SOPHIE’S CHOICE had been mentioned in overheard conversations at the 2nd Annual TCM Classic Film Festival more than any other film. It didn’t screen, but rather was used to convey a sense of the impossible choices attendees were asked to make as the packed schedule consistently clashed at least four “must-see” classics in similar time slots. Where else could you hear people contemplating between seeing Angela Lansbury introducing GASLIGHT or Richard Roundtree introducing SHAFT? Do you choose Kirk Douglas over Roger Corman? Is that even fair to ask? These four pack-full days of screenings provided enough cinephilic dilemmas to last at least until next year.

Day one (Thursday) of the festival kicked off with a gala screening of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS at Grauman’s Chinese, quite possibly the most iconic film theater in the U.S. And how nice it was to see figures such as Leslie Caron, Peter O’Toole, Eva Marie Saint, Mickey Rooney, Jane Powell, and so many others walk the same red carpet they must once have been so familiar with.

My own journey didn’t start in PARIS but in a small seaside village. Somehow, despite my adoration of Gene Tierney, I managed to never before see THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, which screened as part of the festival’s tribute to composer Bernard Herrmann (and introduced by his daughter). FIR’s Editor, Roy Frumkes, warned me about the emotional charge of this unlikely story about a young widow who falls in love with the ghost of a sea captain (Rex Harrison). Sure enough, it could squeeze tears out of a rock. Tierney’s features, without a doubt, were carved by the gods to flicker at 24-frames per second.

Joseph von Sternberg’s THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN screened next, starring Marlene Dietrich as a seemingly unredeemable woman who causes a rift between two friends, a Spanish officer (Lionel Atwill) and an outlaw rebel (Cesar Romero). A story reminiscent of Clarence Brown’s 1925 Garbo-starrer, FLESH AND THE DEVIL, and of one of its most memorable lines: “When the Devil can’t reach us through the spirit, he creates a woman beautiful enough to reach us through the flesh.”

The Spanish government found THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN highly offensive and demanded Paramount take it out of circulation. The studio, in return, destroyed the original negative. Luckily for film viewers, it was Dietrich’s favorite film of herself and she kept a print in her safe, which is the source of the copies available today. The jaw-dropping new restoration by the MOMA accentuated the richness and unrestrained sensuality of this masterpiece.

Friday (Day two) started with THE CONSTANT NYMPH, a 1943 Edmund Goulding film starring Joan Fontaine and Charles Boyer. TCM’s host, Robert Osborne, introduced the special screening, noting that due to copyright issues it hasn’t been properly seen since its original release. Osborne was particularly excited about THE CONSTANT NYMPH since TCM has been trying to clear the rights to show it for the past 18 years. It was worth the wait. Fontaine received an Oscar nomination for her role as Tessa, an unhealthy fourteen year-old country girl, hopelessly in love with the much older composer, Lewis Dodd (Boyer). Goulding perfectly balances the melodrama with light-hearted touches. Fontaine’s performance may be one of her best. TCM has yet to announce their premiere date for THE CONSTANT NYMPH, but when they do, set your DVR’s.

Barbara Rush was in attendance to introduce Nick Ray’s 1956 Technicolor melodrama, BIGGER THAN LIFE, the REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE of prescription drug abuse films. James Mason stars as a man diagnosed with a rare condition that leaves him with months to live. His only hope is an experimental cortisone treatment that saves his life but also makes him psychotic. Rush co-stars as his wife. BIGGER THAN LIFE is out on Blu-Ray by Criterion, and while their transfer is supreme (and highly recommended), nothing compares to the real thing. Few directors besides Ray and Douglas Sirk were able to extract such darkness out of the saturation and brightness of the Technicolor process, although Ray’s composition and use of color seems less sentimental and more sinister. Mason, who also produced the film, storms through it with terrifying conviction. Not surprisingly, this intense drama did not find much success upon its initial release, but nevertheless, it is a well-deserved rediscovered classic.

I had to cut Friday short due to a personal engagement. That meant coming to terms with missing, among others, Roger Corman in attendance for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, Kirk Douglas at SPARTACUS, Mickey Rooney at GIRL CRAZY, a restoration of William Wyler’s great film (and one of Walter Huston’s best performances), DODSWORTH, and one of my most anticipated events, Kevin Brownlow (possibly the greatest living film historian) introducing Erich von Stroheim’s THE MERRY WIDOW.

Saturday (Day 3) found me standing in a line stretching around the block for a 9am screening of Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN at The Egyptian, Sid Grauman’s first Hollywood theater (1922). Angela Allen, the script supervisor who worked on the film, stayed for a post-screening discussion. And while the sun never rises too early for a touch of Orson Welles, my heart wasn’t with one of the greatest Noirs ever made. I anxiously awaited the following event, a 50th anniversary screening of THE PARENT TRAP, with Hayley Mills in attendance.

