Bloody Beautiful
At the bitter end of a torturous journey, crammed into the butt of a giant Lufthansa 747, suffering three connecting flights, I snapped up the shade of my window seat and peered blurry eyed into the depths of the rolling Mediterranean. A crisp German voice said something involving Barcelona and suddenly we were there.
A gash in the coast line preceded an amazing patch work of yellow, red, and green farm after farm. Occasionally a cluster of buildings lined with erratic streets interrupted the idyllic rolling valleys. And then the coast returned as the twisting sprawl of Barcelona rose up toward us. If I thought I was travel beaten Ed’s drawn look in the bus heading for the terminal spoke volumes: a 6ft 7 Cuban folded into a pretzel for 7 hours tends to be cranky. But it wasn’t long before David – our friendly festival driver whisked us out of the airport and delivered us into the waiting arms of the friendliest film town I have ever visited: Sitges, Spain. This bitter sweet theme has stayed with us throughout the last few days as we celebrate the European premier of Seventh Moon.
Our hotel, the Melia Sitges, is perched up on a peninsula lording over small covey’s littered with rambling red tiled roofs covering clichéd white washed Mediterranean villas. A bay curves out from it with the Church of St. Bartolmeu – the icon of the Sitges – dotting the other end of the smile. After crashing for a few hours, Ed and I headed out to explore the narrow streets lined with cafés, restaurants, clubs, and a myriad of Sitges Festival centered paraphernalia. From the hand rolled chocolates in a film canister to the Zombie face painting stations – everybody in Sitges seems to be keenly dialed into this 41 year old film tradition. The Spanish take their Festival Internacional De Cinema very seriously.
We feasted on Sushi and headed for the Casino Prado to see our first film Gonzo: The life and work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Ironically Ed and I had been talking about miserable genius’s who self destruct and this film captured how beautifully wacked this man really was. The building was an old vaulted ceiling stage theater complete with frescos and red draped exits. Ed and I desperately had to go to the bathroom and we made real fools of ourselves attempting each side entrance in search of a simple male stick figure with the promise of relief. We gave up settling into seats to watch figuring someone would lead us to the Promised Land. We were very happy when we spotted a tiny hall way on the far side of the theater that swallowed and spat back a steady stream of people. A long walk along the beach ended the night and we retired eager for the next day.
The breakfast buffet at the Melia Sitges might compete for one of the highlights of the trip! The cheeses, breads, coffee, and other European fair were simply tremendous. Ed and I set out determined to see as much of the town as possible. Highlights included: a nude beach with uncommonly beautiful woman, a sand castle artist with a cap out for Euros, and a throng of people preparing for that nights Zombie Walk. We connected with Dan Myrick that afternoon. Dan and Ed paraded in front of a gantry of photographers and then sat down to do some interviews with press. Halfway through a passionate answer from Ed the room suddenly plunged into pitch darkness. I was at the back of the room taking pictures when it happened so I turned fumbling for the door and found the light switch directly behind me. I blushed realizing that I had accidently been the bringer of darkness and I quickly snapped the lights back on hoping like hell no one would notice. The press conference resumed but I caught Ed’s eye and it was everything he could do not to breakdown laughing – he knew I was the culprit. Dan collapsed after the interview after having been up for 18 hours and Ed and I headed for Let the right one in the much hyped Vampire film from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. The Auditori Melia where the film was playing is the same theatre that our film will play in tonight. It’s huge! The line stretched all the way around the hotel and when seated there seemed to be a thousand people. The audience was keyed up applauding the titles as they rolled. It is evident from the two films we have seen that you cannot hope for a better more eager horror audience than the people here at Sitges. The film was in Swedish with three sets of subtitles – something I have never seen before. Two of them where below the screen on horizontal giant LED columns and the third, Spanish, was burned into the film. The film had a hard time living up to the hype. One of my friends had unfortunately told me it was the best horror film he had seen all year. I can’t say I agree as the story has Swiss cheese holes in it and visual extremes from beautiful sparse hyper realistic film making to bursts of bizarre digital special effects. For example there’s a scene featuring marauding digital cats that takes you right out of the movie. But there were a number of redeeming qualities to the film and I was really happy to scope out the theater in advance of tonight. I just hope it is not Ed and I sitting alone in that vast theatre! We left the film at 1:30am and Dan joined us at an outdoor bar in the center of town. When we headed back to the hotel a 4AM the clubs and bars were still going strong.
Today we have our press screening and then later the main presentation of the film. Ed will do a short introduction. Even if the film plays badly it has been a truly invaluable experience. Ed and I have talked more about the film, filmmaking in general, and future projects than we have in quite a while. You cannot help but be inspired by this amazing place and the thirst for blood that has been so well established. I can’t help but sit here with my stomach nervously twisting – the bitter sweet of having a film in such a beautiful bloody place.
