Note: This report was written for the Mobius Home Video forum (www.mhvf.net)
However, it disappeared in Mobius recent server crash and therefore I decided to re-publish it here.
The Sitges Film Festival (www.sitges.com/cinema), or the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya as it is officially known, takes place over 11 days in October every year. It is located in the small tourist village of Sitges on the coast of Spain, a 25-minute train ride south of Barcelona, capital of the region Catalunya from which the festival takes its name. This years festival ran during October 3-13, and was the 35th incarnation, making it a venerable part of the European festival circuit. Sitges often features world premieres of important Spanish genre and mainstream productions – this year showcased the new films by Jaume Balaguer (THE NAMELESS) and Alex de la Iglesias (THE DAY OF THE BEAST, PERDITA DURANGO, etc.), among others. But what makes Sitges special and particularly interesting to Mobius readers is the festivals focus on films of a nature that in Europe are known as fantastic, or perhaps rather fantastique (French) or fantstic (Spanish). There is a surprisingly large number of such festivals in Europe, from Espoo and Lund in the North to Rome and Porto in the south. In the 12-festival strong European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation (www.melies.org), among who can also be found Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film, Amsterdam Fantasy Film Festival, etc., Sitges is by far the oldest and most influential member. Among the functions that the Federation carries out is awarding the annual Mlis prize for best European fantastic film. This competition is run all through the year as a series of smaller competitions with one award given out at each festival. One of the 8 full Federation members then have the honor of organizing the final selection and giving out the main prize the following year. Well find out more about the Federation (and its purportedly vampiric members!), as well as what its like to be in the Fantastic jury, later.
I spent a little over five days at Sitges, arriving the night of Sunday, October 6 and leaving very early on Saturday, October 12. This short stay unfortunately caused me to miss several important films, in particular since many of the major attractions only played during the weekends. But I still enjoyed the festival very much, and taking into account all factors that make up this kind of event, it is the probably best film festival I have been to. The town of Sitges itself is adorable and not for nothing a favorite holiday location for the inhabitants of Barcelona and the neighboring regions. Even in October the weather is usually very nice, with constant sunshine and temperatures around 20-25 centigrades – and even though I experienced both flooding and a hailstorm, for the most part it was very pleasant. The organization and technical quality of the festival is mostly excellent, although the Spanish habit of going for siesta and literally closing everything down between 2 to 4 PM (although often it seems even longer!) can be infuriating if youre not prepared. The only major problem is that although most films had English dialogue or subtitles, the festival caters mostly to the local audience, meaning that much of the printed information (such as pressbooks) is in Spanish, and several films were shown with Spanish dialogue or subtitles only. Fortunately, the impressive 274-page full-color festival catalog and some of the festivals additional publications (including a tribute book to Hayao Miyazaki and a collection of essays) had parallel text in English. The festival audience was for the most part very well behaved and respectful, unlike some other festivals of this sort, where people seem to come mostly to smoke illegal substances in the queue and then laugh and shout at whatevers on screen. At Sitges the majority of the audience had clearly come to watch the movies, probably because the town itself is so small that almost everybody had traveled from other places. Finally, since Sitges is virtually the hub of all fantastic film activity in Europe (and arguably the world), it attracts a large number of interesting visitors from all corners of the globe.
The most important factor is of course the film selection, which is quite impressive. The main category is the FANTSTIC series, with 26 films in competition, featuring many of the most notable productions from Europe, Asia and North America, plus 22 shorts. For mainstream films, Sitges has created the GRAN ANGULAR category, with 11 films ranging from Hollywood action fare like xXx to the latest from Woody Allen. The ORIENT EXPRESS section is devoted exclusively to Asian films and is among the best in the world for showcasing Asian genre productions, with 13 entries from such stalwarts as Tsui Hark and the ubiquitous Takashi Miike, but dominated by the booming output of South Korea. The ANIMAT section showed 7 animated features from countries such as Japan, Poland and Argentina, plus 47 short subjects. The SEVEN CHANCES program gave special consideration to a number of recent films selected by critics, which were also discussed in essays in an accompanying book. The BRIGADOON village was a set of tents put up by the seaside, where videos of low-budget films and cult items were projected non-stop. Add to that 17 additional screenings of new features outside competition, special series or sessions devoted to Hayao Miyazaki, Dino de Laurentiis, David Cronenberg and Guillermo del Toro, retrospectives covering Eurowesterns and fantastic films from Australia and New Zealand (the Fantipodes), and much, much more, it is obvious that any report can only scratch the surface of this in every sense fantastic film festival!