If one film bears responsibility for my falling in love with cinema, it is THE PARENT TRAP. Despite watching it countless times since it originally captured me on VHS as a kid, every repeat viewing carries the emotional impact of the first time. TCM programmed it as the centerpiece of a tribute to Hayley Mills that also included SUMMER MAGIC and WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND. In 1960, Mills received the final (out of 11) Juvenile Awards ever given by the Academy, for POLLYANNA, her first American role. How fitting that her win book-ended an award that originated for Shirley Temple in 1934.

A video tribute to Mills played before the screening, followed by a conversation moderated by Leonard Maltin. She still possesses the same charismatic youthful charm that made her a star to begin with. Mills entranced the audience in person as much as immediately after when the beautifully saturated print projected on the screen. THE PARENT TRAP holds up as the quintessential Disney film. On a personal level, it may have been the most meaningful experience I had in a cinema.

From The Egyptian I headed to The Chinese to see the new digital restoration of CITIZEN KANE. A second dose of Welles. The screening followed a lively conversation between TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz (grandson of KANE’s screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz) and Norman Lloyd, a member of Welles’s original Mercury Players. The digital print, which some may find satisfying, seemed offensively sharp to me. In fact, the fake opening documentary sequence almost looked like HD footage masked by digital effects, to make it “look like film”. These films were never meant to look so sharp, and having the power to tweak them doesn’t mean we should abuse it. But, that said, CITIZEN KANE sucks you in. Sharp or soft, it would be a cinematic tour de force even as a slideshow.

Bruce Goldstein of the Film Forum in New York produced several special events for the festival. The first, a day earlier, a screening of William Castle’s THE TINGLER, theatrics included, that ran at the Forum a few months back. On Saturday he organized a screening of Buster Keaton’s THE CAMERAMAN at The Egyptian, with live musical accompaniment by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. Giordano’s orchestra channeled the period’s musical style in an educated, authentic, and enticing fashion. In that old-Hollywood theater, the year was 1928 again. And like wine from a particularly good year, when it comes to film, it rarely gets better than ’28.

In need of more light-hearted fare after almost 12-hours in film theaters, I opted for SHAFT over GASLIGHT. A screening that punctuates the incredible diversity of films TCM chose to feature. Film historian Donald Bogle, and Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree, introduced the action classic.

The 10am screening of NIGHT FLIGHT (1933) on Day 4 (Sunday) had been completely packed by 9:20, with only a few lone seats to be snagged by scavengers. Introducing the film, Robert Osborne mentioned it to be the screening he was most excited about alongside THE CONSTANT NYMPH. Another rarely seen picture, it has been out of circulation since 1942. Produced by Darryl Zanuck and directed by Clarence Brown, it featured an all-star cast including John and Lionel Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery. According to Osborne NIGHT FLIGHT had been planned to be an ensemble film in the vein of GRAND HOTEL, following the story of airmail pilots on a dangerous night flight mission. Seems odd that with so many power players NIGHT FLIGHT remains obscure, but beyond its historical significance and competent cinematography it remains a lackluster affair. A paper-thin storyline and uninspired performances prevent it from truly engaging the viewer. A post-screening conversation took place between Osborne and Drew Barrymore, in which she enthusiastically spoke about her legendary family tree and their works.

Next up, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND. More Hayley Mills. A 1961 British production directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Richard Attenborough. Based on a novel by Mills’s mother, Mary Hayley Bell, the story revolves around three children who discover an escaped murderer (Alan Bates) in their family barn and mistake him for Jesus Christ. Mills’s maturity as an actress, even at a young age, could be seen by her unconventional choice of roles. Making a film like WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, a wonderfully contemplative, melancholic coming-of-age tale, in the same year as THE PARENT TRAP. Or in 1966, starring in both THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS as somewhat of a continuation of her Disney characters, and THE FAMILY WAY in England, which explored womanhood and sex. Mills stayed for a lengthy Q&A post-screening. She mentioned that her father, John Mills, originally wanted to direct WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, but dropped out. Interesting, considering he directed the very similar SKY WEST AND CROOKED in 1966, also starring Mills and written by her mother.

Given that the festival paid tribute to both Mills and Bernard Herrmann, I wished for a screening of TWISTED NERVE, a terrific horror film with her in the lead and the Hermann score made famous by Tarantino’s KILL BILL.

Later on Sunday, Bruce Goldstein hosted a tribute to the Nicholas Brothers, an African-American dance duo who were greatly admired by the likes of Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Michael Jackson, and countless others. Goldstein narrated a selection of clips from films that featured Harold and Fayard Nicholas, such as DOWN ARGENTINE WAY and THE PIRATE, alongside TV appearances, rare film footage shot by the brothers, and interview clips from a 1992 documentary he made about them. Their dance routines were so exhilarating that the audience burst into applause after every single clip, as if we were privy to a live performance. Robert Townsend, director of HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE, was in attendance, as well as the brothers’ families, which made the presentation all the more touching. Goldstein finished by playing an encore of the “staircase” routine from STORMY WEATHER, a piece Astaire called the greatest musical sequence ever.

