SITGES 2003 FILM FESTIVAL REPORT


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PLEASE GO AND READ THE OFFICIAL VERSION AT SGM!!!


You might also want to check out the report from Sitges 2002...

By Lars Erik Holmquist

See also the Sitges 2003 Photo Gallery!

Official Sitges 2004 homepage

OVERVIEW OF FILMS:

Day one:
EL TREN DE LA BRUJA (Koldo Serra, Spain 2003)
CAMARA OSCURA (Pau Freixas, Spain 2003)
USHER (Curtis Harrington, USA 2002)
JUON: THE GRUDE 2 (Takashi Shimizu, Japan 2003)
DÉDALES (René Manzor, France 2003)

Day two:
SO CLOSE (Cory Yuen, Hong Kong 2002)
FEAR X (Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark / Great Britain / Canada 2002)
BLOOD BROTHERS (Chang Che, Hong Kong 1973)
THE MANSON FAMILY (Jim Van Bebber, USA 2003)

Day three:
S.W.A.T. (Clark Johnson, USA 2003)
Fantastic short film (Various)
ONG-BAK. MUAY THAI WARROR (Prachya Pinkaew, Thailand 2003)
KILL BILL (Quentin Tarantino, USA 2003)
THE TOOLBOX MURDERS (Tobe Hooper, USA 2003)
BOY IN THE BOX (Screaming Mad George, USA 2003)
KING OF THE ANTS (Stuart Gordon, USA 2003)

Day four:
KAENA: THE PROPHECY (Chris Delaporte and Pascal Pinon, France 2003)
UNDEAD (The Spiering Brothers, Australia 2002)
HELL’S HIGHWAY (Bret Wood, USA 2003)

Day five:
THE SINGING DETECTIVE (Keith Gordon, USA 2003)
ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES (Yu Lik Wai, China 2003)
DANCING (Patrick-Mario Bernard, Xavier Brillad and Pierre Trividic, France 2002)
DEAD END (Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, France-USA 2003)
DOPPELGANGER (Kiyoshi Kuorsawa, Japan 2003)
HAUTE TENSIONS (Alexander Aja, France 2003)

Day six:
THE UNINVITED (Lee Soon-yeon, South Korea 2003)
INTO THE MIRROR (Kim Sung-Ho, South Korea 2003)
Summing up & Fantastic Winners

INTRODUCTION

Another year, another Sitges festival! As I fly in over Barcelona on November 27, the first day of the festival, I can make out famous landmarks like the Sagrada Familia and the Olympia Village – but I’m not here for sightseeing, I’m here to watch movies! For the basics about the Sitges 03 festival, or officially the 36th edition of the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya, I refer to last year’s report. But to give you a sense of the size and scope of this festival specializing in “fantastic” film, here are some figures (all refer to the 2002 instalment): The total audience of the festival was 150.000, making it the biggest in the European Fantastic Film Federation. The festival was budgeted at 2,65 million Euro, and situated in the small coastal town of Sitges with 23.000 inhabitants. The number of features and short films last year was 369, out of which 71% were European, 17% were from the US, and 12% from other countries (predominantly Asia). Last year I was one of the 46 accredited international “written press” reporters, and the total number of media attendants was about 750, plus 180 film professionals. (All these figures came from a handy little booklet on the Federation, sponsored by the European Union’s MEDIA program!)

Apart from again showing the latest and greatest in genre pictures from all over the world in the OFFICIAL FANTÀSTIC section, some of the special sections this year included a MONDO MACABRO retrospective, with strange horror films from around the world; a very strong retrospective on new Japanese cinema; and a series of films by special guest Curtis Harrington, ranging from atmospheric debut NIGHT TIDE to a recently completed adaptation of Poe’s THE HOUSE OF USHER. Of course there’s the usual GRAN ANGULAR section for mainstream films; the famous Asian section ORIENT EXPRESS; animated movies from all over the world in ANIMA’T; a special section of “midnight movies” (aren’t they all at this festival?!) called SESSION GOLFES; and the catch-all category for anything unusual, NOVES VISION. Directors in attendance included Tobe Hooper, Stuart Gordon and Takashi Miike, all with new films in tow, and of course Barcelona-based Brian Yuzna could be seen plugging new product from his FANTASTIC FACTORY. Add to that screenings of television work and classic features like LA RESIDENCA from Spain’s own Ibáñes Serrador (also in attendance); the BRIGADOON video section; critics sections like SEVEN CHANCES; plus a multitude of specials and one-offs, and it’s clear that nobody has a chance to see a fraction of the program in the ten days allotted, no matter me in my meagre five and a half.

DAY ONE (November 27)

Off the plane and on the train to Sitges, I instantly notice that the weather is quite a bit colder this year, and very windy. The reasons to move the festival from its traditional October slot to November/December was mainly economical, but for someone used to the Swedish climate it still feels almost like summer. I book into the downtown Hotel Subur and make the traditional run (the first of many) to the festival hotel, the Melia at the outskirts of town. This year I’m determined to make it to the opening ceremony! The language of the festival is, of course, Catalan mixed with some Spanish, and therefore doesn’t make much sense to me, but is still fun to watch the celebrities parade on stage. I get to see this year’s retrospective guest Curtis Harrington accept an honorary award from festival director Ángel Sala, and the cast of the opening movie parade up on stage. Then the festival proper starts, with the first film...