I arrived late and tired on Sunday night. As soon as I had checked into my hotel, I made the trek to the Hotel Meli, which houses the festival office and the main auditorium, where all the major screenings took place. This immediately turned out to be one of the few real inconveniences of the festival organization: the walk between the city center and Meli takes a good 20 minutes, and since all the other cinemas are in town, this soon becomes something of a chore! But arriving at the Meli at night was an impressive sight, with gigantic illuminated posters for everything from BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR to GANGS OF NEW YORK looming over the entrance. I was all set to get my official press pass as Mobius correspondent and check out the new David Cronenberg feature, SPIDERexcept that the press office was already closed and the screening of SPIDER was long sold-out! In desperation, I bought a ticket to whatever other film that looked interesting and made my way back into town again.
The film turned out to be the latest from once-time Italian horror auteur Pupi Avati, I CAVALERI CHE RECERO LIMPRESA (Italy 2002). It is a medieval adventure story of a band of crusading knights, led by Edward Furlong, on the hunt for a shroud bearing an impression of Christ made immediately after the crucifixion. On the way to finding this the most powerful object in the world, the knights experience various adventures. The film is very much an old-fashioned adventure story, but I cant help wondering who this film was really made for? Kids – who might appreciate the gallant adventure content – could never take the violence, exorcisms, and down-beat ending. As an adult I just found the whole proceedings a bit silly. The film is quite nicely shot, at times bordering on spaghetti-western grandeur, and the genuine weapons and armors look great, but I find myself more irritated than moved by the knights fanatical devotion to their grand quest. However, I can see that it is a film that can generate interesting critical discussions. The knights seem to rely so much on coincidences and various visions in their search that it is amazing that they find anything at all, and I start feeling that maybe there IS no grand quest – perhaps the knights, like the bookworms in Umberto Ecos FOUCAULTS PENDULUM, have only constructed their own fantasy world from a number of unrelated coincidences? The essay in the accompanying book speculates if the film is an unwilling comedy or is it brilliant thanks to the cliches?, making references to STARSHIP TROOPERS, another problematic but much more entertaining film. Not a great start to the festival, but at least I got to see a movie
My first full day at the festival, and Im determined to use it to the max. At breakfast I meet Anthony Timpson, of New Zealands BECKS INCREDIBLE FILM FEST, and Kier-La Janisse, of Vancouvers CINEMUERTE festival. Hearing that Ill be writing a festival report for Mobius, they advise me to not write so much about what I had for breakfast (like some other Mobius reporters they wont mention...) but instead concentrate on the films. Of course I say as I as discreetly as possible get rid of my four pages of detailed notes on the content of the breakfast buffet at the Hotel Subur. Time to get down do business
Back at the Meli, I pick up a heavy pack of press materials, my press card, and jump into the screening of CURTS FNTASTICA A COMPETICI II, second of three short-film collections in competition. I want to get a feeling whats happening world-wide in fantastic short films, but at the same time Im not too much of a short film fan. I feel that they usually are based on stylistic exercises that tend to wear out their welcome, while still not having time to develop an interesting plot or characters. The films in the program mostly prove me right, with the exception being LINFANT, LNE ET LARCHITECTE (The child, the ass, and the architect, Lorenzo Recio, France 2001). A delightful and very stylized fairytale about an architect who falls in love with a princess but gets his head replaced with that of a donkey as punishment, it was both interesting to look at and told a good story. Other shorts included THE AMERICAN BICKMAN BURGER (Michael John Fredum, Holland 2001), a parody rags-to-riches story where the successful hamburger entrepreneur just happens to make his patties from human meat, and FOGLIE DI CEMENTO (The cement garden, Fabio Sonzogni, Italy 2002), a depressing study in the life of a child-killer.
Next I made the trek downtown for DEATHWATCH (Michael J. Bassett, UK/Germany 2002), another movie in the surprisingly active sub-genre a small group of British soldiers fighting an unknown horror (c.f. DOG SOLDIERS). The setting is the trenches of World War I, where some soldiers get lost in a mysterious fog and end up separated from their comrades in what seems like a completely deserted part of the battlefield. They are warned by a small group of surviving German soldiers that something terrible is happening, but of course head straight to their doom. The main problem of the film is that the setting – the eternal mud and piles of rotting bodies in the trenches – is so depressing and horrifying in itself, that when some kind of supernatural evil is added it seems almost redundant. Plus, its never really clear what this evil actually is, except that it is in the ground itself somehow. The film is intense and completely serious (unlike DOG SOLDIERS, which had the sense to lighten up the horror with occasional laughs) and does pack a few scares, especially the sight of soldiers who have been twisted up in seemingly living barbed wire, which looks like something out of HELLRAISER. But in the end, the WWI episodes Rowan Atkinsons of BLACK ADDER probably gave a truer – and definitely more entertaining – view of the futility of trench warfare than this film.