The Nicholas Brothers in Action

Sunday ended with a newly restored print of Mike Nichols’ WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, with cinematographer Haskell Wexler in attendance. Wexler confided prior to the screening that he originally refused to shoot VIRGINIA WOOLF due to a previous commitment. Jack Warner finally convinced him, assuring him that if he didn’t shoot the film he would never work in Hollywood again. A good choice considering it won him his first Academy Award. VIRGINIA WOOLF, for all its great performances, is elevated from a theater play to cinematic beauty thanks primarily to Wexler’s cinematography. He consistently finds movement in static situations, extracting it directly from the emotional state of the characters. The print restoration, which he supervised, looked magnificent.

When the Academy quietly pulled the lifetime achievement awards from its televised award ceremony, it seemed like the American film industry had finally rid its conscience of its history. Even film festivals in the U.S. rarely juxtapose the current state of cinema with its heritage. A successful future cannot exist without a consideration of the past. The unique way in which the TCM Classic Film Festival celebrates these classics as if they were the hottest films of the moment balances this “out with the old” approach, making it, at least spiritually, the most important film festival in the United States.

From March 28th — 31st, 2011 the worldwide motion picture theatre industry convention was held at Caesars Palace. It was the inaugural of CinemaCon, the official convention of NATO (North American Theater Owners). CinemaCon is the largest and most important annual gathering of cinema owners and operators from around the world. It was swarmed with movie stars and premieres. And I got to interview all of them except last year’s fantasy jump-off, Russell Brant, who only did select one-on-one press.

How important is CinemaCon? James Cameron and George Lucas hosted a luncheon and the next morning Cameron showcased the new coming era of movies. CinemaCon made one thing perfectly clear: Soon all movies will be filmed in 3D.

CinemaCon 2011 hosted over 6,000 industry professionals, all on hand for the screenings (held in the 4,082 seat Caesars Palace Colosseum (known as the Celine Dion theater), the ballroom luncheons and the parties.

CinemaCon attendance does not come cheap and the sponsors recognized their responsibility to put on a great convention. The International Package was $895 for members and $1,095 for non-members. The Domestic Package was $795 for members and $995 for non-members. There were also other packages for only the Trade Show & Seminars and a Trade Show Pass.

The CinemaCon Trade Show featured the largest the latest, most important and innovative technological advances in theatre equipment, and concluding the week, The Coca-Cola Company hosted to the Annual CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement.

Monday & Tuesday’s Schedule of Events. Monday’s highlight was the 6-9pm World Premiere Event, “CinemaCon 2011- Celebrating the Moviegoing Experience” featuring an exclusive sneak preview of select upcoming releases presented by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Animation and Marvel Studios. We saw generous clips of Thor (with the hottest guy on the planet, Chris Hemsworth, introducing the clip), CAPTAIN AMERICA, KUNG FU PANDA 2 (Jack Black introduced the clip) and PUSS N’ BOOTS.

Thor looks fabulous and so does PUSS N’ BOOTS.

Then we went off to the CinemaCon Kick-Off Party, where the food and drinks flowed, the dancing started, and we had photos taken placing ourselves on movie posters. We went back for second photos!

CinemaCon also held Off-Premise Evening Activities Schedule, CinemaCon 2011 Presents: An Evening of Independent and Specialty Film at the Rave Motion Pictures’ Town Square 18 Theatre (with continuous shuttle bus service from 6:00pm to 12:30am). Delegates are invited to attend screenings at both 8:00pm and 10:15pm with each film offered being shown twice.

Films screened were THUNDER SOUL—Roadside Attractions, THE FIRST GRADER—National Geographic Films, PAGE ONE: A YEAR INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES—Magnolia Films and THE FOO FIGHTERS: BACK AND FORTH—Cinedigm Entertainment Group.

Wednesday & Thursday’s Schedule of Events. Wednesday began as usual with a continental breakfast (from 7:30am to 8:30am) followed by trade seminars. There was lunch available each day for all the delegates, but an invitation-only luncheon and panel discussion was held from 12:30pm to 2:15pm. The Octavius Ballroom quickly filled up for a chicken lunch followed by a fantastic panel discussion with James Cameron, George Lucas and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Cameron and Lucas were incredibly articulate using imaginative key phrases to bring their drum-rolled vision to the delegates. The entire convention’s theme was bigger, better movies presented in a theater – not on an iPhone, iPad, mini DVD player, or on-Demand TV. And, with Cameron’s conversion of Titanic to 3D and Lucas’s third tinkering of STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 – THE PHANTOM MENACE to 3D theaters in 2012, both filmmakers proclaimed that in the future everything will be filmed in 3D.

