Ouch! Breakfast certainly wasn´t taken in the manner of Eric and Ernie and this year we didn´t have Tater-Tots for comfort. The Cava remained on ice.
Fortunately the festival program hadn´t thrown up any early showings to our taste so we liesurely took in the sights and sounds of a Sitges Sunday. However, those that know us know that that spells trouble and as the sun passed over the Yard-arm the first bottle of vino was cracked. Add to that another three bottles before we found ourselves in bar Trocadero where the beer arrives via self-serve pumps charged by the litre. Did I mention trouble already?
We´d gone there to watch the Chelsea/Liverpool game and found ourselves in good company as Malcolm Mcdowell occupied a table at the end of the bar , feet up, kicking and heading every ball along with Gerrard and Lampard.
There may have now been a slight swagger in our step but we still managed to find our way to The Prado for our first (and in Shaun´s case, last) film of the day.
DELIVER US FROM EVIL – PRADO – 21-30HRS
This Danish/Swedish offering from Ole Bornedal delivered on the visual promise shown in the trailer. A deliberately washed out, stark palate added weight to the film´s heavy themes of strained family ties, revenge, and human mob mentality. A fatal accident is the catalyst for the true character of the film´s protagonists to rise to the surface where brother is pitted against brother, husband against wife, monster against mob, and right against wrong.
The film´s gritty and uncomfortable under-belly was established well by Bornedal in the early stages of the film but the ending was a little too much pitch-forks and Frankenstein for our taste (not that Shaun made it to anywhere near the end of the film). We´ll have to make do with the film´s striking visual style and some solid performances from the lead actors.
……..There was just time to pack Shaun in bubble wrap, point him in the general direction of the hotel, and nudge him on his way before the remaining half of the team could double back into The Prado for a tough ask at this time of night after a Sunday on the sauce.
1 – PRADO – 23:30HRS
This would be a tough one to describe even if we had the full team in attendance and we´d been drinking expressos all day. The director gave a brief introduction before the film and, by the time the end credits rolled, I was hoping I´d bump into him again so I could ask him just WTF most of it was about.
This was supposed to be the film of the book that couldn´t be made and I can see why. The mysterious appearance of a book, bound in a plain white cover and with the simple title¨1¨ appears at the Ministry of Information and could hold the key to Mankind´s salvation. What is the book´s tru purpose? Can anyone actually understand it anyway? I wish I had the answers but in order to give this film a full and fair trial we´re going to have to get back to you once the team has conferred.
…….The remainder of the team crawled off for near instant sleep and dreams of tater-tots-
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