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Under discussion:

Timecrimes  (2008)

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.

So, last time you were here in Austin, you were here with Timecrimes, and that film really had a big success story at Sundance and everything. Now you are here with your shorts.

Yeah.

Is that weird?

It’s pretty weird. I’m used to making the opposite way. So this is like, this is a producing job, but this is like going back in time because I thought, some of these works are, I made them after Timecrimes.

The core of this program is things I made before I had the opportunity to make a feature film. So, some of this stuff is kind of fine tuned…to develop some of this stuff in order to be able to make feature films.

For example, I would not be able to make a feature if I had not done things like Choque, for example. It was a very complicated to film to make.

But, some of the other stuff is things I do to survive. Because, from movie to movie, it is very hard to make films, to direct them. So, films like the little short films I make really similar, are things I have do to feel alive. Because what I most hate about filmmaking is the time that it takes from one movie to the other. I look to be a worker and make a few movies a year like Takashi Miike, but in Europe it is pretty complicated.

So, you get too bored in the downtime between movie and movie? Do you just get so bored you want to make something, even if it’s a short film?

Yeah. Actually, I try to entertain myself with writing. But the energy it requires to direct is something you become addicted to sometimes. So, I didn’t think… I mentioned “Crimescene” in 2006. [It is now] three years from then. So it’s not… it is a big deal.

Did you ever think you would see these short films on a big screen? I mean, a lot of these like the ones that were shot with the cell phone and others?

Yeah. When you are making short films with a cell phone, you are thinking of a really midget audience, a YouTube audience, with very specific text. It is not something you make for a large audience. Your expectations are different, and you feel a bit unsafe when you are showing these, suddenly in a place like The Alamo. In a theater. Absolutely! With a sold out sign at the door.

So, I felt a bit unsafe. But my short films are pretty short, and it’s just for fun. I don’t know. They are not very pretentious. It is for laughs. So, it’s OK at the end of the day.

Now, when you finish these shorts in Spain, would you release them on the Internet, or where would you show them?

Really, the cinemas. With the short films, they jump into their festival sequence. So they go into festivals, even international festivals. But most of my jobs are direct to… not directly to TV, direct to YouTube.

You said, “I don’t know why we are showing these. Most of these are online already.”

Yeah, well what… For example, my TV work is… that program, “Muchachada Nui,” the program which made these short films, is simply a revolutionary program because they jump into the YouTube at the same time they are shown on TV.

Yeah. So it’s similar, but on television.

Yeah. It is a 20 minute program and it’s a weekly program. But, just the moment that it starts, it jumps on TV. Officially, it is on YouTube, and on the web pages also. It is also one of the most adapted… I think it is a very adaptive formula in that sense. So, when the program finishes on TV, we run to the YouTube to see the comments, to see the stats.

A lot so those shorter films like Gremlins 3, the Back to the Future thing, Codigo 7, that was… Those are like, not to be insulting, but technically, from film making, those are kind of handheld shaky cam, but the writing was extremely funny.

So, when you are working on something like that do you consider like, “OK, I have this funny idea. I know it’s not going to look like Steven Spielberg shot it, but I have this funny, great idea.”

Yeah.

Do you just round up your friends and make those, or how do those typically go?

I know in the case of Code 7, that is a sweet situation because we shoot this stuff without knowing what we are going to do with it. Alejandro Tejeria, the main actor, he didn’t know anything about science fiction when we were shooting. We decided that after we got all the material. So, it wasn’t like if… It was working the opposite way, first you shoot then you think what to do with what you are making.

Then with Gremlins 3… the fact is I really love Lo Fi. Lo Fi is something that in music is something very… When you talk in terms of Lo Fi music terms, we do not know what we are talking about. We agree about some style, a very steady style, so you can make an LP, a real record, without a cent. But in terms of you making something, it feels you are breaking some rule.

For example, I love would to work with the most spectacular formats in the close future. I would like to make a movie in IMAX 3D technology. But at the same time I love Lo Fi. I love the texture of the .mpg, the VHS, that old format in which, for example, the British television, when they mix in the video, old video, tube cameras with 60mm…Yeah, when they use both formats in the British television, those seem… those, that impossible combination of two formats, I love that. I love that. For me, it is punk. So, you said that the next time you come back, you’re going to be here with another feature?

I honestly… I want to really deserve to be here. I want to be able to say… I would love to say I will be able to come here with a feature film each time I come back here.

I think you have an easy sell here… They love you…

Yeah.

They would be happy to have you back with another film.

I feel at home here. I feel like I’m going back to my roots.

For many reasons. I love the way some modern directors manage to make so many films. But, with all of them, the films don’t all have to be on the same level. For example, in the past, you had to grow from film to film. You had to make more expensive films each time, you had to grow. If suddenly you had a low budget… before working with earlier budgets, then it signaled that you were failing.

But today modern directors like Steven Soderbergh are showing us that we have the tools to jump to very cheap budgets from really large budgets. And this doesn’t mean… These days, this is not only a one direction road. According to this, now, I’m trying to make a Hollywood film. For example, I’m trying to make an average budget film with big actors, big names, and all that stuff, but at the same time, we are preparing a movie with a budget to be shot in Spain with only two or three actors in a flat, in only one location.