The Force will be in 3-D. Lucas did mention that Time magazine criticized his re-doing STAR WARS again. (He intends to re-do all 6 STAR WARS movies in 3D.) Lucas justified it by saying that there is an entire generation who never saw STAR WARS in a theater (or, in other words, a new generation that will pay the 3D ticket price).

Cameron and Lucas did acknowledge that lousy 2D to 3D conversion is ruining the 3D process in theatergoer’s minds. They intend to change that. Lucas referenced a company called Prime Focus a few times. Prime Focus is Lucasfilm’s new partner recruited to help them bring STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 – THE PHANTOM MENACE to 3D theaters. Prime Focus is the world’s leading 2D-to-3D conversion company, giving moviemakers the power to produce high quality stereoscopic 3D films from a 2D source. Let’s hope so. Right now, conversion from 2D to 3D looks awful, and audiences can tell the difference.

There were several teasers of movies including J EDGAR by Clint Eastwood, THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE (starring Dominic Cooper as Uday Hussein and his body double), Abduction (starring CinemaCon’s anointed mega-star Taylor Lautner) and a clip of CONAN THE BARBARIAN introduced by star Jason Momoa.

Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, director J.J. Abrams and Paramount debuted 20 minutes of footage from their upcoming film, SUPER 8. Abrams introduced the film telling the audience about his relationship with Spielberg and bringing him the idea for Super 8 (obviously banking on Spielberg’s beginnings as a child with a Super 8 movie camera). It is abundantly clear that Abrams wanted to make a memorial to Spielberg. All the shots are identical to the Spielberg template and re-create famous shots from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, JAWS, E.T. and GREMLINS. Does Spielberg really need this kind of adulation? Will there be a Marty McFly in SUPER 8?

After lunch, we went to the Sony Pictures Special Award Presentation and Screening. Drew Barrymore surprised the audience by turning up to introduce her CHARLIE’S ANGELS co-star, Female Star of the Year, Cameron Diaz. Diaz introduced a clip from her new movie BAD TEACHER.

Next year, I’m bringing binoculars.

The lobby of the Colosseum was transformed into a zoo for the screening of Kevin James’ movie ZOOKEEPER.

Wednesday evening was the 2011 Pioneer of the Year Dinner with Tim Allen as the Master of Ceremonies. At 10:30pm Sony Pictures Classics invited delegates to a screening of POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD by filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.

What a full day and night! I was exhausted, especially since the Caesars Palace Convention Empire is so big. I must have walked 10 miles.

CinemaCon also addressed the hot, testy topic of VOD (video-on-demand). Studios and cable operators for months have been exploring deals to make films available on VOD systems just four to six weeks after they hit theaters, and at premium prices. Theater owners have consistently balked at such proposals, saying they threaten to undermine their businesses by encouraging potential theatergoers to stay home and watch movies on small screens without grand sound systems. Yeah, we want this at premium prices?

CinemaCon – Thursday. The morning program began with a 7:15am continental breakfast in the lobby of The Colosseum following a very special morning program hosted by James Cameron. Called “James Cameron Talks Frame Rates: A Demonstration and Exclusive Look at the Future of Digital Cinema”. Cameron revealed that he wants to be shooting the AVATAR sequels utilizing a faster 48 or 60 frame rate for the movies explaining, “When you author and project a movie at 48 or 60, it becomes a different movie. The 3D shows you a window into reality; the higher frame rate takes the glass out of the window. In fact, it is just reality. It is really stunning.”

He also said that George Lucas and Peter Jackson are big boosters of the higher frame rates. Jackson even initially intended to film “The Hobbit” at 48 frames, before deciding it was impractical, Cameron told the crowd. To show off the improved quality of higher frame rates, Cameron screened a test reel of medieval scenes shot at the various speeds. The effect was startling. At the standard 24 frames, many foreground objects and the actors’ hands blurred whenever the camera panned quickly. At the higher rates of speed, the shakiness vanished.

After the impressive demonstration, there was a 10am screening of Lionsgate film WARRIOR starring INCEPTION co-star and Bronson star, Tom Hardy, and Joel Edgerton from ANIMAL KINGDOM. Hardy and Edgerton play estranged brothers who took different roads in escaping from their alcoholic father, played by Nick Nolte. This is going to be an important Academy Award winning role film for Nolte.

The invitation-only closing day lunch, held at the Octavius Ballroom, was sponsored by Lionsgate with a special presentation of the XpanD 3D system. Yes, this was very impressive and I loved the fancy, couture-inspired 3D glasses. Our gift bag included 2 Blu-rays from Lionsgate! Mine were BURIED starring Ryan Reynolds and Tyler Perry’s FOR COLORED GIRLS. The honoree of CinemaCon’s Visionary Award was Tyler Perry, who, I thought, was going to float in on a cloud after the speeches hailing him as the savior of theater owners.

