Hey folks, Harry here with a wrap of several international film festivals as attended by one Julian Richards, the director of THE LAST HORROR MOVIE, a film that has seemingly gone far too long without notice on AICN... seems it's a black comedic take on the horror genre which could either be the bane of our collective existence or the thing to get us right in the mood to laugh about horror films all night long. I'll be curious to see where I fall, whenever I get the chance. In the meanwhile, here's an interesting journey... the travels of a horror filmmaker with his film on the festival circuit. Enjoy...
Festival Report/Trieste/Sitges/Courmayeur
FILM FESTS A GO GO
On the eve of its US premiere (San Francisco Indie Fest, 6th Feb 2004) and subsequent US theatrical release via Fangoria, THE LAST HORROR MOVIE director Julian Richards writes an exclusive film festival report for Ain't It Cool News.
Perks
One of the perks of producing a film is that you get an all expenses paid world tour of the film festival circuit. I premiered my new film THE LAST HORROR MOVIE in Cannes 2003 and have since attended over ten festivals, including Frighfest, Manchester, Bloodbath, Cardiff and Raindance in the UK, Oldenburg and Splatterday Night Fever in Germany and Fantastik Film Festival in Lund, Sweden. This year has ended with a triple whammy; Scienceplusfiction in Italy, Sitges in Spain and Noirfest in the Alps.
London - Trieste
Scienceplusfiction was an established fest in the 70's, recently resurrected by Chiara Barbo and Lorenzo Codelli of La Capella Underground. This well organised event set in Trieste, a mysterious north eastern border town between Italy and Slovenia, chose to celebrate 'Brit Invaders' - the so called renaissance in UK horror. Unable to screen THE LAST HORROR MOVIE due its Italian premiere selection at Courmayeur, the first half kicked off with my debut feature DARKLANDS (1997) a conspiracy horror about paganism and human sacrifice which UK critics dubbed the welsh Wickerman. Next up was a triptyche of Brit fright flics with an action/war crossover. Rob Green's THE BUNKER focused on a stranded platoon of german troopers at the end of WWII who find themselves confronted by the ghosts of massacred civilians conjoured up by their paranoid and guilt ridden subconcious. Consumate character actor, Chris Fairbank (Alien III) was there to present the pic, which harked back to the literary fiction of Arther Machen and Lars Von Triers graduation film Befrielsesbilleder (1982). However, as with most UK genre fare, THE BUNKER suffers from lack of funds, laboured direction and drab colourless cinematography. Following on was Michael J Bassett's DEATHWATCH which although produced on double the budget, felt like an inferior rehash of the themes already dealt with in THE BUNKER. By far and away the most impressive of the three was Neil Marshall's DOG SOLDIERS, which pitched a convincing group of squaddies on military exercise against a pack of marauding werewolves. Marshall handles the action, suspense and comedy elements well, but the casting and performance of the lycanthropic female lead is weak and although the werewolf effects did not succumb to the dreaded CGI, they still fail to scare.
The second half of Scienceplusfiction began with an ecclectic selection including Stuart Urban's indisipherable REVELATION and Nick Willing's disturbing DOCTOR SLEEP (retitled HYPNOTIC for the its forthcoming US release). Last and certainly least was Marcus Adams' OCTANE which tells the unconvincing story of a mother trying to rescue her itinerent daughter from a laughable religious cult. Apparently the shoot was compromised by poor weather and pages had to be torn from the script in order to make up for lost time. More euro-pudding than Brit Invader, Scienceplusfiction concluded with Andrea Vechettea's LUMINAL, a stylish Baise Moi-esque trip in search of a plot.
Trieste - Barcelona
From Trieste I flew to Barcelona where I was driven 20 minutes to the small rain swept Costa Brava resort town of Sitges, home to the biggest fantasy film festival in the world. Sitges used to take place mid October, so a sleep on the beach between films was often par for the course. Unfortunately this year, the festival has moved to December, so the climate was cool and the weather at best unpredictable. At a mid festival party I met the zany Richard Elfman who dragged me along to see his 20 year old cult drive in homage, THE FORBIDDEN ZONE which viewed like an LA surf rock take on Plan Nine From Outer Space. After pitching a project to Brian Yuzna who now works out of Filmax in Barcelona (where he will soon direct Rottweiler), I caught two haunting South Korean films, ACACIA and THE UNINVITED (Best Debut) which shared the same fear of children/parental angst theme as the third Korean entry, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS. Although visually stunning and at times quite shocking, I found all three films had a complex, confusing narrative, not disimilar to Mulholland Drive. Despite the fact that Japanese Takeshi Kitano's ZATOICHI (Best Film, Best Music, Audiance Award) and Takashi Miike's GOZU (Special Jury Award, Best Effects) won top honours, the concesus was that the eastern bubble may now have burst.