This is something that has to do with what I told you previously about my fear of not working enough or of waiting too much. So I love to face myself and tempt myself. I was able to make really fast, cheap films at the same time as really big ones.

I don’t want to have those careers in which in one decade I make only one, two, or three films. I want to make a bunch of films.

Would you make an English language movie here in America?

Yeah. I feel a very strong connection with this American culture. The biggest episodes in my life, they all happened here in United States, the Oscar thing and the Allen thing. So I don’t feel afraid of coming here and trying to make this big deal.

And at the same time, I work with, for example, icons like UFOs, sci fi, or time travel. And I feel they are pretty close to this culture, to this pop culture. So, I don’t feel far from Europe. I would love to have the ability of some directors like Guillermo del Toro, for example, to play both cultures at the same time, to feel free to go back there and stay here. That is perfect for me.

What other films have you seen at the festival here that you’ve enjoyed?

Yesterday I saw JCVD. I think it was awesome. I think the tagline could be: “Now, in the past, Jean Claude Van Damme has broken so many things, now he breaks the fourth wall.”

Literally, he does.

Literally, Jean Claude Van Damme breaks the fourth wall. I think it was awesome.  I saw this Spanish… I was waiting to come here to see this Spanish thing, Dr. Infierno, this crazy Spanish film. And it just blew me away because I knew these guys, they spent eight years to make this film.

Eight years?

And it’s such a crazy film. It’s like they were so concerned about so many things and they didn’t care about so many other things. You can think these guys are really crazy because of this difference between, for example, they made this amazing CGI sequence with a big robot, with a giant robot. At the same time, so many characters suddenly disappear from the frame. So I love this craziness where you’re just free at this level.

Santos, this is another crazy film, because they spent, again, many time making a film that is so ambitious and so complex, and so it’s not an easy film. And it combines different kinds of humor, very childish, silly humor, and very clever at the same time. My favorite humor are both these films, the most silly and the most sophisticated

I had this opportunity to talk with the filmmakers of Zombie Girl and I told them what is very frustrating for them about filmmaking is that you see this film and it seems to be an easy film. It seems to be an easy documentary. It seems to be made in a very light way, but you actually know it’s one of the most complicated works this year in the festival. It’s so complicated to make a documentary like that.

This year, I have to say, if I was here with my movie this year, I don’t know. This year all the movies are awesome. In the last week there were also a lot of incredible films. This year the selection is awesome. It’s really awesome.

Yeah, they’ve put together a really good festival.

It seems to be like that. I think this year’s going to be very well remembered in the future.

I openly talk about this festival. When I talk about this festival, I talk openly about the festival that’s changing my life in many ways. One of them, one year later, I hit this festival, I came here, one year later, I can see the resonance of this prize is awesome. It has been following me for all this year. For such a young festival, this is something really great.

I don’t know much about your career in Spain but I know you act a lot in your own films. Do you act for other directors?

Yeah, maybe, I mean, little roles for other films, for commercials. At the time the Oscar thing came [Vigalondos' short 7:30 In The Morning was nominated for an Academy Award], I was appearing on TV eating hamburgers and making glasses commercials. It was funny. And I made theatre. I had appearances in films. So I’m not… it’s pretty hard to maintain an actor career when you’re so focused on jumping from place to place with your own films. Either you are filmmaking or you are editing or you’re writing. So for me, I spent all the 90s being an actor and living as an actor, but now it’s pretty much complicated.

Are you coming back next year, if they ask you to come without a film, like what if they ask you to have your own event here or something, would you come back?

Yeah, I’d try. I’d try.

You might be making a movie.

I don’t know. I don’t know, maybe. You don’t know what lies… where life is going to take you.

True.

I hope to be alive and to be…

Knock on wood.

I mean, if I’m not here I hope to lose this festival for a very good reason like making Iron Man Part 2 or something like that. I don’t know.

Under discussion:

2001: A Space Odyssey  (1968)

The Man Who Knew Too Much  (1956)

North by Northwest  (1959)

Rear Window  (1954)

Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird  (1985)

Arizona Dream  (1993)

The English Patient  (1996)

The Simpsons [Animated TV Series]  (2000)

Panic Room  (2002)

I, Robot  (2004)

Family Guy [Animated TV Series]  (2003)

Disturbia  (2007)

The Dark Knight  (2008)

Eagle Eye  (2008)

In the new movie Eagle Eye, three characters participate in a re-creation of the famous crop duster sequence from Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. Only the plane from NbN has been replaced with an electrical tower and power lines, and it takes Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan and Anthony Azizi to perform Cary Gran’t part (Azizi also substitutes for the pilot and the farmer, I guess).

Such an homage is not surprising coming from director D.J. Caruso, whose last picture, Disturbia, is currently involved in a lawsuit for being an uncredited remake of Hitch’s Rear Window. This time, fortunately, Caruso borrows enough from other films, including Hitch’s second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, 2001: A Space Odyssey and I, Robot, to keep from being sued by any single party. Eagle Eye will likely also remind audiences of The Dark Knight, if not for the similar cell phone surveillance tactics then for Caruso’s even less capable talent for directing car chases.