From 2:30 to 4pm, the Colosseum was taken over by Warner Bros. Pictures previews of THE GREEN LANTERN (introduced by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively), HORRIBLE BOSSES (Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Jason Batemen introducing the clip), HARRY POTTER AND DEATHLY HALLOWS 2 (with producers David Heyman and David Varron introducing the clip) and THE HANGOVER PART 2 (introduced by director Todd Phillips).

At 4pm, some of the press went to Caesars Pure nightclub where the red carpet was being held. Those cameramen were yelling. A few of us then went to the back room where the CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards winners came to answer a few questions and have their photos taken with our little cameras.

What a thrill to see all the honorees up close answering questions and being charming. But where was Russell Brand? I’m mad at him now. And I read his book, Booky Wooky!

But leave it to one of the press to make Tyler Perry very, very visibly mad! It stopped the love! The question proposed was essentially – “…how does he feel about being called a modern-day Stepin Fetchit?” So what does that reference mean? I did the research.

Stepin Fetchit (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985) was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Perry (pictured). Perry parlayed the Fetchit persona into a successful film career, eventually becoming a millionaire, the first black actor in history to do so. Perry’s typical film persona and stage name have long been controversial, and seen as illustrative of negative stereotypes of African-Americans.
Well, Tyler Perry’s media empire may be criticized by some as a “minstrel show factory”, but Perry is running a successful show business conglomerate with films, DVDs, sold-out road shows, a tbs sitcom, a bestselling book and, on the Internet, The Tyler Perry Show. And Perry will appear in his first film by someone else: J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek prequel, as the head of the Starfleet Academy.

The Final Night Events was hosted by “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush. The awards were: CinemaCon Hall of Fame Award: The “Harry Potter” Film Franchise; Breakthrough Performer of the Year: Blake Lively; Action Star of the Year: Vin Diesel (pictured); Female Star of Tomorrow: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley; Male Star of Tomorrow: Chris Hemsworth; Comedy Star of the Year: Russell Brand; Career Achievement Award: Helen Mirren; Male Rising Star of 2011: Jason Momoa; Female Rising Star of 2011: Julianne Hough; Male Star of the Year: Ryan Reynolds; CinemaCon Visionary Award: Tyler Perry; Sprite Refreshing Films Celebrity Natasha Bedingfield. With the exception of Brand, all of the stars honored came to the press room.

At 9pm began the Gala Final Night Party and it was fabulous – just like the Las Vegas parties pre-economic collapse. Natasha Bedingfield performed and the food was exceptional.

In fact, the entire CinemaCon was fantastic. www.cinemacon.com

Additional coverage and photographs by John Bradfield.

The 11th Annual CineVegas Film Festival

The 11th annual CineVegas Film Festival, held in Las Vegas, opened with SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS starring Steve Buscemi. I saw 15 CineVegas movies in 5 days (plus THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123), saw three genuine movie stars, chatted up Willem Dafoe at the screening of PALERMO SHOOTING (he didn’t have a choice. I realized he was sitting 2 empty seats away from me when I started loudly gossiping with another film critic. She kept making that gesture that says ‘look who’s next to you and shut up’! I took the opportunity to praise him and complain about his CineVegas interviewer – more about this forthwith. He was very gracious and I think he may have agreed with me), did one interview with the director of EASIER WITH PRACTICE (Winner of the Grand Jury Prize), and discovered the new star of comedies, Gavin McInnes, starring in the short film, ASSHOLE, that preceded HUMPDAY.

The Opening Night Party was held at Prive inside Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. Nightclubs are so dark you have to bring a flashlight with you. I wore a miner’s headlight. Going to the bathroom in pitch darkness and heels requires hazard pay.

SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS celebrates a degenerate gambler and the menagerie of characters that color the Las Vegas landscape. Somewhere in Las Vegas one can find wheelchair-bound strippers, men perpetually on fire, and arrogant midget bosses. Peter Dinklage can do no wrong! I even liked him in ‘Nip/Tuck’ as Julia’s love interest. SAINT JOHN’S co-star Sarah Silverman walked the red carpet. Didn’t you love her YouTude sensation, “I’m F**king Matt Damon”?. “I’m F**king Matt Damon” was her special gift to her boyfriend, ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel, celebrating their 5 year anniversary. Kimmel than countered with his own video, “I’m F**king Ben Affleck”.

They broke up soon after. It has been rumored that maybe they are back together again.

Thursday I saw MOON and the documentary BEAUTIFUL DARLING. I knew Candy Darling, the subject of writer-director James Rasin’s documentary. MOON is directed by Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie. However, this is totally immaterial. I’m against nepotism (and I’m talking to you, Scott Caan and Rumer Willis) when it forces untalented relatives down our throats. Duncan Jones can stand on his own.

