But We Thought The World Ended Last Year?

world's endIf Edgar Wright wasn’t such a slouch he could have had the final installment of the trilogy wrapped up in time for last year’s festival when it would have been wholly more appropriate.

However, Edgar’s a bit of a big cheese around Sitges having charmed the festival back in 2007 so we’ll cut him some slack and just be thankful that the organizers have snagged THE WORLD’S END for this year’s program.

In other news, having enjoyed Jim Mickle’s STAKE LAND at the 2010 festival it will be interesting to see how he handles the remake of WE ARE WHAT WE ARE which we saw the same year but found a little hard to swallow (ahem!)

E-VEEL, like it’s the FRU-ETS of the DEV-EEL.

only_god_forgives_1“A line-up that will witness the re-birth of evil and its many faces”.

The organisers have now released a first look at this year’s film program and, to be honest, we didn’t really have to read beyond the bits where ONLY GOD FOGIVES and UPSTREAM COLOR were mentioned. Count us in!

First look at the line-up for the 46th edition of the Sitges Film Festival

There’s the usual bumper collection from Asia too so all’s well with the world. This is where we begin to digest & regurgitate the festival program in an attempt to compile our own list of must-see films. We’ll keep you posted as to how we’re getting on so check back once in a while.

Sweet Rosemary’s Baby! Line ‘Em Up!

MoritzNot content with staging the coolest film festival on the planet the organisers have decided to also hold the coolest press conferences. To hell with a technically crisp media centre! Let’s just announce this year’s line-up preview from the bowels of the Moritz Brewery in Barcelona and then get tits deep in Cerveza!

We like how you roll Angel.

Rather amateurishly we’re unable to attend Wednesday’s conference but we’ll be sure to bring you all the line-up news as soon as Angel’s finished ordering the drinks.

It’s unlikely to be the complete film list this far in advance of the festival but Angel will no doubt have plenty to raise our glasses to.

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It.

“Hey! Over Here. What is this thing?”

“I don’t know. I can’t quite make it out. Help me clear some of the sand off of it”

“It looks……It looks like some kind of Blog. It looks like a Sitges Film festival Blog.”

“What’s the date of the last entry?”

“October 22nd 2011? That……that can’t be right can it?”

“Oh my God. We’re back. We’re home. All the time, it was… We finally really did it”

“You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”

It’s surely unhealthy to be this excited this far in advance but the Organizers of The Sitges Film Festival have today announced the theme for 2012 and it doesn’t bode well for mankind.

Which apocalyptic classics will be revived from the past, and which Earth-shattering premiers will feature from the near-future? The countdown begins now.

Artificial Intelligence : AI Will Serve As The Theme For Sitges 2011

Though not yet officially announced on the festival website it looks like Sitges will this year pay tribute to the Steven Spielberg film ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:AI which marks its 10th anniversary this year.

This actually appears to be a continuation of the festival’s love affair with Stanley Kubrick rather than a hat-tip to Spielberg’s disappointing sci-fi effort. This post over at Sitgesbarcelona.com makes reference to the Brian Aldiss short story “Super-toys last all summer long”, which served as the inspiration for the Kubrick developed script that eventually ended up in Spielberg’s lap.

If previous festivals serve as any guide then the organizers will likely only afford the film itself a small corner of the program, however, its inclusion as the festival’s theme does suggest another sci-fi slant to the program which is something to get excited about.

Nothing Concrete But Could Brad & Bale Be Back?

Perhaps our disappointment at Brad Anderson’s latest effort VANASHING ON 7TH STREET can again be traced back to that vintage Sitges year of 2004, where three directors promised so much and yet only one (The Wookie) has delivered any kind of follow up to date.

That year we were mightily impressed by Anderson’s THE MACHINIST, however, in going over our 2004 notes we can see that it was more the combination of Brad and Bale that left us wanting more. Good news then with this piece over at Jo Blow where the word is that the dynamic duo could soon be reunited on the J.G.Ballard inspired CONCRETE ISLAND.

A Horrible Way To Die (Starring Jim Bowen’s Son)

Cinematic horticulturists that we are we like to follow our Sitges seeds as they grow. Sometimes they eventually wither and die, while other times they seem to magically burst forth into life, a bit like Nic Cage’s hair. Either way, once they’re planted during the festival we like to see how they blossom come spring.

While cyber-stalking A.J Bowen we stumbled over this piece at Twitch where Michael Guillen gets to talk with the cast and creators of one of our Sitges 2010 favourites, A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE.

And yes, he IS still Jim Bowen’s son.

Confessions, Dogtooth, And Oscar

Great to see that two Sitges favourites have made the list of nine nominees for best foreign language film at the upcoming Oscars.

It seems like an age since we saw DOGTOOTH (KYNODONTAS) at Sitges 2009 but its weirdness is unlikely to have diminished over time or repeat viewings so it’s a little surprising to see it make “The Show”.

CONFESSIONS was a visual feast at this years festival but the stunning slow-mo and soundtrack combinations could have made it all too easy to miss the masterful tale of revenge bubbling beneath the surface. Good to see that it didn’t slip by Oscar.

The list of nine will be whittled down to five final nominees prior to the big event but making it this far is already recognition of a job well done. Recognition too for Sitges and their continuing success at programming some of the best films around.

 

Time Traveling Shane Carruth Loops Sitges 2004 & 2006 Together

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“They took from their surroundings what was needed… and made of it something more.”

What Shane Carruth did was take $7000 Bucks and made of it something a hell of a lot more.

We were already falling over ourselves at Sitges 2004 having been blown away by PRIMER but when we subsequently found out that the film had been pulled together for less than the price of a Nicolas Cage hair-piece we immediately wanted to know what other projects Mr Carruth was involved with.

We guess it must have been tiring for Shane to write, produce, direct, edit, fund, score and act in PRIMER because it’s taken him Seven years to get back in the game (couldn’t he have just duplicated himself in the box and halved the work?), but it’s great to see that he’s chosen to return with Rian Johnson, director of one of our other Sitges favourites, 2005’s BRICK.

Badassdigest reports here that Shane has joined Johnson on his third film LOOPER to help “with some effects for the time travel sequences”.

While it’s great to see Carruth back working in the industry in any capacity, we really want to see him back weaving his own brand of magic. During the last couple of years via various Tweets and Blog posts he’s been linked with a film known as A TOPIARY, most notably in this piece over at ThePlaylist where a big chunk of the script/plot is divulged. The project was said to be stalling due to funding issues but it appears that they may now be resolved with the film moving into pre-production.

With Carruth out and about twiddling knobs and levers on LOOPER we can only hope that this is a sign he’s had his fill of basking in PRIMER’s glory and he’s ready to put his genius hat back on.