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''Timecrimes'' () is a 2007 Spanish
science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
written by, directed by, and featuring
Nacho Vigalondo Ignacio "Nacho" Vigalondo Palacios (born 6 April 1977) is a Spanish filmmaker. Career Vigalondo's first film was the 2003 Spanish-language short film '' 7:35 in the Morning'', about a suicide bomber who terrorizes a cafe, which was only eight m ...
. The film stars
Karra Elejalde Carlos Elejalde Garay (born 10 October 1960) better known as Karra Elejalde, is a Spanish actor and occasional filmmaker. Biography Carlos Elejalde Garay was born on 10 October 1960 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He developed his early acting career on i ...
as Héctor, a man who unwittingly becomes part of a
causal loop A temporal paradox, time paradox, or time travel paradox, is a paradox, an apparent contradiction, or logical contradiction associated with the idea of time travel or other foreknowledge of the future. While the notion of time travel to the future ...
and must stop his other selves from continuing to exist.


Plot

In the Spanish countryside, a middle-aged man named Héctor and his wife Clara live in a home that they are renovating. Héctor scans the forest behind their house with binoculars and sees a young woman take off her T-shirt, exposing her breasts. When his wife goes shopping, he investigates and finds the woman on the ground, naked and unconscious. He is stabbed in the arm by a mysterious man with bloody bandages on his face. Fleeing and breaking into a mysterious nearby building, Héctor contacts a scientist by
walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver, HT, or handheld radio, is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer A ...
, who warns him of the bandaged man and guides him to his location, promising safety. With the bandaged man just outside, the scientist convinces Héctor to hide inside a large mechanical device. When Héctor leaves the machine, he discovers that he has traveled approximately an hour back in time. The scientist explains that the machine is an experimental
time machine A time machine is a fictional or hypothetical device that allows time travel. Concept A time machine is a device that makes time travel possible. The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' distinguishes between two different types of time ma ...
and refers to Héctor as "Héctor 2". The scientist tells Héctor 2 that they need to stay where they are and let events unfold. Despite the scientist's warning, Héctor 2 drives off in a car, passing a cyclist, who he recognizes as the woman Héctor 1 saw in the forest. Héctor 2 chases the woman, only to be run off the road by a van, cutting his head, which he wraps using the bandage from his arm wound. He then realizes the bandaged man from before is himself. The woman approaches to see if he is all right. Héctor 2 replicates events by making the woman undress in view of Héctor 1. When she runs away, Héctor 2 catches her, inadvertently knocking her out. Héctor 2 lays her out naked on the ground and then stabs Hector 1 in the arm when he arrives. The woman escapes. Héctor 2 returns to his home, where he hears a scream and chases a woman through his house and onto the roof. When Héctor 2 attempts to grab her, she slips and falls to her death. Seeing the body from the roof, Héctor 2 is horrified, believing he has killed his own wife. Héctor 2 contacts the scientist over the walkie-talkie and convinces him to lure Héctor 1 to the lab with warnings that he is being pursued. Driving to the lab, Héctor 2 insists that he must travel back one more time, despite the scientist revealing that there is a Héctor 3, who told him he must stop Héctor 2 from doing just that. After removing his bandages, Héctor 2 convinces the scientist to send him back several seconds before Héctor 2 initially appears. This causes him to become Héctor 3, who uses a van to run Héctor 2 off the road, but crashes as well, knocking himself out. Upon waking, Héctor 3 informs the scientist he has failed to stop Héctor 2. Héctor 3 encounters the woman again, startling her into screaming, though she does not recognize him as her assailant. Since Héctor 2 has heard her scream, Héctor 3 and the woman flee to Héctor's house. They become separated. Héctor 3 finds and hides his wife, then realizes what has to happen / will happen / has already happened. He finds the woman, cuts her ponytail off, gives her his wife's coat and tells her to hide upstairs. Héctor 2 chases her onto the roof. Héctor 3 sits on his lawn with his wife as Héctor 2 accidentally kills the woman, then drives off – heading back to the lab to become Héctor 3. Emergency vehicles are heard approaching in the distance.


Cast

*
Karra Elejalde Carlos Elejalde Garay (born 10 October 1960) better known as Karra Elejalde, is a Spanish actor and occasional filmmaker. Biography Carlos Elejalde Garay was born on 10 October 1960 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He developed his early acting career on i ...
as Héctor ** Juan Inciarte as Occasional Héctor * Candela Fernández as Clara *
Barbara Goenaga Bárbara Goenaga Bilbao (born 20 July 1983) is a Spanish actress from the Basque Country. She was nominated to the Goya Award for Best New Actress for her performance in the 2007 comedy-drama film '' Oviedo Express''. Biography Barbara Goenaga ...
as the woman in the forest *
Nacho Vigalondo Ignacio "Nacho" Vigalondo Palacios (born 6 April 1977) is a Spanish filmmaker. Career Vigalondo's first film was the 2003 Spanish-language short film '' 7:35 in the Morning'', about a suicide bomber who terrorizes a cafe, which was only eight m ...
as the scientist


Inspiration

In the documentary '' Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD'', Nacho Vigalondo credits the comic magazine '' 2000 AD'' as the biggest influence on ''Timecrimes'', particularly the
Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', Swamp Thing (comic book), ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman: The Killing Joke' ...
and
Dave Gibbons David Chester Gibbons (born 14 April 1949) is an English comics artist, writer and sometimes letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries ''Watchmen'' and the Superman story " For the M ...
one-off "Chronocops" from #310 (1983).


