We certainly wouldn’t want to be accused of slaughtering our favourite film festival but amidst all the excitement of today’s press release we recalled last year’s pre-festival program teaser and the mention of a certain Stanley Kubrick film.
Let’s hope some of this year’s announcements don’t get the axe.
Before you ask…….no. We couldn’t come up with a more original title for this post. We’re just too excited.
The festival organisers have today announced that the 43rd edition of the festival will mark the 30th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s “THE SHINING” and we’ll have the dubious pleasure of staring down these two spooky gals as we flick through the program each day.
There will be additional tips of the hat to “BACK TO THE FUTURE” for passing the quarter century mark (boy! does that make us feel old) and “PSYCHO” for bringing up its half century.
Brush up on your Spanish and follow the link below for more details:
“THE SHINING INSPIRES THE FESTIVAL’S 43RD EDITION”
And even if your Spanish “no es muy bueno” you can still figure out many of the fantastic films the organisers have already lined up for us by following the link below:
These announcements officially kick off the Corridorstyle run up to the festival where we’ll be bringing our personal previews of all the films featured in the official program along with the likely contenders for our “must see” list.
Stick us on your RSS feed or follow us on Twitter as we’re sure to be posting like axe wielding maniacs between now and October 7th
If this isn’t one of the Midnight X-Treme films that are shown in Sitges then there must have been a tear in the fabric of space and time and we’re all pretty much fucked.
We’ve not got much information about this other than it’s a film about a rogue tyre that comes to life and travels around running over people. See, it’s got to be an absolute cert! The other plus point of this is that the director, Quentin Dupieux, is none other than the man behind Levi’s Ad star Mr Oizo.
I don’t know if we’ll be forsaking our late night beers in The Road Cafe to see this, but if it’s on during the day and we’ve got nothing else to watch who knows?
There’s not really a trailer available, but we’ve attached a clip below.
This one seems like a dead cert for a number of reasons:
1. It’s a weird Spanish mystery / horror film.
2. It’s produced by the guys who did Pan’s Labyrinth, The Orphanage and Hierro which were both big films a previous Sitges festivals.
3. It’s directed by Corridorstyle Hall Of Shamer (right next to Ti West) Eugenio Miro. But what has he done to incur our wrath I hear you ask? Well, let me take you back to 2004 and our opinion on his film ‘The Birthday’. It was hands down the worst film we’ve ever seen and bearing that in mind, along with the fact that we weren’t keen on Hierro, Pan’s Labyrinth or The Orphanage, we will be giving this an even wider berth than a vegan restaurant with an alcohol ban.
If you’re still interested, you can check out the trailer below:
Should England serve us up another kick in the nether regions on Wednesday (a concern for Spain too until last night) we can at least draw some comfort from the fact that the organisers in Sitges have begun opening the drip feed of information for films featuring at this year’s festival.
A somewhat controversial choice here at CS sees the Official Fantastic Selection opening with LET ME IN.
Having been blown away by the original Swedish version LET THE RIGHT ONE IN at Sitges in 2008 we were dismayed at the announcement soon after that Hollywood thought Tomas Alfredson’s film was sooooo good that they couldn’t wait to remake it for him, no doubt correcting his mistakes and giving the film that X factor it was obviously missing………….hmmm!
We’ll try to remain open minded and give LET ME IN the benefit of the doubt, however, I imagine we’ll ultimately find something better to watch while this remake is screened. Now if only we could find someone who could remake the 1986 World Cup quarter final so that the hand of Peter Shilton actually gets to the ball before the hand of God
Ever ready to lend it’s support to Catalonia’s film industry, the festival have announced that the Guillem Morales film LOS OJOS DE JULIA will open this year’s festival.
Morales made an impressive debut (writer/Director) at the festival in 2004 with his film EL HABITANTE INCIERTO picking up a nomination for best film and a best actress award for Monica Lopez. Los ojos de Julia stars Belen Rueda who featured at the festival in 2007 with EL ORFANATO, a film produced by Guillermo del Toro who again lends his weight behind Ojos.
Here’s a little taster with the trailer for Los ojos de Julia:
The reason for thinking that PIG might have a chance is that all of Director Adam Mason’s previous films have been shown here, and we even sat pretty close to him and screenwriter Simon Boyes in a cafe at the festival one year without realising it.
I’ve not seen either Blood River or Luster but we did quite enjoy ‘The Devil’s Chair’ when we saw it at Sitges, and after reading this interview it looks an interesting enough concept for us to give it a whirl.
Sitges have come out swinging for the fences with the announcement that this year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives, will play at Sitges as part of The Official Section.
That’s another Spanish premier chalked up for the festival and a statement of intent from the organisers. Vintage year anyone?
We’ll be absolutely honest, we have no insight whatsoever into what’s actually going to be showing at the festival this year but who cares – it’s getting closer and time to get excited! Over the coming weeks we’ll be posting details of more films we think could be there
The first film we think might have a chance is the Korean film ‘I Saw The Devil’:
Ok…take the stars of Oldboy and A Bittersweet Life (two of our all-time favourites) and add in the director of The Good, The Bad, the Weird and I think the only way we’d be more excited about a film is if they gave you free beers on the way in.
It looks to have all of the moodyness of The Chaser and A Bittersweet Life and with Lee Byung-Hun playing a vengeful husband and Choi Min-Sik playing the killer of his wife, if it is on at Sitges it’s already guaranteed to be one of our must sees.
There’s usually a healthy supply of Korean films at the festival and there’s a couple more on the horizon we’ll be letting you have details of over the coming days, and if they all make it they could make this year’s fest the year of the moody Korean drama.
Fingers and everything are definitely crossed!
So, like a family of small woodland animals we appear blinking into the spring daylight, still dazed from our six month hibernation.
And we’ve actually got some news for you……..the dates for this year’s Sitges Festival Internacional De Cinema De Catalunya have been announced. It’s a little later than usual,7th to 17th October, and the first issue that has immediately come up is that, as this clashes with Hispanic Day on October 12th, hotel rooms appear to be more expensive and very much in demand so get ’em booked up early.
As usual we’ll be bringing you news and previews of as many of the films that are being shown as is humanly possible and once the festival begins we’ll be blogging (eventually!) and tweeting all of our exploits and thoughts on the films we’re seeing.
Keep an eye out for more news as it comes.
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