While Caruso does a good job at allowing his audience to compare him to better filmmakers (yes, even I, Robot’s Alex Proyas), he doesn’t give us the world’s worst redo of the crop duster bit (that is probably this). But he also doesn’t come anywhere close to giving us the best. And for such a famous scene that is so widely studied and imitated, giving us merely another so-so re-creation is very disappointing. After the jump, you’ll find some of my favorite tributes to North by Northwest, mostly paying homage to that one beloved sequence.

10. Seth Rogen as Roger Thornhill, from Vanity Fair magazine

I can’t think of many modern actors less like Cary Grant than Seth Rogen, but maybe that’s why I like this photo so much. Just looking at the shadow of Rogen’s gut lets me know that this is more appreciable as parody than reproduction. Also, Thornhill’s out-of-his-element storyline somewhat corresponds to Rogen’s ill-fitting position in Hollywood.

9. North by Northwest Airplane Scene: WoW Version

People love re-creating their favorite movie scenes using video game characters, and this isn’t even the best example. So, why do I love it so much? OK, I’ll admit, I don’t actually love it. It’s actually pretty lame. But I wanted to showcase it, because it brings up the idea of a North by Northwest video game, which I think someone should produce, like what was done with The Godfather and Scarface.

8. Ralph Fiennes avoids the crashing plane, from The English Patient (1996)

I’m not sure if this was officially meant to reference North by Northwest – the connection isn’t mentioned in either film’s “Movie connections” section on IMDb — but it’s clearly similar.

7. Roger Thornhill in bra and panties, from the photography of Michael Jang

Maybe it isn’t actually Roger Thornhill, but Jang’s photos of an underwear-clad female model running from a plane is inspired by North by Northwest, and the woman is substituted for Grant, and well, I couldn’t think of anything else to call it. Anyway, the pics, which you can see at the end of the making-of video above, are nicer to look at than the Rogen picture. Perhaps Vanity Fair should have ripped Jang off and just had an actress re-create the scene for its spread.

6. Opening credit sequence, from Panic Room (2002)

Taking a little break from the crop duster copies, here’s a different sort of homage to North by Northwest, specifically Saul Bass’ famous opening credits sequence. It’s only cool, though, if you don’t think about how after 40 years, the computer effects used for Panic Room aren’t actually any better than Bass’ work.

5. Peter re-enacts the crop duster sequence, from Family Guy “North by North Quahog”

This image (and the episode it’s from) go even further with the gut thing than the Rogen photo. But not only does this episode feature a parody of the crop duster scene, it pays tribute to much of the plot of North by Northwest (hence the title), including a bit where Peter rescues Lois from Mel Gibson’s home atop Mt. Rushmore.

4. Homer falls under a truck, from The Simpsons “Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment”

Family Guy is ok, but nobody pays homage to movie scenes better than the makers of The Simpsons, as you can see on the site Actualidad Simpson, which posted the comparison screenshots above, as well as other movie references from the show.

3. Balloon Travels North by Northwest, from Famous Balloon Movies

Oh, what people do with their time now that the internet exists! If you’ve never seen any of the famous balloon movies, which were apparently made by an animator who works for Disney, you must. Consisting of 19 parts, balloons are humorously inserted into films such as Safety Last and The Empire Strikes Back. Though I don’t think I can name a favorite, I really, really love the way Grant looks off at his lost balloon here.

2. Vincent Gallo’s talent, from Arizona Dream (1993)

Gallo’s character loves to ape his favorite movie scenes, and during a talent show he hilariously re-enacts the crop duster sequence. Well, he mostly only re-enacts the parts where Cary Grant jumps to the ground. He really should have gotten a 10, don’t you agree?

1. Big Bird, Ernie and Bert, from Follow That Bird (1985)

I got crap as a kid for wanting to see this, but I’ve always been a lifelong Muppets fan, and that includes anything associated with Sesame Street. Plus, who knows if I would have also loved North by Northwest so much had I not already seen the spoof of the crop duster sequence in Follow That Bird? Actually, I’m sure I hadn’t even recalled Big Bird narrowly escaping being run down by Ernie and Bert when I first saw NbN. If anything, though, I at least was able to appreciate FTB even more after realizing the connection between the films.

Under discussion:

Fight Club  (1999)

Ex Drummer  (2007)

Choke  (2008)

As the shit hits the fan on Wall St., a more gradual, but equally serious shake-up is happening in the world of independent film. Paul shares stories from Independent Film Week, a tumultuous clash of ideas about what the future of cinema sans Hollywood will look like.

Karina checks in to tell us about Fantastic Fest. Along with alcohol, karaoke, and BBQ, she’s enjoyed the films Cargo 200 and Ex Drummer.

Choke, the new film based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), comes out tonight. Is this Sundance alum truly provocative cinema, or just the same old thing with some extra sex thrown in?

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro, listener feedback, what independent film of yesteryear made the scales fall from your eyes?

6:23 - Independent Film Week, state of indie film.

18:44 - Karina shares tales from Fantastic Fest.

28:24 - Choke.

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