22nd September 2011.

As expected most of the conversations I’m having with fans in Lund, and indeed other Euro Festival directors, are geared around Dario Argento’s DRACULA 3D. Everyone wants to know about it, so much so I’m certain it will be a major entrant in many 2012 programmes. I’m really enjoying my time here – everyone from Festival director Johan Barrander and Chairman Lars Diurlin to Federation mascot Christian Hallman – are being exceptionally warm and helpful and I’m even being tempted into the VIP lounge in the City Hall to party late with the likes of Lucky McKee and Alex Chandon. Not that they need much prompting! Lucky and Alex were catching up with STAKE LAND last night while I, and my fellow International jury members, sat through Guy Moshe’s BUNRAKU. Long on the global release shelf and being released on DVD on October 8 in the UK, BUNRAKU borrows its name from the traditional puppet theatre and is part samurai film, part Western, all comic book looking live action Manga. Think DICK TRACY meets SIN CITY and THE SPIRIT and you’ve got the handle on this cardboard fantasy about mysterious stranger Josh Hartnett and warrior Gackt Camui joining forces to overthrow crime lord Ron Perlman, to all intents and purposes looking and acting like he’s auditioning for his role as Conan’s father in CONAN THE BARBARIAN. After five minutes the high tone colour palette loses its lustre and when Hartnett is joined by fellow has-beens Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson, well, this Romanian-shot adventure becomes ultra tedious. Pretty to look at but pretty boring to watch, BUNKARU will soon be a blip on the supposed instant cult movie charts.

Far more interesting but in many ways just as derivative was Geraldine Bajard’s oh-so-French debut feature THE EDGE. Basically a doctor moves from Paris to a small practice in the countryside and finds the village teenagers there morally bankrupt and into very strange rites. For this one think EDEN LAKE meets ILS/THEM except no scene rings remotely true as one teen forces his 12 year-old sister into under-age prostitution for a night and the ripple effects her accidental death causes. Posing more questions than it answers and more hazy motives than believable moments, THE EDGE pushed me to it more times than I care to remember as it ultimately descends into chaotic silliness. 

Signing off now as our lovely guest host Emma is taking us on a day trip to nearby Malmo before we see the last film in competition, MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY. My reputation in Lund has become such that everyone is telling me I’m going to love this Japanese fantasy because of the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER section. Can’t wait!

Until the next time.