San Sebastian: God, You Need a Bloody Mary

Friday, September 21, 2007

by Maria Alvarez Rilla and Emilio Mayorga

An increasingly larger than life Antonio Saura (producer of “Fados") and new indie producer Javier Mart Domínguez, once one of the sharpest minds at TVE, celebrate San Sebastian’s first Bloody Mary agreement, signed 12 hours later at the Maria Cristina bar.

Argentina’s Film Institute INCAA’s Bernardo Bergeret, Miguel Angel Ivaldi and Alberto Urthiague. They are not missing the mate tea tonight. Benoit Ginisty, from Paris-based Fiapf producers org, Jesús Robles, from Spanish film book publisher Ocho y Medio and director Pablo Fendrik team up.

Deputy Director General of Promotion and International Affairs Pilar Torre and exec Rosario Alburquerque of Spain’s ICAA Film Institute: partying authorities.

San Sebastian’s opening gala party, Thursday, September 20, in the Maria Cristina Hotel, the festival’s social center. You can tell it’s the opening party just by looking at the photos. Everybody looks so young. Ten days later, many of the people here will look as if they’ve just served ten years of solitary confinement on Mars.

Variety’s decided to run an occasional section, blogging parties. Parties are one of the lifebloods of this festival, of Spain. In hell, the Spanish don’t get to give the parties.

The opening gala bash was essentially a huge networking occasion. Food: gazpacho, the inevitable croquettes, melon soup. Drink: Marques de Caceres Rioja, Catalan cava. Rating: three-and-a-half out of five Bloody Marys. Or four if the guests were foreign. “This was a wonderful party with charming people, and a good spread,” said guest Trini Rubio, who lives in England.

“It’s just amazing how everything at San Sebastian runs like clockwork,” said another foreign chain-festivaling exec, fresh (it’s an expression) from Venice.

Of course we old San Seb lags get blaisé about this fiesta-fiesta round.

For the record, the alcohol ran out and the lights went down at 2.30a.m. That's very early for Spain. Some distinguished Spanish producers roistered on to other bars. They came, they saw, they (probably) got slaughtered.