Next its back the Meli (thankfully not by foot but on a silly little train that runs erratically between the festival locations) for the scandal of Cannes 2002, IRRVERISBLE (Gaspar No, France, 2002). Supposedly this years BAISE MOI, there is a favorable buzz around the film from people who saw it at Cannes, although it is supposed to be extremely violent and offensive. Unfortunately the film is screening in French with Spanish subtitles only! I watch about 20 minutes, and although the film looks interesting with lots of shaky camera and weird orange tinting, I cant understand a thing of whats happening and theres nothing on show thats controversial enough to keep me seated, so I leave. Outside, a Spanish woman approaches me and tries to make me give her some sensationalist quote about how terrible and disgusting the film is I can only truthfully say that I would have liked to see the rest of it if I could understand the dialogue!
Back downtown, its time for the highly anticipated new film from David Cronenberg, SPIDER (Canada 2002), starring Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Richardson. Like an ERASERHEAD-lite, it reflects the strange worldview of an isolated and disturbed individual. We follow a mumbling Fiennes – who has taken to calling himself Spider - trying to hang on to whats left of his sanity as he is released from the mental hospital into a dreary half-way house. But the film lacks the extreme and inventive visual experimentation and style that made ERASERHEAD so interesting; instead, it is a very dry film, to the point of not engaging with the viewer at all. The influence from Lynch shows strongly in the play with changing identities, echoing MULHOLLAND DRIVE and LOST HIGHWAY, but the mystery of this story is much more predictable and the solution should be obvious almost from the start. Apart from the credits, though, there is very little evidence of the organic horror which Cronenberg himself has made his trademark, and I find myself waiting for something – anything – that shakes up the viewer and breaks out of the neat little box that the movie creates. At the same time, it is a film that is very hard to criticize: on the level of acting and cinematography it is excellent, and it certainly gives food for though, not so much in the banal story but in the unique worldview that it creates. More a film to respect than actually like, I was quite disappointed by SPIDER, but perhaps it is a film that can grow with time.
Next on the menu was REQUIEM (Herv Renoh, France 2002), a film neither to respect or like, but to be swept away by through its big doses of nonsensical action and loud explosions. Totally dumb and empty, but nice to look at, everyone except me seemed to hate it, so perhaps I only responded to it because I was bored after SPIDER. The film, somewhat reminiscent of Roger Avarys KILLING ZOE with some John Woo-style gunplay, is the story of a former gangster who repents and becomes a monk after a failed robbery where a young girl gets killed. Years later his old compatriots break out of prison and through a series of coincidences (actually engineered by their mysterious unknown leader) they end up in the monastery where they show off their big guns, bicker like in RESERVOIR DOGS, and shoot a lot. Theres nothing really to recommend about this film, except that for those who have gained a taste for stylish French action after the likes of VIDOQ and BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, it will do nicely to tide you over until a better film comes along.
With Monday a somewhat hit-and-miss affair quality wise, Tuesday looked to shape up better, starting with the hotly-tipped MAY (Lucky McKee, USA 2002). This low-budget debut stars Angela Bettis in the title role, in a both endearing and chilling performance that deservedly won the Best Actress award. May is an awkward young woman who works at an animal hospital, and her attempts at romance with a young Dario Argento-fanatic (Italian film references abound) fails when May turns out to be a little to seriously into the type of gross-outs that her boyfriend want safely confined to the movie screen. The film, which can best be summarized as REPULSION meets PIECES is best in the first hour, when the creeping uneasiness is just visible enough below the surface of the clumsy romance to be genuinely unsettling. The last half hour (this is where PIECES comes in, in case you hadnt guessed) is much to literal and the movie loses a few points there. But on the other hand, I wouldnt want to be without these excesses either; part of the strength of this movie comes from that it really goes all the way and shows what in some other film might have remained only hinted at. And of course the gore makes it much more exploitable and an ideal Sitges choice. With the excellent cast, the well-chosen alt-rock soundtrack, and the genuinely creepy and touching first hour, MAY was one of the festivals big winners.
After that I saw another debut low-budget feature, SALTON SEA (D.J. Caruso, USA 2002), starring Val Kilmer and Deborah Kara Ungar in a revenge/undercover thriller. The movie starts out promisingly with a mystery voiceover and flashback that recalls THE USUAL SUSPECTS. There are some truly great moments: an encounter with a harpoon-wielding paranoid drug dealer is a highlight, as is the vivid account of an elaborate plan to steal Bob Hopes stool sample and sell it on Ebay. But for the most part the hidden-identity plot is not nearly as clever as the filmmakers would like to think, and thus theres really not enough substance to hang a movie on. Kilmer seems to have only one facial expression but he serves the film quite well, while Ungar is only in it for a very short time. Caruso might be a talent to watch, because there are flashes of good filmmaking here, and hopefully he will have a script that manages to engage all the way through for his next outing.
