Day 61: Sitges

Sunday, October 13

Alright, last day of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.
    I was up at 8, with intent to be on a train by 9, to give me plenty of time to get to the theater, maybe swing by the King Kong Area to look for postcards first.
    I paid for the breakfast buffet, because it would be faster than waiting for my scrambled eggs. I still think it's the least economical of their breakfast options. Cereal, toast, lunchmeat and cheese, croissants, juice. All you can eat, i guess, but i wasn't going to be sticking around long enough to really take advantage. Plus, i was feeling full after two open-faced sandwiches, which was basically one sandwich but split in half anyway, and a few croissants. I still had a bowl of cereal, i didn't know if i would be eating again today.
    Got to the train station a little after 9. Bought my ticket and checked the departure board. R2S to Vilanova, leaving at 9:08. That is in two minutes. Perfect.
    I trundled down the stairs.
    There was already a train labeled R2 VILANOVA on the track and waiting. I rushed in.
    Finished yesterday's log on the way. I looked out the window at the sea a bit. Here's a station. I checked Maps to see where i was. Looked like it wasn't far from Sitges, probably should be the next stop. I activated my hotspot and worked on posting the log.
    Next i felt the train pulling into a station, i closed my laptop and got ready to debark. That's funny, though...i'm looking out the window, this doesn't look like Sitges? But it must be?
    Here's the station identification sign.
    VILANOVA.
    ...
    ...
    ......
    fuck
    It was 10:00. Was i going to make it back to Sitges on time?
    I got off the train, figuring i'd just jump on the next one heading the other way. I tried to pull up Maps, but it said i was offline for a bit, then it just said to get on the R2 going the other way. The train i'd just gotten off of was still sitting there. All of the other trains indicated they were out of service.
    I slowly meandered back down the platform, wondering what to do. I was trying to read the other platforms' marquees, but all of the ones i could see indicated that they were for R2 trains as well.
    Other people were getting onto the train i'd just gotten off of. The door next to me started closing, and the couple who was walking up the platform panicked and jumped in. I followed them.
    "Is this train going to Sitges?" i asked.
    "It should be!" the man said.
    "Okay, thank you," i said.
    The train left Vilanova at 10:22.
    I think i'm gonna be late.
    I'm on that train right now.

---

The train pulled into Sitges two minutes after i finished writing that.
    Very fortunate that all the movies i'm seeing today are at the Casino Prado, literally a two-minute walk from the train station. I got in, hit the bathroom quick, and found my seat. Literally the second my butt was on the chair, the lights went down, and the Sitges bumpers played.

    This is my day. I'm in this seat for the duration; i managed to get the same seat for both marathons. I'm in the front row, which is actually a pretty decent distance from the screen. I'm not only not upset about it, i'm really happy with it.
    I had no idea what i was in for. This was a total throw of the dice. The schedule wasn't posted on the web site, so i would just be seeing whatever they deigned to show to me.
    The first marathon had no duplicates!

10:30 Steppenwolf
12:15 Frankie Freako
13:45 Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2

Steppenwolf was something i had intentionally skipped at all three festivals. It was in prestigious slots at all, and highly reviewed, i just didn't think it would be something i would enjoy. I was correct.
    Frankie Freako was completely off-the-wall. Like a mix of Child's Play and Gremlins, but much sillier. It's campy, it's funny, it doesn't take itself seriously at all. It was fun. Like the kind of low-budget horror/comedy you'd rent from the back corner of Blockbuster on VHS in the 90s and watch with your friends after your parents went to bed.
    Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 was trash. Absolute shit from a butt. I hated it. But not as much as i thought i would, surprisingly. It's much better made than i expected. I didn't see the first one, though, so i guess i don't know where the bar was set.

The first round was supposed to end at 2:30pm, and the second to start at 3:30. However, as you may have guessed if you noticed that the third movie didn't start until 1:45, that didn't quite happen. It finished at 3:10, leaving only 20 minutes before i needed to be back in that theater. Lunch was pretty much out of the question.
    I wasn't giving up on those postcards, though. I knew there was a convenience store not far away that had Sitges-specific cards; the city, not the festival, and that would be good, better than getting Barcelona cards. But i had really hoped for something festival-related. I didn't know if i had enough time to make it to the King Kong Area, but the least i could do was try. GPS said 7 minutes.
    I made it in 4.
    I was cruising down the line of vendors. Some of them were packing up already. None of them seemed to have any postcards. These were all retailers selling Blu-Rays and DVDs, action figures, posters, shirts, stuff for specific movies. I knew there was an official Sitges Festival booth down here, and i knew it was almost all the way to the far end, because that's where i had stopped to ask for directions to the children's theater on Friday.
    So i went all the way down there. I glanced around. Didn't see anything. Shit.
    I was just about to give up, when i saw a pack of Sitges postcards. It was €38. Holy fuck, why?? Then i realized that it was a thick stack, probably 50 postcards. I flagged a guy down. "Do you have individual postcards, or just the pack?" i asked.
    "Yes, we have these ones," he said, pointing to the cards displayed on stands literally three inches above the pack.
    Oh my god.
    There were two different designs, and i needed two cards. I grabbed one of each.
    As soon as they were secured, i took off for the casino.
    The biggest thing i was concerned about today, besides the postcards, was hitting my water goal. If i'm not leaving the Casino, then i won't be able to fill my bottles. The King Kong Area was as close as i was going to get to the only bottle-filling fountain i've located in Sitges, and that would be probably another ten minutes' walk away from the theater. No time.
    So when i saw a convenience store en route, i didn't even think twice about it. I knew i was down to a couple minutes, but that was all i needed. I grabbed a 1.5 liter bottle of water, a soda, and a Snickers bar. This would be my lunch. I can go without food for a bit.
    The second marathon was supposed to wrap up at 9:30, which would still give me plenty of time to get a train back to Barcelona, maybe even get in earlier than expected, and get to bed at a reasonable time. Maybe that Gaudí house could still be in the cards for tomorrow. And then i would still have plenty of time to drink some more water, and get some dinner before bed. But since the first had run 40 minutes late, i wasn't sure if i could trust the second to finish on time, either. I'd just have to keep an eye on my watch.
    I was thinking about getting paella one more time, but ordering the veggie this time. The thing i like most about paella is the rice, it's so delicious, so i should try it without the intact crustaceans on the top.
    When the Casino came into view, there was still a line outside, getting their tickets scanned. No problem at all.
    The marathon was scheduled for six hours, according to the web site, so i assumed it would be four films. Most of the offerings have been around 90 minutes, that maths.
    That's not what happened.

