Fausto 5.0

I saw this Spanish movie the other night -- it's an update on Goethe's Faust, in which Faust -- or Fausto in this update -- is a medical doctor, who is in love with his assistant, but too uptight and caught up in his work to express himself to her. Fausto works on terminal cases -- patients who have no hope left -- and maybe that's why he goes around being so depressed all the time. On his way to a conference at some unmentioned city, he meets a former patient of his, Santos, who was a terminal cancer patient. He removed Santos cancerous stomach, but didn't give Santos much time to live. Santos surpassed all expectations, and has been living now for years since the operation. Meeting his doctor after years, Santos now wants to repay him, by granting all his wishes.

And so, Fausto descends into a seedy underworld of Santos -- becoming more and more like Santos -- living, but living without a care. As Fausto falls lower, he starts to see Santos in a darker light. What is Santos really? How come he seems to know so much? Why is he bent on giving Fausto every perverse wish his heart desires?

The cinematography of the movie is quite fitting for the topic. The hotel that Fausto stays at is covered in hanging sheets to protect it from the city it seems. Workers wander around the city on clean up duty -- as if there was some sort of chemical spill; construction or deconstruction seems to be happening everywhere. The entire film has a tone of something unfinished or dying. Life simply isn't complete there.

If you're familiar with Faust, this movie will certainly make sense to you, and be of interest. It's an interesting interpretation.