Between films, I take the opportunity to speak with Tuomas Riskala, head of the Espoo Cin festival in Finland, one of the more recent members of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation. His festival draws over 23.000 visits each August, with over 100 screening (60% which are European productions), as well as tempting with the official refreshments of Sauna & Koskenkorva. Tuomas (who I had already run into at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film – these people get around!) told me a little bit about the history of the Federation. It was started by the big four festivals (Rome, Porto, Brussels and Sitges) but has grown dramatically in size in the last few years. The Espoo festival joined quite recently as a full member, along with others such as Swedens Fantastisk Film Festival, while smaller festivals like Scotlands Dead by Dawn festival are still adherent members only. The main advantage of being a full member is to be involved with the selection of the Melies Dor, the prestigious award for Best European Fantastic Film. There are smaller competitions all through the year at each of the member festival, with a grand finale at one of them the following year. This years prize was awarded to THOMAS EST AMOREUX (Belgium/France 2001), directed by Pierre-Paul Renders. Next year the finals are in Luxemburg, and it will be Espoos turn to host the event in 2006. It is a big and complicated event to run, with dozens of jury members and other guests that have to be taken care of, and Tuomas seemed to look forward to it with a mixture of fear and anticipation.
Later someone tells me that a Japanese horror novelist has used the colorful leaders of the festivals in the Federation as models for a group of vampires that roam the streets of Tokyo at night! But no matter how hard I try I can not for my life imagine someone with the jovial appearance and manners of, say, Swedens Fantastisk Film Festival head Magnus Paulsson, as a murderous bloodsucker. Fortunately, since the Swedish delegation had already left to visit the set of BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR (currently shooting in Spain), I never had the opportunity to ask
Instead it was time to sample the latest product of the Korean film industry, in the form of PUBLIC ENEMY (Kang Woo-suk, South Korea 2002). In opposite to SALTON SEA, the opening is not very promising, but the film goes on to deliver one of the more well-constructed Asian action thrillers since the heyday of Hong Kong cinema. Theres just enough crazy quirks and outrageous plot twist to make this markedly different from any Hollywood product, while still maintaining the high-gloss professionalism of recent Korean filmmaking. We follow the exploits of your standard corrupt cop, taking bribes and hiding a big load of narcotics in his home, while in parallel a successful young businessman with a highflying lifestyle tries to involve his parents in a business opportunity. When these two lives intersect, and when the businessman turns out to be a dangerous killer a la AMERICAN PSYCHO whereas the cop perhaps is more noble than he would really like to be, the film really picks up speed. Theres creepy murders and gore, well-staged action scenes and a surprising amount of humor. I will not speculate in how the film can work as a metaphor for the two Koreas (one can imagine a reading where the protagonists symbolize the uneducated, unsophisticated north versus the rich and slick – but perhaps much more corrupt? – south). But to me it is clear that the division of the two countries is currently injecting a vital intensity into Korean cinema, much like the looming Chinese takeover seems to have somehow energized the Hong Kong scene in the early 90s. PUBLIC ENEMY is another Sitges discovery to watch out for, and a Korean DVD is already out.
From the director of the excellent CUBE, Best Fantastic Film at Sitges 1998, comes CYPHER (Vincenzo Natali, Canada 2002). A story of double (or triple or more!) identities and brainwashing, played out over a background of mysterious mega-corporations, it is sort of an art-house version of TOTAL RECALL (but without Arnold and the trip to Mars). The film opens when Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam) enrolls as an agent for Digicorp, whose main business seems to be to spy on their major competitor (we never find out what these mega-corporations really do). Soon it becomes clear that he is in fact not the person he thinks he is, as layer after layer of false identities are peeled away, and Lucy Liu makes a good turn as the super-top-secret agent Rita, who seems to have a mysterious connection to Sullivan. All this could make for a good thought-provoking action thriller. However, everything is played out in a very sterile and detached way, with the film somehow managing to become even more self-referential and turned into itself than CUBE. There are some good action sequences that make the viewer jump and take notice, in particular a scene in an elevator shaft, but theyre over much too quick. My notes for this film contains more question marks than the rest of my Sitges documentation combined – this really is one puzzling film – but I wonder if the film would really hold up for the second viewing it seems to demand? I was somewhat intrigued but not very enthusiastic about CYPHER, and I feel that unlike SPIDER its attraction will probably diminish rather than increase with time. I liked the compact terror of CUBE much better, and believe Natali is definitely a very talented filmmaker whose third film I look forward to seeing.