Before the main feature, we are treated to a short, EL TREN DE LA BRUJA (Koldo Serra, Spain 2003). A man has volunteered to a strange experiment: He will sit in a chair in the middle of a dark room, and the experimenters (represented by an off-screen voice) will try to scare him enough to leave the chair, supposedly simply by talking to him. If he does not stay in the chair for the duration, he will not get any money! At first both the man and the audience are sceptic and flippant, but the film gradually tightens the screws, going from silly to very scary in 17 minutes, as the disembodied voice plays with the man’s (and the audience’s) imagination. This was an excellent way to open the festival, and even though the twist ending was something of a disappointment this short is worth seeking out. My guess is that the director already has a deal with FANTASTIC DISCOVERY or some other Spanish film producer to direct his first feature, and then perhaps we can look forward to seeing this short as an extra on a DVD down the line!

The opening film is CAMARA OSCURA (Pau Freixas, Spain 2003), having its world premiere at the festival. It’s a slick Euro-thriller of the kind the Spanish companies seem increasingly competent at producing, but more in the action vein than recent horror-oriented successes like THE OTHERS and THE NAMELESS. There are no subtitles (darn!) but the story is fairly easy to follow. A group of young divers in Senegal find a dead man floating in the sea while far from land. After a mishap costs them their boat, they are forced to stay floating many harrowing hours in the water, until a potential rescue ship is sighted. However, something is seriously fishy on the ship – in fact, the dead man was probably dumped from it! As they sneak on, they discover that the crew is engaged in slave trade, smuggling illegal animals, and other criminal activity. There ensues a game of hide-and-seek with the vicious and quite scary crew members, and the final third of the films is pretty tense with at least one genuinely shocking event. Ultimately, while well made, this piece of entertainment is easy to digest but forgotten almost immediately. Considering that European thrillers of similar quality, like ANATOMY and L’ARTE MORIR (THE ART OF DYING) receive cinema and DVD releases, I would expect this to pop up internationally too.

Next we have USHER (USA 2002), Curtis Harrington’s first theatrical film for almost 30 years, after quirky shockers such as WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? and WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? (both 1971, and both shown separately at the festival). The 40 minute short is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, but unlike another recent version (Ken Russell’s THE FALL OF THE LOUSE OF USHER) it’s not a glorified home movie. USHER is an interesting and personal film that will form part of a projected Poe anthology with two other shorts by other directors. Here, we find Poe transplanted to a contemporary Los Angeles mansion, with Harrington playing both Roderick and Madeleine Usher, twins who share a very intense relationship. A young(ish) writer comes to visit the household, to sit at the feet of the famous poet Roderick. Madeleine is not feeling well, and when she unexpectedly dies during a lively birthday party it’s easy to figure out what happens after she is buried… This small-scale but well-made film echoes Corman’s Poe epics in tone and pace, and the performance of Harrington in the dual role is excellent. Even more interesting than taking it as s straight horror film, might be to relate it to Harrington’s well-documented relationship with FRANKENSTEIN director James Whale during the latter’s old age. It’s easy to see how the film could be a variation of that experience. In all, an interesting and very personal film which will hopefully see a wider release.

Time for some Asian terror in the form of JUON: THE GRUDE 2 (Takashi Shimizu, Japan 2003). The first film was based on a successful TV series (which I have not seen) and had an interesting structure, with short sequences building up to moments of extreme terror. This instalment follows a similar pattern, with a new group of people who have visited the cursed house of the original and become victims of various grisly haunting. The first movie had moments that were so scary they felt like actual black magic – at times when watching it I felt like evil would literally ooze out of the TV screen and grab me at the throat (to mix in another Japanese horror image). This one tries to repeat the trick, and largely succeeds; however the thrill of the original is not quite there and the structure is a bit more predictable this time. Still, there were enough genuine scares to make me and the rest of the audience jump several times! The ending takes place in a hospital, and is more hysterical than spooky and reminded me of the birth scene in Lars von Trier’s THE KINGDOM (we don’t get Udo Kier peeking out this time, though!) However, after this fairly satisfactory ending, the director COMPLETELY blows the movie by including an unnecessary coda which is, quite frankly, crap! Too bad that a movie that had at least 90% of the power of the original would chose to throw it all away in the last minute.

Still on the first night of the festival, more Euro horror: DÉDALES (René Manzor, France 2003) has a seriously wild-eyed (we’re talking Rasputin-level here) psychic detective chasing a serial killer, using some kind of psychic bond. The serial killer is revealed to be a young girl with a very serious case of multiple personalities, who is taken in for treatment by a less-than-eager psychoanalyst. There are three story strands that run in parallel: the serial killer’s “work”, the simultaneous chase by the police (and Mr. Rasputin), and the psychoanalysis sessions taking place after the arrests. The complex and completely un-typical killer, Claude (excellently played by Sylvie Testaud) has built a labyrinth of different personalities as protection from a childhood trauma, and it all comes together in a really surprising twist. This is a movie where you can go back and see how every detail in the plot (especially the ones that annoyed you the first time around!) in fact point towards the final revelation. Compared to other recent “killer twists” like IDENTITY and the Sitges-shown HAUTE TENSION (below), DÉDALES, while more sedate, is actually the best of the bunch. It is unfortunate that the film is just a little too pretentious and serious for its own good, and could therefore not provide Testaud with the kind of breakout attention received by Angela Bettis (best actress, Sitges 2002, for MAY)  and Cécile de France (best actress, Sitges 2003, for HAUTE TENSION), even though her performance is in a similar league. The film will probably not play much outside film festivals, but hopefully a subtitled DVD is forthcoming.

ON TO DAY TWO...