Tempus fugit

It's a fun and creative movie. Although 'a timetraveller tells a nerd to save the world' sounds like heavy stuff, this movie is rather small. It could easily be played on stage! The use of pills to travel through time is brilliant and it brings us a couple of weird and funny situations. I loved it. But the smallness also makes it easy to forget this film...

I should also mention that this story takes place in Barcelona. Therefor the language is not Spanish but Catalunian (?). And therefor the soccer club Fc Barcelona plays a funny part in it... Before I commit spoiling, I will stop now. Just go see it!

I'm delighted to announce that Tempus Fugit was named best non-UK independent feature at the 15th Festival of Fantastic Films, held in Manchester, England, on 20-22 August 2004. A worthy winner.

The FFF is held annually by the Society of Fantastic Films, and guests have included Roger Corman, Brian Clements, Robert Fuest, Norman J Warren, Pete Walker, Sarah Karloff, Mel Welles, Freddie Francis, Anne Robinson, Francis Matthews, Andrew Keir, Val Guest and Ingrid Pitt.

This year's event was held at the Manchester Conference Centre, with winners announced at the closing ceremony. The best UK independent feature was named as Voodoo London.

Timetravelling, the apocalypse and true love - sounds promising? Well, it isn't. First of all: the concept of time travel is used without any sense in the film, which annoys me, but maybe not everybody will find this disturbing. The movie is full of clichés, normal guy needs to save the world, but is really a hero, love seems doomed, but turns out stronger even than the apocalypse! Hooray. Even bystanders applaud when the two main characters find each other with a passionate kiss that seems to come out of the blue, how original. The time travel clichés are also present: a little change can make events develop totally differently (yeah, yeah, we know that by now). The clumsiness of the main character is too much, too stereotypical, and a mere attempt to imitate other films with similar anti-heroes. The situation in which somebody from the future who never had any alcohol goes totally drunk after one beer is also really-just-not-new. I'm being honest, I like movies, and nothing in this one seems to be original, it's an accumulation of poor copies of concepts that we have encountered in many films before.

So aren't there any good things in this movie? Well, there are, some. Some dialogs (but not many) are quite funny, and the setting in Barcelona is warm and nice, the photography is quite all right though not exceptional. I wouldn't recommend anyone to go and see this movie at all.

Tempus Fugit is a very human take on the ancient theme of time travel. Despite this seeming lack of originality, the film is anything but clichéd in its execution. It deftly tackles in a refreshing way the story of an apparently ordinary man, chosen to do an important job - or else the world ends. Time travel is at the heart of both story and ultimate solution, yet it is clearly a means, a device, implemented in the story in the most simple of fashions. Most things appear simple at first sight in this movie, which is a nice change from the convolution that characterises so many similar themed films. Paradox is neither explained nor ignored, but treated matter-of-factly - not an obstacle but a given, hardly worth mentioning.

The characters are sympathetic in the extreme, from the main personage to the woman he secretly admires, from his rabid football loving neighbour to the people that occupy the square that is a central location to the film. Even the 'visitor from the future', obnoxious though he seems at first, has a certain charm that makes you want to forgive his crasser statements. The same really goes for the entire film, whose low production values shine through at times but never become distracting: the small flaws that are there are easily ignored in the face of a charming tale, told in such a clearly loving fashion that by the end it'll have put a smile on your face and made you realise that its ending, which out-Hollywoods Hollywood itself, is the only one possible after a story like this. Highly recommended. (Seen at the Amsterdam Festival for Fantastic Films, April 2004 - prefaced by an interview with the director)

This is a wonderful film. Not for any one particular reason -- the acting is great, the story keeps you wanting to learn more and involves time travel without becoming confusing -- it's just an all-around fun film. It is unfortunately difficult to see in the United States since the actors speak Catalan and it has mostly been making the rounds in film festivals. Through a series of email exchanges, I've learned that a DVD can be purchased from Manga films in Spain. The DVD is region 2, not 1, so be sure your DVD can play it, but this is well worth the trouble to track down. I saw this film in 2004 and it comes to mind often enough that I am trying to purchase a copy 3 years later.