Writer / director Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes opens in various locations over the next few weeks, starting with Austin, Texas this weekend. If you’ve heard about this film, then you’ve probably been waiting on it at least since it played Sundance earlier this year (it premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2007). If you haven’t heard about it, then you need to.
Nacho is one of those filmmakers who could make an amazing film with five million dollars, or with five bucks, because he’s all about the writing. Some of his short films feature only one camera setup, but they are incredibly funny because of the writing. One even features the same shot, over and over, and somehow it gets funnier each time.
Below is our primer to the best of Nacho on YouTube, which you can watch and explore as Timecrimes gets closer. It won’t exactly prepare you for the movie, but it’ll give you some insight into his sense of humor. We explored a few of these during our interview with Nacho at Fantastic Fest (where they showed many of these on a big screen in a theater), but here’s a guide chock full of shortage.
…Read more

The one face that has been prevalent all over Fantastic Fest for the past week, even more so than Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League, has been Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo. His movie Timecrimes premiered to U.S. audiences here last year, and was snapped up by Magnolia; there’s now an Americanized version in the works. He’s been at pretty much every single screening, every event, and in every condition: tired, wired, drunk, sober, sleepy, awake.
He doesn’t have a feature film at the festival this year, but he did come with about 90 minutes worth of his short films, and those played as a single screening full of Nacho’s wacky blend of British and Spanish humor. Check out the full interview with him below, where you can also watch several of his shorts.
…Read more

After writing and directing the Oscar-nominated short 7:35 in the Morning in 2003, Nacho Vigalondo decided to make a feature film using one of his favorite sci-fi tropes, time travel. The film features a seemly normal man who is forced to take desperate measures to undo his own time travel mishaps. In this interview, Vigalondo talks about sci-fi influences, not giving a shit about what the future looks like, and the forthcoming United Artists’ remake of the film.
Nacho Vigalondo Interview [7:22m]:
Play Now |
Download
Nacho Vigalondo Interview
Also on SpoutBlog:
Sundance 2008: Timecrimes -My complete review of the film.
UPDATE: There is now an interview with director Nacho Vigalondo posted.
The Spanish thriller Timecrimes is in many ways a throwback to both classic whodunit mysteries and time-travel science fiction. Writer/director/co-star Nacho Vigalondo is certainly channeling Philip K. Dick with his singular plot line that quickly grows in complexity when the moral and logical conundrums of archetypal time-travel dilemmas come into play. The question is whether Timecrimes finds a unique voice within this well-explored genre.
The set-up is quite simple, Hector and Clara are settling in to their new country home. Surveying the surrounding forest with binoculars, Hector sees what appears to be a naked woman in the trees. He discreetly slips away to investigate while Clara is off on an errand. As Hector attempts to revive the woman, he is suddenly stabbed in the arm by a mysterious man whose head is covered in bandages. Terrified, Hector runs through the woods until he finds a strange laboratory, where he attempts to seek refuge.
…Read more