Thursday, October 16, 2008

Fantastic Fest: Nacho Vigalondo's CODE 7

One of the most anticipated events of Fantastic Fest 2008 by pretty much everyone was the return of 2007's golden boy, Nacho Vigalondo, whose film TIMECRIMES was picked up by Magnolia Pictures at the festival (it's finally due to be released in December) and is due for a big Hollywood remake by United Artist. While Nacho wasn't returning with a new film, it was decided that to justify bringing Nacho back (like you actually need a reason) that the festival would show a batch of Nacho's short films, one of which, 7:35 IN THE MORNING, was nominated for a 2004 Academy Award (no foolin'). The Nacho Shorts show turned out to be one of the festival's hottest tickets (both shows were packed) and Nacho proved that he had a mastery of the short film format, with many of the shorts providing (such as CHANGING THE WORLD, which I wrote about back in January) some of the biggest smiles of the entire festival.

But it was CODE 7, Nacho's very own science fiction trilogy (inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick) that stole the show and it might have been the single best thing I saw during the entire festival this year. Endearing himself to me by also claiming that he's no fan of Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy (just like me!), Nacho gave us a true science fiction epic in three 3-minute segments that are some of the most thought-provoking, spellbinding, and heart-rendering works I've ever seen in the genre. The Palmer Eldridch/Joe Chip story arc, especially in part 2, outdoes even the greatest of Shakespearean tragedies. This is, without question, a masterpiece, and it is my pleasure to present CODE 7 in its entirety to all of you know. You can thank me later.

CODE 7: EPISODE ONE


CODE 7: EPISODE TWO


CODE 7: EPISODE THREE

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