MOON stars Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, an astronaut working for a corporation on the far side of the moon. His three-year contract is about to expire. He is going home to his wife and daughter. Sam is alone maintaining a lunar facility and the automated machines which are harvesting the moon’s surface for Helium 3. The harvested material is then sent back to Earth to use as energy. Sam’s only companion is the ship’s HAL (voiced by Kevin Spacey).

An accident on the Moon changes everything for Sam and the story is very compelling and interesting. Rockwell is terrific and this is a must-see film.

“Why would you give up the winning hand?” Fran Lebowitz

Isn’t Fran Lebowitz terrific? Lebowitz cleverly summed up her opinion regarding men who want to radically change themselves into women. James Slattery transformed himself into Candy Darling, becoming one of Andy Warhol’s Factory stars. She died at 29 years of age. Jeremiah Newton knew James and when Candy died he retained all her diaries and much archival footage. A childhood friend, Michael J. Newman, lovingly financed BEAUTIFUL DARLING. I had a long talk with Michael, the Executive Producer of the film, and he is rightly very proud of the film. It is a wonderful, insightful documentary with extraordinary footage. I knew Candy well and always saw Candy as a woman.

On Friday I saw DAYLIGHT, ALL IN: THE POKER MOVIE and EASIER WITH PRACTICE.

I loved DAYLIGHT (everyone I talked to did). It was one of the highlights of the festival. Married couple Irene and Daniel are expecting their first child in a few weeks. Even though they are driving a Maserati sports car (the 2009 model begins at $128,000) they stop and pick up a hitchhiker! The hitchhiker puts a knife to Irene’s throat and makes Daniel drive to an elegant house. There they are victimized by three terrifying murderers. Irene’s, and especially Daniel’s, passivity only heightens the tension. It also shows what not to do when in this situation. Highly effective, frightening and ultimately satisfying, this is one of two movies I would see again. The other is BRONSON.

The best thing about the highly entertaining ALL IN: THE POKER MOVIE is how sharp and witty the poker stars were. Poker champions thought it was really funny that people want to consider poker players athletes. As one champion poker player said, “Poker players push chips across a table. How is that a sport?”

EASIER WITH PRACTICE. Everyone had an opinion about EASIER WITH PRACTICE. The entire cast was there including Davy Rothbart, whose GQ article (“What Are You Wearing?”) was the basis for the movie. Davy Mitchell (Brian Geraghty) is a lonely guy uncomfortable in his skin. On a road trip for his self-published book with his brother, he takes a call while in a hotel room. It’s a girl named Nicole, who engages him in highly satisfying phone sex. In fact, Nicole calls Davy all the time having phone sex.

Eventually, Davy wants to meet Nicole.

I enjoyed talking with the writer-director Kyle Patrick Alvarez and pointedly asked him, “Did you really believe Davy Rothbart?” Because I certainly did not. Davy was not being played by Nicole. And this is why EASIER WITH PRACTICE was one of the more successful films of the festival. Everyone had an opinion that they wanted to discuss. Also, as a director, Alvarez gave the material a poignancy that many other comedies try to achieve. That is not easy.

I remember reading about a housebound woman who spent months talking to Robert DeNiro and other stars on a daily basis. They started to confide in her! And she was a fraud, but she was, apparently, an interesting conversationalist! Or, DeNiro was lonely.

On Saturday I saw GODSPEED, HUMPDAY and one of my CineVegas favorites, the short ASSHOLE. Gavin McInnes (pictured) will be a star stepping into the spot made vacant by Will Ferrell. Of course, Will could always re-team with his Funny or Die co-star, Pearl McKay.

I heard Pearl retired after her triumph in THE LANDLORD. But, given the right perks and contract, she might reconsider a comeback.

All I have to say about HUMPDAY is: They blew the ending!

GODSPEED was directed & written by Robert Saitzyk. It is a thriller set in Alaska. Charlie Shepard (Joseph McKelheer) is a modern-day faith healer who ekes out a blue-collar existence from his “healing” sessions to support his wife and young son. But just as his business starts to fail and an old drinking habit comes back to haunt him his family is brutally murdered by unknown assailants for seemingly no reason.

Six months later, Charlie has abandoned his former life and meets a young girl named Sarah (Courtney Halverson) who has come looking for him. She asks him to go with her to heal her ailing father. Charlie goes but never meets her father, instead, he finds out who killed his family. McKelheer’s gives a riveting and layered performance.