The day gets off to a good start with the latest creepy entry from the director of RING, DARK WATER (Hideo Nakata, Japan 2001). A recently divorced young woman moves in with her daughter into a new apartment. It is soon apparent that something is not right, as their new home is plagued by a mysterious dampness creeping in from the apartment above, coupled with recurring visions of a little girl that went missing several years ago. One of the films strengths is how it plays off everyday fears –like being left alone at kindergarten as a kid, or having your apartment demolished by some external force – and injects a supernatural element into them. It is a well-crafted and spooky film, although it does not reach the terrifying heights that RING did in its best moments. This is probably because it lacks the inevitable logic progression of the story that made RINGs hauntings so affecting; instead, it works more like s string of spooky moments that dont quite hang together. Still, a great creepy way to spend an evening, and definitely one of the best pure horror entries at Sitges.
Next I wanted to check out the Eurowestern retrospective, but unfortunately ANTES LLEGA LA MUERTE (Joaquin Romero Marchent, Spain/Italy 1964) was playing in Spanish with no English subtitles, as were apparently most of the other films in the series. The film was nice and colorful to look at, but far too talky, and I soon left the screening. Its main point of interest is that being a Spanish co-production, it might possibly have been filmed at Hollywood East in Almeria, the fake Wild West town in Spain that served as the setting for many Eurowesterns, as well as being the inspiration for Alex de la Iglesias 800 BALAS.
From Eurowestern to Europudding. FEARDOTCOM (William Malone, Canada/Germany/Luxembourg 2002) is a curious co-production that tries a little too hard to pass itself off as a hard-edged horror film, but really its no more than the basic RING story dressed up with a little snuff video and some visual swipes from Mario Bava. The story follows the RING template quite closely, but instead of watching a video you have to log onto an Internet site to get a phone-call and then die of fright within 48 hours. (Theres even the underwater exhumation of a female corpse that turns out to not break the curse after all – these guys really did their homework!) Anyway, having checked my brain at the door, I was never bored by the film, and any director that gives Jeffrey Combs regular gigs is A-OK in my book. SEVEN it certainly aint, but at least someone is still trying to make irony-free horror.
Before the next film, I take the opportunity to interview Pete Tombs, a frequent guest at Mobius, co-author of IMMORAL TALES and author of MONDO MACABRO, the two books that perhaps most effectively have expanded the critical and national boundaries of horror and erotic cinema in recent years. Pete also runs the Pagan, Eurotica and Mondo Macabro video/DVD labels, which release the type of films that we could previously only read about. I am of course interested in Petes many projects, but my main reason for interviewing him is to find out what its like to be in the jury of Sitges Fantastic awards, where he serves along the likes of Internet writer Harry Knowles. It turns out that being on the jury is no picnic: The members have a strict schedule of up to five movies per day, and of course they are expected to provide a critical assessment of each movie they see. They then work out their final selections in a joint meeting. On the other hand, Pete has been put up in a room at the Meli hotel and gets to see new movies for free for ten days, so hes probably not complaining to much! His favorite at this point turns out to be Cronenbergs SPIDER, which he claims will have people thinking long after most of some of the more accessible films of the festival are forgotten.
Pete also talks about the current conditions for releasing obscure movies on DVD, which seem to be reasonably good, mostly because of the Internet. On the day of release, Mondo Macabro sells approximately as many copies of their DVDs via the Internet as to regular video shops in the UK. But the conditions for finding films to release are very different compared to a few years ago; while only recently, Italian distributors came to film markets like MIFED with long lists of films – the world rights even to most of the Argento and Bava films were free – nowadays there is not a lot left of the traditional products. Thats perhaps partly while Mondo Macabro choose to focus on films from less well-known horror film producing countries, like Mexico and Argentina. Next up seems to countries even farther off the horror mainstream, like Indonesia and India. Pete tends to buy films from people and distributors he already knows, rather than hunting them down at film markets and festivals. And although he could not give any official announcements because the deals are not yet finished, it seems that fans of obscure fantastic films on DVD will have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.