15:30 Cuckoo
17:15 Cloud
19:20 Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
21:30 Una Ballena
23:15 Jimmy and Stiggs

Cuckoo is an absolute masterwork. I was really impressed with this movie, i enjoyed it a lot. Might dress as one of the monsters for Halloween, shouldn't be too difficult, and i can be ahead of the curve on that for once. All of the scares are telegraphed ahead of time, if you're paying attention, which makes it less of a shocking horror movie and more of a suspenseful one. There was one shot that was set up in a way that, in my head, i literally said to myself, "okay, here comes the jump scare." And then they did something that disarmed the jump scare, and then they did the jump scare anyway and it was SO EFFECTIVE, i can't believe i haven't seen that done before.
    Cloud. Okay, first repeat. Did i feel any differently about it on a second watch? Not really. I mentioned the first time that i thought there was a character betrayal which came out of nowhere, and i don't think that anymore. It is set up, though not as thoroughly as most of the others, and i think that Yoshii's actions after the betrayal happens are indicative of the way he would have behaved beforehand also, so even if it's explained more after the fact than set up, it still works the same.
    Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. I saw this one in Berlin. I might have enjoyed this more on a second viewing, actually. I liked it a lot the first time, although i had said that there was maybe too much action, and combined with all the shakycam, it gets exhausting after a while. That...is still probably true, but i found it less bothersome this time, and knowing how things turn out in the end made me focus on different things this time. I didn't mind seeing this a second time at all.
    Okay, at this point it was 9:30, so i assumed i was only getting the three movies, since they had all turned out to be longer films. Imagine my surprise when the production company logos for another movie started rolling. I knew i had a choice here; i could leave anyway, and get a regular train back to Barcelona, all the way to Passeig de Gracia, and get all the things i wanted (paella, decent sleep, maybe tour the Gaudí house), or i could see one more movie, and commit to having to take the 1:30am train. I decided to give it 20-30 minutes, and if the movie sucked, i would bounce, and if not, well, i came here to see movies, didn't i?
    Admittedly, i was distracted at the beginning of Una Ballena. I was trying to get some Duolingo lessons done so that i didn't get demoted from my league, and then i had to go to the bathroom, so i missed some chunks of the beginning. It's a Spanish film, too, so it's not like i was even able to listen along while i was looking elsewhere. I had my phone brightness all the way down, and was holding it inside my vest, hoping not to bother anyone else. There was no one down the whole row to my right, so i held it under the left side.
    So i knew i had missed a few things, out the gate, but even after i had all that taken care of, i felt like i was missing things as the movie went along. I was lost on some of the major plot details, i didn't quite understand how everything fit together. Especially in the last 20 minutes, i didn't know why some of the characters did the things they did. But on this one, i'm gonna accept that it might be my own fault. After all, i was not bored with this film, i decided to stick with it, even though my life would have been much easier if i'd left. Gonna need to watch this again, i guess, and i'm happy to do it.
    It was after 11, this marathon had already run an hour and a half late. Surely it's over now. What am i gonna do in Sitges until the train comes...?
    Uh. They're not opening the side doors. People are staying in their seats.
    Another round of production company logos. The lights went back down.
    Holy shit, we're getting another movie.
    Jimmy and Stiggs is absolutely fucking buck wild. I cannot in good conscience recommend this movie to anyone. That said...i had a good time with it. Two unhinged dudes in an apartment, guzzling bottles of hard liquor and snorting lines of cocaine and doing other drugs, while they fight aliens, and each other. It's bonkers. It's extremely violent and gory, although in as cartoony a way as a live-action film can possibly be. This looks like it was slapped together by two special effects guys in their spare time, for no money, with whatever random stuff they had lying around. And they threw everything they had at it.

Surely i'll write more about these films later. I'm way behind on my film reviews sections, i'll catch up at some point. Perhaps on the plane tomorrow.
    Alright. It's 1:22, the train should be here soon. And then there'll be the walk to the hostel, and then i'll be in the bathroom for a bit...and i haven't eaten anything today, and i still need to drink another half a liter of water. I'm not getting to bed until 3:30 again tonight, am i?
    It's fine. I'm gonna miss the Gaudí house, but at least then i can sleep in, relax a bit in the morning, and just focus on getting those postcards mailed, and getting to the airport on time.