Now here's a fine how-do-you-do! I saw a trailer for this film on a disc that I was watching a few days ago and thought 'that looks interesting'. I then discovered that I not only had a copy of the movie, but, according to my records, I had actually watched it just over four months ago. Maybe I am going ga-ga, since I could remember absolutely nothing about it and certainly had not posted a review back in January. So there was only one answer: have another look.
Once it got going I could remember most of the imagery -- much of which was incredibly striking -- but neither the plot nor where the film was headed seemed familiar. I should say here that it is a Spanish film, directed not by one, not by two, but by three directors, and has won a raft of awards at fantasy festivals. As the title suggests, it is a take on the Faust legend of someone selling his soul to the devil, but with a completely different spin. The main character, Dr. Fausto, is a hard-working, never-playing doctor specialising in terminal medicine. He goes off to a conference in a provincial town (where his hotel is completely in wrapping a la Christo) and strange things begin to happen. At the station he is greeted by a somewhat fiendish looking chap called Vella who claims that the doctor removed his stomach seven years ago; he should be dead, but he is still vibrantly alive. He insinuates himself into the doctor's life, initially to Fausto's annoyance, but ultimately to his pleasure as he realises that he can help make wishes come true. This is all interspersed with some casual sex with very young ladies, supposedly arranged by Vella (one of the girls turns out to be his daughter!), some very strange-looking passing characters including an ancient dowager and a morbidly-dead looking woman, and some horrifying dream sequences including one where the doctor awakens to find a dog chomping on his intestines. Add to this mix some psychodelic camera work and you have a real oddity. The big question is not why it is called "Fausto 5.0", but rather how I could have forgotten it so completely.
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