The nights final film is DEMONLOVER (France 2002) from Olivier Assayas, director of IRMA VEP, the arthouse hit that was Hong Kong star Maggie Cheungs debut in the West. Much like CYPHER, it is the story of two mega-corporations using any means necessary to fight each other. And what they are fighting over – using any means necessary, including violence, murder, and heavy industrial espionage – is, uh, a new type of 3D manga porn! Come on! I find the graveness with which the film treats the fight over a product that can only be aimed at a very marginal market of sweaty-palmed Internet geeks quite frankly ridiculous. Assayas is again obsessively occupied with the allure of Asian pop culture, but as in IRMA VEP he seems unable to decide if he is seriously critiquing it (and/or the western consumption of it), or if he is simply a slobbering fan-boy – its probably a little bit of both. However, IRMA VEP was a much warmer and more entertaining film, which could feed off the star quality radiating from Cheungs casting. DEMONLOVER is undeniably beautiful to look at, but it is also slow and very confusing – I though I had nodded off and missed something, but it turned out nobody else either could figure out what happened to characters who seem to be murdered or just vanish mid-film. The explanations are probably somewhere in the 15 minutes that were cut out after the Cannes premiere, where the film was apparently booed and laughed off screen. Its nowhere near that bad, and I do think it is worth seeking out for the adventurous viewer, as long as you are aware of what youre getting into. Not surprisingly, it won the high-brow Critics Award at Sitges.
I spent most of Thursday in Barcelona, where I went shopping in the series of shops called FREAKS on C. Ali Bey, just off the Arc De Triomf. Theres a comic book shop, a video shop, and a store for art books, plus a shop for film memorabilia. Its mostly worth it for the books and magazines, since the import DVDs are fairly expensive and although theres a lot of cheap Spanish VHS tapes to be had, theyre all in Spanish. I scored an excellent book on Mexican horror film posters, the latest special edition of the Comics Journal, and a book by US Tiki artist Shag to as a gift to my long-suffering girlfriend. For DVD shopping in Barcelona, I recommend Fnac, a megastore on the Place du Catalunya. There is a surprising amount of Spanish film on DVD with English subtitles, and most foreign films retain their original soundtrack. I went for a double-disc special edition of Fantastic Factorys latest Lovecraft-based production, DAGON – LA SECTA DEL MAR, which proudly advertised its appearance at last years Sitges festival on the cover.
Going back to Sitges, I managed to get on the wrong train and almost ended up in Tarragona, which meant that I missed Takashi Miikes DEAD OR ALIVE: FINAL. But I was set on seeing at least one movie this day and headed out to the Meli for the late, late screening of MUCHA SANGRE (Lots of blood, Pepe de las Heras, Spain 2002). The screening (which was delayed even further into the night for unknown reasons) boasted a personal appearance by its star, Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy. The event started with a long excerpt from one of Naschys werewolf movies. After a speech in Spanish by the festival moderator, Naschy came up on stage to wild applause and received some kind of prize. It was nice to see the legend in the flesh and he seemed to enjoy the attention. Then the movie started – in Spanish only! I watched as a couple of bumbling prison escapees encountered zombie-boss Naschy and his minions, with various sequences of gore in the style of BRAINDEAD and EVIL DEAD. The most original component was the method with which Naschy created his (all-male) zombie brigade: by buggery, no less! (Pantalon was about the only word I could understand, in a sentence that probably meant Drop your pants) Everyone in the audience seemed to be either in the film or know someone who was, because every new face was greeted with laughter and applause. There were some tasteless jokes, people talking in funny high-pitched voices, and a truly terrible rock band performing the theme song MUCHA SANGRE. Still, I would have stayed the distance, but was starting to feel queasy for some reason. I realized I had better get out for some fresh air, but when I reached the lobby I fainted and had to be helped on foot by the ushers! I then threw up the remains the traditional Spanish fish soup I had for dinner all over the lobby and was helped into a taxi. Some people passing snickered and probably thought that I had got sick by watching the gore in the movie; I should be so lucky.
Feeling very faint after the previous days adventures I still had to make it to the first press screening of the day, my only chance to see 800 BALAS (800 bullets, Spain 2002), the latest film by lex de la Iglesias, the former Almodovar protege who is known for ACCION MUTANTE, DAY OF THE BEAST, and PERDITA DURANGO / DANCE WITH THE DEVIL. I have not seen his two most recent films, MUERTOS DE RISA (1998) and LA COMUNIDAD (2000) but already the topic of this film made it a must-see. It is inspired by and partly filmed in the city of Almeria, or Hollywood East, the Spanish Wild West movie set where a multitude of Eurowesterns were shot. The city is now abandoned in a sorry state of disrepair, and 800 BALAS tries to capture some of the romantic grandeur and broken dreams of this relic of the moviemaking past. Unfortunately, in the greatest disappointment of the festival, 800 BALAS was screening with NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES. Sure, it was a world premiere, but hey? Since the festival uses soft-titling (a display that sits below the screen displaying subtitles) it would have been very easy. Anyway, the story was reasonably easy to follow and the opening and credit sequence were a visual knockout, capturing the modernist Eurowestern feel of the movie perfectly. However, 800 BALAS turned out to be a surprisingly family-oriented movie, with a young boy in the lead. The boy discovers that the father he has never known (and who was killed in the pre-credit sequence) worked as a stuntman in Almeria. He runs away from home and ends up with a ragged group of has-been movie stuntmen, who put up Wild West shows in the city for the benefit of bored tourists. When the city is scheduled for demolition, the fake cowboys want to protect their city of dreams (and meager income) and the city comes under siege. The boyish fantasies turn all too real when the police and army arrive with teargas and real, deadly guns. I could not follow the details of the story (it seems the fate of the city hinged on a mobile phone message which I did not catch) but although the film was perhaps overly sentimental, I also found it quite touching at times. All in all I found it a very well mounted and worthwhile film, great to look at and very entertaining, but perhaps I read too much into it because I didnt understand the dialogue! From my point of view it did seem very much like a family film, and while definitely not Disney it is a far cry from the intense sex and violence of PERDITA DURANGO. In any case, the Spanish audience laughed heartily at much of the dialogue and I look forward to catching this film again, with subtitles this time.