Sunday was my marathon. I saw YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN, the indulgent MERCY, ASYLUM SEEKERS, Willem Dafoe’s first starring role in THE LOVELESS, and the 11PM screening of the fantastic BRONSON. After Vanguard Actor Award recipient Willem Dafoe’s shortened discussion with Elvis Mitchell (Jon Voight used up Dafoe’s allotted time making a political speech), I went to see John Travolta gleefully enjoying himself in THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123. I hated the ending. Elegant planning and then a silly, contrived ending! Sometimes people get away with crime. Just look at the Madoff sons, Mark and Andrew! And what about Bernie’s wife Ruth? In my opinion she was squirreling away millions for decades (unbeknownst to Bernie) getting her own sweet revenge against evil, philandering Bernie. Serial killers wives always know. Ruth Madoff knew.

YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN. When the documentarian puts themselves in the movie, they should follow the example of Michael Moore and YOUTH’S director Mitch McCabe. Bill Mahler’s self-importance and exalted self-image ruined RELIGULOUS. But, everyone wants to be in movies, right?

Rule Number 1: You never mock your subjects. You put them in the best light and allow them to make fools of themselves. Never judge your subjects.

Mitch McCabe is 38 years old and the daughter of a plastic surgeon. (McCabe was at CineVegas and is lovely.) She’s the real star of YOUTH. However, in YOUTH she lets her disinterest in her own beauty create a charming presence. She does not insult any of her subjects. She likes them. And, McCabe freely admits, divulging into the subject of plastic surgery made her begin to see wrinkles and jowls she never noticed on herself.

Her father never let her think there was anything wrong with her!

All I will say on the subject is this: When I went on a cruise to Antarctica I saw what women look like who have never even put a cream on their faces. It’s terrifying. I hope to follow in Joan Rivers’ footsteps when I am 80 years old.

One plastic surgery maven bluntly told her: “Face it. You let yourself go.”

MERCY. Scott Caan wrote the script, stars, and produced MERCY. He wrote a father-son confrontation scene. The cast was at CineVegas and graciously did a Q&A after the screening I attended. Caan plays a very successful novelist who has lots of Hollywood celebrity friends. He’s a player! But he does not know how to love! He’s a sexy beast too! He starts seeing a journalist named Mercy, who is dangerously thin and a blank slate. He falls hard for her, but why? There is nothing interesting about her. Mercy is not an object of desire.

As a screenwriter, Caan is only interested in showcasing himself as a leading man. This is Caan’s audition reel. Why cast actors and actresses who show how tiny Caan is? MERCY fails as a story because we don’t care about Mercy.

The cast walked up to the front of the theater for a Q&A. Only veteran movie star James Caan positioned himself at the end of the line, thus placing himself in the spotlight. Everyone else was standing in the dark. That’s the sign of a real star!

We waited on line for well over an hour to be seated for the Discussion with Willem Dafoe. The interviewed was conducted by self-icon Elvis Mitchell who was more interested in solidifying his friendship with a movie star instead of interviewing him for the audience. I find Mitchell embarrassingly pretentious. What the hell was he talking about? Something to do with the philosophical meaning of Dafoe’s choices? Mitchell offered that Dafoe’s roles all had to do with “fear”. Huh? Didn’t Mitchell ever see TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.?

Dafoe has had an amazing and varied career! Imagine what we could have learned about his working with Oliver Stone in PLATOON, starring opposite Madonna in BODY OF EVIDENCE and becoming The Green Goblin! Though Dafoe kept mentioning his latest film, Lars von Trier’s ANTICHRIST, Mitchell wasn’t interested. Well, I was!

One of the most daring movies, and one of my all-time favorites, is von Trier’s BREAKING THE WAVES. He is a notorious tough director. After a toxic working relationship with him on DANCER IN THE DARK, Bjork vowed she would never act in films again. And von Trier had an infamous three-hour screaming match with Nicole Kidman when they were making DOGVILLE. Kidman later pledged, in front of hundreds of journalists, to extend the film into a trilogy. Then Kidman backed out.

Mitchell never even asked Dafoe, ‘Who is your co-star in ANTICHRIST?’

What was it like for Dafoe to work with von Trier? Don’t know. What about the controversy surrounding the explicit scenes of violence, including genital mutilation in ANTICHRIST? Don’t know. Dafoe asked us to give the movie a chance. Mitchell wanted to talk about the last time they met.

Since Marquee Award recipient Jon Voight’s political monologue ran long during his Conversation With Elvis Mitchell, Dafoe did not answer any questions from the audience and was given only a half hour.

Trier was raised by nudist Jewish Communist parents who did not allow much room in their household for “feelings, religion, or enjoyment,” as von Trier later said. His mother revealed on her deathbed in 1995 that the man he thought was his father was not. After an initial meeting with his real father, his real father refused to speak to him. After these revelations von Trier rebelled against his past and converted to Catholicism.

