do and what they have before dissolving into hideous, monstrous caricatures of their former selves. Both movies look deep inside the idea of fantasy and come out of it with the conclusion that these fantasies are ugly and hollow and we've lost something humane and real in the process of fooling ourselves.
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