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.
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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.
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So it turns out that Alfonso Cuaron, director of Children of Men, is kind of resenting the sudden attention and praise being lavished on Mexican films (his as well as Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritus’ Babel). In a post Cuaron wrote this week, he said this:
…What I resent, however, is the notion that the Oscars are somehow bestowing legitimacy on Mexican cinema. We don’t need this legitimacy.
I can get my head around that kind of resentment. I can also understand why Cuaron doesn’t want to define or represent “Mexican cinema.” As he points out in his post, the three films getting all the attention are set in a variety of places other than Mexico–from London to Spain to California and Morocco. I think he just wants to be known as a great filmmaker–one who isn’t put in a box.
But at the same time, attention and praise are still attention and praise, even if they’re long overdue or not in the most appealing package. The amount of interest being stirred up around Mexican directors and films right now is to be expected, considering the box office numbers and Oscar nominations (16 between the three titles) these three films have generated. According to indieWIRE’s BOT, Pan’s Labyrinth surpassed Like Water for Chocolate as the highest grossing Spanish language film in the US ($21.7 million as of yesterday). All kinds of people watching a subtitled movie in multiplex theaters. I love it (even if it is a ridiculous thing to love).
It’s true. American audiences blinded by Hollywood blockbusters can be a bit clueless. They might even need to be hit over the head before they sit up and take notice. But personally, I’m just glad they’re taking notice. I’m glad more films from more places are being seen by more people.