59th
edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival glamoured, as it always does, the
citizens of the small but charming city with amazing films and exclusive events
from 16th September to 24th. As some of you, readers, may
know I sort of took part in the festival as part of the youth jury, which can
be translated as 3 films a day, some of which you may not like or even end up
hating, none of your choice. It’s been almost a month already –I know, I'm dreadful, keeping you up to date- and I still haven’t come back to normal,
maybe the ‘damage’ is permanent! The lousy part is that everybody is asking me
to tell the experience and I really don’t know what else to say, and how else
to say it. Hence why it’s taken me so long to write about this amazing
experience in The Bridge, I wasn’t really feeling like finding another view to
it. But The Bridge is worth the effort.
From all of
the films I’ve had to watch I would recommend Take this Waltz, Silver Tongues and Wild Bill. I recommended many more in my blog but I’m not sure if
some can be found in English. Anyhow, these 3 are the ones whose flashing lights
still haven’t gone out of my head after all this time. In spite of all
films being made by new directors, from where I was standing, they were worthy of
being compared to the best. A film that I didn’t have the chance to watch was The Artist, but if I were you I would
find a way to see it. I surely will.
Even if it
is a Film Festival (‘film’ before ‘festival’), the atmosphere on the streets is
more about ‘festival ‘ than about ‘films’, with the exception of the cinema
lovers, actors, directors, producers,… that walk around the city.
During this
intense week celebrity-hunting seems to be the official sport, the prize? Autographs,
photos, kisses from celebrities, and the pride of being able to say that one
saw this or that celebrity.
Dress code:
be up to the red carpet, grown-ups try to wear their best clothes (often
ridiculously when it comes to elderly people, especially women who think that
some director will offer them a job in Hollywood, and I’m not making it up,
true story); on the other hand, youngsters try to develop their “alternative” (don’t forget the quotation
marks) look and try to be “original” (quotation marks…) and cool (quotation marks,
please! And then there’s me looking like a hobo with all the clothes that my
university’s dress code doesn’t allow me to wear).
All in all,
it was a terrific experience and I will repeat next year if possible.