My final film at the festival was DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGINS DIARY (Guy Maddin, Canada 2002) and I was now so weak from lack of food and sleep that I felt like one of the vampires victims myself! But I was glad I stayed: Maddins (CAREFUL) latest film is a very unusual horror production indeed. It is a ballet version of Bram Stokers Dracula, filmed in black and white in the style of a silent movie, complete with inter-titles. Most of the action is danced, and even though Im no fan of ballet myself, I found it to be a surprisingly natural and satisfying way to tell the story and convey the emotions of the characters. There is no spoken dialogue, only music and sparse sound effects. This really is a movie like nothing else – at the same time archaic and hyper-modern, it never becomes an experiment in form for its own sake but is continually absorbing. The story, the basics of which should be familiar to all Mobius readers, starts with the vampire-haunted Lucy and her suitors. For some reason Dracula is clearly Asian rather than East-European in appearance – perhaps this was simply the best dancer for this demanding role. Van Helsing is a pretty creepy figure here, with his weird vampire theories and blood concoctions, clearly lusting after the young virgins almost as much as Dracula (the final shot of Helsing is especially revealing!) After the horrible death of Lucy follows a flashback to Harkers visit to Draculas castle (this is the section of the story which starts off the Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi version of the film to such great effect). Harkers fianc Mina is surprisingly sexually active and tries to make love to Harker after he has told her how he was held captive by the female vampires in Draculas castle. Heres a big disappointment in the movie, by the way: we dont get to see very much of Draculas castle and his vampire helpers, even though this should be a great opportunity to really go overboard with sets and costumes. The ending, where Helsing, Harker and Lucys suitors hunt down Dracula, is very effective. Highly recommended, film uses the Dracula story to create a dream world that is unlike anything else I have seen, fascinating and dangerous at the same time. It was the perfect end to my Sitges visit and went on to win the prize for Best Fantastic Film!
I only managed to see a fraction of the films I wanted, but there were a number of titles where I could catch enough of the buzz to at least have something to go on. By far the most talked-about feature in the Asian category was SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (South Korea 2001), by JOINT SECURITY AREAs Pak Chan-wook, which was said to be a very, very intense study in the futility of revenge. A DVD is already out. SAY YES (Kim Sung-hong, South Korea 2001) was yet another high-quality thriller from Asias hottest film-producing country, with good word of mouth in the hard gore genre. BAD GUY (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea 2001) was a new film from the director of the controversial THE ISLE, while TETSUO-director Shinya Tsukamotos latest experiment, A SNAKE OF JUNE (Japan 2002) was called both erotic and disgusting. Festival favorite Takashi Miike had three films on show, including DEAD OR ALIVE: FINAL (Japan 2001) which seemed to be very quickly shot on video and had a disastrous video-to-film transfer. Miikes AGITATOR (Japan 2001) was said to be a throw-back to the classic yakuza films of the 70s – and two and half hours long at that! – while if you dont already know everything about ICHI THE KILLER (Japan 2001) youll probably be glad you didnt ask.
Of the non-Asian films, CABIN FEVER (Eli Roth, USA 2002) sounded like a solid EVIL DEAD / BAD TASTE-style low-budget gore entry, which, while not very original, seemed well-liked by those who enjoy the genre. The serial killer bio-pic TED BUNDY (Matthew Bright, USA 2002) was apparently entertaining, but was played too much for laughs for some peoples liking. THE RUSSIAN ARK (Aleksander Sokurov, Russia/Germany 2002), based on the paintings in a museum, seemed like a very interesting visual exercise (although perhaps more so on paper than in reality) as it was filmed in just one shot on digital video. And I was sad to miss the marathon of BLOODY MALLORY (Julien Magnat, France 2002), SAMOURAS (Giordano Gederlini, France 2002) and THE ANTMAN (Christoph Gampl, Germany 2001) since it sounded like a fun mix of European action and horror nonsense.
