Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Who I want to be when I grow up

I'm obsessed with filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo. He's a wickedly funny and inventive filmmaker who makes some outstanding short films.

He just finished his first full length film and I'm itching to see it. It's called Time Crimes and the reviews for it have all been extremely positive. I mean, it's about time travel for crying out loud, it's gotta be great.

Check out the trailer...


Can't wait to see it.

He first starting getting attention though with this Oscar nominated short film, 7:35 in the Morning. I've seriously watched this more times than I can count.



How wonderful is that. I don't want to sound like Roger Ebert here, but I think that film is perfect. I really love everything about it. My favorite bit is the quasi-breakdown where a different person says one line and he runs in front of them and does that hand-on-the-chin-and-nod thing. (that's Vigalondo by the way).

That was the first thing I saw by him and ever since I've been scouring the internet searching for whatever I could find. Next I saw his "follow up" to 7:35, a short film called Choque. Even though this is probably my least favorite thing of his, it's still a lot of fun.



Next I found his epic Philip K. Dick trilogy, Code 7. This has everything I love about movies. It's ambitious and grand in scope, yet is incredibly minimal and clearly has no budget. It's also amusing and funny but still manages to be thought provoking and smart. Be sure to watch all three episodes.







The last short film I was able to find is Changing The World. Again, everything I love is there. Multiple universes and wacky science fiction all done with one actor in the confines of, what I imagine, is his own home.



Finally, I'll leave you with this. Even though I have no idea what's going on here, how can you not love somebody who would do this. He's the one on the right.

3 comments:

Chris said...

I watched 7:35 In the Morning and wasn't sure what to expect. Wow. Fantastic film. I will definitely be looking to see more stuff from him. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I also watched 7:35. How very intriguing.

By the way, I thought of you last night - sitting in my house with an alarm going off forever across the street - reminded me of when EJ, Bobby and I called you and you were in the parking garage with sirens going off all around you. But that still doesn't make Toledo as cool as LA : )

Anonymous said...

oh, btw... this is Hannah... thought my name would show up on that comment, but no dice.