On day seven of the festival I screened the only British film in the programme THE LAST HORROR MOVIE to a shocked and amused audience. It's the first time it's played in a non-english speaking territory with subtitles and I was relieved to see the black humour translate. After the screening I discussed UK distribution with the enigmatic Hamish McAlpine of Tartan Films whilst fielding offers from Spanish and German distributors.
The Spanish, who in the past have given us Alessandro Amenabar and Jaume Belgaumo, fell way short of their previous form with the student effort OUIJA and the farcical UNA DE ZOMBIES. France consiladated on last years Deep In The Woods and Malefique with Alexandre Aja's HAUTE TENSION (Best Director, Melies D'Argent for Best European Film, Best Make-up) re-titled SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE for its UK/US release. Aja's psycho killer film is a gory affair about two friends whose holiday in an isloted farmhouse turns into a nightmare. Italian make- up mystro Gianetto De Rossi was employed to deliver effects on a par with Argento's Tenebrae. Australia was represented by The Spierig Brothers UNDEAD; an Aussie zombie homage to the early films of Romero, Raimi and Peter Jackson, meanwhile VISITORS marked the return of Patrick director Richard Franklin after a ten year sabbatical.
Other curiosities worth a mention at Sitges were Michael Haneke's grim, post apocalyptic LE TEMPS DU LOOP (Critic Award), Prachya Pinkaew's ONG-BAK MAI THAI WARRIOR (Best Orient Film) Oxide Pang's THE TESSERACT (Best Cinematography) THE SINGING DETECTIVE (Best Actor for Robert Downey Jnr) and Karim Hussain's ASCENSION (New Vision Award).
The closing film was Gregg Marks 11:14, the title of which relates to the time when five murder stories converge. Although many critics felt it was an inferior copy of Doug Liman's Go, I was suitably entertained by the sublime script, cool cast and no frills direction.
I spent the closing party at Sitges with Takashi Miike, trying to work out how the man can be so prolific. Language barrier permitting it appears that he delegates a large part of pre and post production activities to veritable clones, whilst he stays on the set shooting the same minutes per day ratio as a soap opera. Those interested in Miike's work can catch Yves Montmayeur's documentary on this cinematic agitator; ELECTRIC YAKUZA GO TO HELL!
Barcelona - Geneva - Courmayeur
After one hours sleep I fly to Geneva where I'm taken on a one hour drive through the Mont Blanc tunnel, eventually arriving in the picturesque Italian ski resort of Courmayeur. I catch some sleep in the Gran Baita hotel before I'm whisked off to the Palanoir cinema to present THE LAST HORROR MOVIE. After twenty five minutes the first members of the audience leave and by the time the film reaches its conclusion about 60% are left. More accustomed to crime thrillers, THE LAST HORROR MOVIE proved way too extreme for an elderly middle class audience dressed in their Sunday best.
Film in Noir, is a unique, timeless festival which celebrates crime fiction in literature, television as well as film, so I was surprised to find myself sharing a diner table with James Grady, author of Six Days Of The Condor and this years recipient of The Raymond Chandler Award. Next to him was Joe R Lansdale, author of Bubba Ho-Tep. Meanwhile, members of the Jury included Amanda Plummer and Patricia Rozema (Mansfield Park).
The ecclectic film selection included Janik Johansen's STEALING REMBRANDT, a danish gallery heist caper whose cast was multilaterally awarded (Best Actor), Louis-Pascal Couvelaire's MICHEL VAILLANT, a french motor racing thriller based on a comic book from the stable of Luc Besson. Loud, action packed and stylishy shot the pic plays as a gallic attempt to cash in on Days Of Thunder and The Fast And The Furious, but ultimately fails due to poor scripting and acting. Steve Gagan's directorial debut ABANDON (Best Music) about a cop investigating campus disappearances was surprisingly confused, dull and unconvincing.
At the awards ceremony top honours went to Spanish Oscar contender IN THE MIND OF A KILLER (Best Film) RUNAWAY JURY starring Dustin Hoffman (Audience Award) but as the festival closed with Mike Figgis's return to 35mm, COLD CREEK MANOR, I slipped out the back exit with a gang of young Belgium critics to get intoxicated on a local beverage know as Grola (a mixture of grappa, coffee and orange peel husk heated in a clay pot and sipped from the spouts of a communal clay pot).
Julian Richards