Finally, unfortunately some of biggest events of the festival took place before I arrived, in the form of the world premieres of two highly anticipated local productions. DARKNESS (Jaume Balaguer, Spain 2002) was the opening film of Sitges 2002, and I would have very much liked to see how the director of THE NAMELESS portrayed darkness as a character. IL SEGUNDO NOMBRE (The second name, Paco Plaza, Spain 2002) was of course the follow-up of sorts to Balaguers debut, if only because it has a similar title and is based on another Ramsey Campbell story. IL SEGUNDO NOMBRE is the debut of yet another promising Spanish director and went on to win the prize for Best European Fantasy Film. These two homegrown productions (from Brian Yuznas Fantastic Factory and their offshoot for productions by new talents, Fantastic Discovery, respectively) did not get very good word-of-mouth, but I definitely want to see them myself when I have the opportunity.
So would I recommend a visit to the Sitges festival? Definitely! Of course, the availability of the type of films that Sitges shows has changed drastically in recent years. While there was a time when this type of festivals often represented the only chance to see international genre fare, nowadays chances are that just about everything of interest will turn up on DVD within a year or two. But this does not in any way detract from the festival experience. I found it very stimulating to be able to see so many films in such a short time, and probably saw several that I would otherwise never have seen otherwise. In any case, the experience of seeing a film projected in a cinema with a big, excited audience is completely different from watching it on DVD, no matter how excellent your home theatre might be. And the whole setting of the festival – with so much going on at the same time, all the people and celebrity guests, the nice environment of the town itself – all makes it a unique experience. Compared to other festivals Ive been to, Sitges was the best in selection, organization, and (quite important) had the best audience – everyone seemed genuinely interested in watching the films. Sitges 2003? Im THERE!
Finally, no festival report would be complete without a run-down of the winners in the various categories. The most important are of course the FANTSTIC prizes, which I find satisfying overall – I cant say I can come up with a better list than the jury did (although I did not see all the entries). But I am pleased to note that I did manage see the many of the winning films, including all in the top five categories, and I expect to see most of the others soon. DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGINS DIARY was definitely one of the outstanding films of the festival, and MAY was an excellent surprise, with the prize for Best Actress particularly well deserved. In ORIENT EXPRESS, I didnt see any of the winning films, but was surprised that neither SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE nor PUBLIC ENEMY made the list – in any case, I fully intend to track down just about every film in the Asian program on DVD! The film that otherwise sticks out the most is CRAVAN VS. CRAVAN, a fictional documentary about boxer/poet Arthur Cravan. It certainly sounds intriguing but I failed to catch it – hopefully there will be another chance, since it won the Audience Award for best film and its director Isaki Lacuesta bagged the Citizen Kane Award for best debut!
Jury: Goya Toledo, Harry Knowles, Pete Tombs, Mercedes Abad and Carlos Molinero
Best Film: Dracula: Pages from a Virgins Diary, by Guy Maddin
Best Director: David Cronenberg, for Spider
Best Actor: Jeremy Northam, for Cypher
Best Actress: Angela Bettis, for May
Best Script: Lucky McKee, for May
Best Cinematography: Decha Srimantra, for The Eye
Best Make Up: Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero i Howard Berger, for Cabin Fever
Best Art Direction: Shinya Tsukamoto, for A Snake of June
Best Visual Effects: Richard R. Hoover, for Reign of Fire
Best Original Soundtrack: Sonic Youth, for Demonlover
Best Fantastic Short Film: Hlne Cattet and Bruno Forzani, for La Chambre Jaune
Special mentions to:
Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki
Dark Water by Hideo Nakata
Audience Award to the Best film: Cravan vs Cravan, by Isaki Lacuesta
Best Animation Short: Jrme Boulbs, for La mort de Tau
Special Mention to: John Weldon, for The Hungry Squid
Audience Award to the Best Animation Short film to: Last Rumba in Rochdale, by John Chorlton
Audience Award to the Best Animation film to: Mercano el marciano, by Juan Antn
ORIENT EXPRESS
Best Asiatic productions:
Agitator, by Takashii Miike
Bad Guy, by Kim Ki-duk
Demonlover, by Olivier Assayas
Isaki Lacuesta, for Cravan vs Cravan
Best European Fantasy Feature Film: El segundo nombre, by Paco Plaza.
Best European Fantasy Feature Short Film: Cry for Bobo, by David Cairns.
Best director: Albert Prez de lESCAC for Killing the spot
Best script: Nacho Molin de lESCAC for Era que no era
Best original soundtrack: Ekaterina Nocolova del CECC for Todo lo slido
Honorary Award from the Festival to: Mr. Dino de Laurentiis