Music

The film's score was composed by
Eugenio Mira Eugenio Mira (born 1977) is a Spanish filmmaker and composer. He has been credited as composer in some films under the pseudonym Chucky Namanera. He was born in Castalla, Alicante. After finishing his studies in high school and as a piano player ...
. The film also uses the song " Picture This" by the American
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band Blondie, which director Vigalondo has stated he chose because he "love the arrangement of the song and the chords. It's a happy song, but it's very sad and it's close to the movie".


Release

The film premiered at
Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...
in
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
, on 20 September 2007. It screened as the closing film of the
Sitges Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy film, fantasy, Horror film, horror and Cult film, cult films. Established in 1968, the festiva ...
in October 2007. It had a theatrical release in Spain on 27 June 2008.


Reception


Critical response

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on , with a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Timecrimes'' is a low-budget thriller that's well-crafted and loaded with dark humor and bizarre twists." The film also has a score of 68 out of 100 on
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
based on 15 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews". Jeannette Catsoulis of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' noted the role of female frontal nudity and fast-paced action in making a time-travel film with no special effects. She praised writer/director Nacho Vigalondo's "audacity" in being able to create "urgency and disorientation from the thinnest of air" despite the film's low budget and lack of special effects. Wesley Morris of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' doubted whether ''Timecrimes'' actually makes sense but credited Vigalondo with making clever use of the time machine in order to allay the viewer's skepticism. Referring to the planned remake by director
David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...
, and alluding to Héctor's "human sequels", Morris concluded that ''Timecrimes'' "deserves a doppelganger". In retrospective, A. A. Dowd of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' interprets the film as an allegory about adultery, comparing Héctor's increasingly complex and confusing actions to those of someone lying to hide an affair.


Accolades

, - , rowspan = "4" align = "center" , 2007 , , rowspan = "3" ,
Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...
, , colspan = "2" , Best Picture , , , , rowspan = "3" , , - , colspan = "2" , Gold Medal of Jury Award Competition , , , - , colspan = "2" , Silver Medal of Audience Award Competition , , , - ,
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the regional decentralization entity of Trieste. Trieste is located at the head ...
, , colspan = "2" , Asteroide Award for Best International Sci-fi Feature Film , , , , , - , align =" center" rowspan = "4" , 2009 , , rowspan = "3" , 64th CEC Medals , , Best Original Screenplay , , Nacho Vigalondo , , , , rowspan = "3" , , - , Best Editing , , José Luis Romeu , , , - , Newcomer Award , , Nacho Vigalondo , , , - ,
23rd Goya Awards The 23rd Goya Awards honouring the best in Spanish filmmaking of 2008 were presented on 1 February 2009 at the Madrid's Palacio Municipal de Congresos. The gala was hosted by Carmen Machi, also featuring Muchachada Nui. '' Camino'' was the big w ...
, ,
Best New Director ''Best New Director'' was an award given by the New York Film Critics Circle from its first inception in 1989 until discontinuing in 1996. There was no award in 1993. 1980s 1989 *Kenneth Branagh – ''Henry V'' **Runners-up: Steve Kloves – '' ...
, , Nacho Vigalondo , , , ,


Remake

An English language remake was originally planned to happen with United Artists. However, the project never came into fruition and hit a deadline with no product. In 2011, the project was moved to DreamWorks with
Steve Zaillian Steven Ernest Bernard Zaillian (born January 30, 1953) is an Armenian-American screenwriter, film director and producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for his screenplay ''Schindler's List'' (1993) and has earne ...
planning to write and produce.


See also

*
List of Spanish films of 2008 A list of Cinema of Spain, Spanish-produced and co-produced feature films released in Spain in 2008. When applicable, the domestic theatrical release date is favoured. Films Box office The ten highest-grossing Spanish films in 2008, by ...
*
Temporal paradox A temporal paradox, time paradox, or time travel paradox, is a paradox, an apparent contradiction, or logical contradiction associated with the idea of time travel or other foreknowledge of the future. While the notion of time travel to the futu ...
* Causality


References


External links

* * * * {{Nacho Vigalondo 2007 films Spanish science fiction thriller films 2000s mystery films 2007 science fiction films 2007 crime thriller films Films set in 2006 Films set in Spain Supernatural thriller films 2000s films about time travel 2000s Spanish-language films Films directed by Nacho Vigalondo 2000s science fiction films Films about time travel 2000s thriller films