Hitchcock at the Cinema Verdi

The Verdi Cinema will, for a limited time only, be putting on special screening sessions dedicated to the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. In total, four of his most representative titles will be shown: Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo and North by Northwest, in original English version with subtitles.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person’s gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside icy blonde female characters. Many of Hitchcock’s films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock’s films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon.

Cinema Verdi was established on 1926, under the name Salón Ateneo Cine and is a reference point for film lovers and for people who like the movies, away from the commercial circuit. Cinema Verdi.

43th Sitges Film Festival – Catalonia

This year’s disturbing programme pays tribute to The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, “an undeniably great film in this genre that has outshone the book it is based on”, according to the festival director. Film fans will have the chance to see the full-length original American version in digital format, plus an extra thirty minutes.

43th Sitges Film Festival

This is not the only tribute paid to great fantasy classics at the 2010 festival. Two films which could not be ignored are Back to the Future, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and Psycho, which celebrates its 50th.

Nor could one of the festival’s icons be overlooked, who passed away recently. A posthumous tribute will be paid to Paul Naschy with a screening of the documentary The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry.

The opening film will once again be a Catalan production, Julia’s Eyes, by Guillem Morales, starring Belén Rueda and Lluís Homar.

For fans of Takeshi Kitano, the Oficial Fantàstic section will see the return of the yakuza and gangster movie director with the “extremely violent” Outrage. There is also room for comedy with A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, the Cohen brothers’ remake of  Blood Simple, and Kaboom, which mixes a gay ambience with witches and teenagers.

For those of you with strong stomachs, take note of this. The festival shocker is going to be A Serbian Film, an extreme, polemical film about pornography in Serbia. One of the crazy films, meanwhile, will be Rubber, the story of an abandoned killer tyre with telekinetic powers.

The festival’s regular film sections Anima’t, Noves Visions, Seven Chances, Midnight X-treme and Brigadoon, are the regular festival sections that “give it its prestige” according to Sala, that will continue to satisfy the tastes of any film buff.

Finally, this year will also see Zombie Walk!!!