In the brief time he had, Dafoe spoke not to Mitchell but directly to the audience. His charm was evident. He appeared humble, gentle, and honest. But what he thinks about Oliver Stone, I have no clue. When I told Dafoe how sexy and devastatingly handsome he was in THE LOVELESS, he said, “So you want to know what happened to me, right?”

I wasn’t bold enough to tell Dafoe that his very high cheekbones and pronounced brow ridge are acknowledged as signs of extremely high testosterone thus telegraphing a sense of pleasure in danger (i.e., naturally aggressive) and a signal of high sexuality.

I study genetics on weekends.

An aside to pompous Inside the Actors Studio’s James Lipton: pompous Elvis Mitchell is nipping at your heels and eying your job. He doesn’t need index cards and he knows every movie star personally!

BRONSON. “My name’s Charles Bronson…and all my life I’ve wanted to be famous”. BRONSON is the story of the U.K.’s most famous and notorious prisoner, originally born Michael Gordon Peterson. He renamed himself Charlie Bronson and has spent 34 years in prison – for minor crimes. He has spent 30 years in solitary confinement!

Tom Hardy as Bronson is spectacular and spellbinding. Hardy consulted with Bronson prior to filming and not only transformed himself physically into Bronson but has taken from the man his joy and lust for violence.

Bronson makes no apologies.

If you thought Viggo Mortensen’s notorious six-minute nude fight scene in EASTERN PROMISES was daring, BRONSON now takes pride of place. There is no fancy camera work here. Charlie, in true gladiator fashion, strips off all his clothes to fight with multiple guards hurling clubs several times while in various prisons. He gives speeches in full frontal nudity.

This film is highly original and is one of the three films I keep thinking about. CineVegas was lucky to be able to show BRONSON. Unfortunately, it was screened only once at 11PM.

Monday was my sacrifice to the God of Cinema. I sat through THE HEADLESS WOMAN and PALERMO SHOOTING. Wim Wenders, the director of PALERMO SHOOTING, is finished. He either has a house in Palermo he rented out for the shoot or wanted an Italian vacation. PALERMO SHOOTING is about a very wealthy, lionized photographer, Finn, who survives a minor car accident. Selfish, self-indulgent Finn (Campino) is traumatized and starts thinking about his mortality. He gets to meet Death (Dennis Hopper). Unfortunately, Finn doesn’t die. (Death doesn’t want him. He’s a crybaby and a bore.) PALERMO SHOOTING was matched with the equally terrible THE HEADLESS WOMAN. (Willem Dafoe sat through both with his son!)

No one knows what THE HEADLESS WOMAN was about. I asked.

And finally, I ended the festival with ADAM starring Hugh Dancy as young man with Asperger’s Syndrome.

While watching ADAM I couldn’t stop thinking about the sage advice from TROPIC OF THUNDER’S Kirk Lazarus (pictured): “Everybody knows you never go full retard.”

Adam doesn’t go full retard.

WELCOME TO THE BREAKFAST SHOW!

Dreams have always been a mystery to me. Sometimes I felt like they were private screenings that no one would ever watch outside of myself, deep in sleep. During most of 1983 I helped to research the sequel to Kenneth Anger’s infamous HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, to be titled (what else?) HOLLYWOOD BABYLON II. This endeavor would create many dreams, some of which I will never recall and others I will never forget.

Kenneth was still living in New York at that time and had already started sending me want lists of photographs he was planning to include with the text, as well as early drafts of certain chapters he knew would be of particular interest to me. As an aficionado of the horror genre Ken knew I would want to see what he had uncovered on Lionel Atwill, so that was one of the first he sent, typed with the E.P. Dutton letterhead. In his familiar red penmanship he wrote at the top of the chapter page, “For your eyes only; do not show to my enemies like Curtis [Harrington].” Kenneth was in the midst of yet another feud with his longtime colleague and I was in the middle, being that I was friends with both of them.

Kenneth had planned for years to do a follow-up to his legendary HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, the international success of which made him more infamous than his films ever had. The great obstacle was trying to top the first one in revelations of the private lives of the stars. As time marched on, America became less likely to accommodate the author with shock and awe when pop culture itself was wallowing in scandal and gossip without any help from the Magus of Tinseltown. This situation has only worsened with time and now, nine years into the 21st century, ‘reality shows’ and the INTERNET have made Kenneth’s books, with scandalous tales of stars of a bygone era (however classic), somewhat redundant.

As Kenneth now enters his dotage with the media forever focused on his conduct, however unbecoming, it is important to emphasize what a monumental influence he has had on 20th century pop culture. His experimental films are landmarks of avant-garde and homoerotic cinema. Kenneth Anger is also the father of the music video, having created the format years before anyone really knew what to do with it. Even the Babylon books are now important references for anyone studying film history or simply curious about pop culture.

Kenneth has loved the cinema from childhood, especially as it was in the golden days of the studio system when MGM had more stars than the heavens, and its stars misbehaved not unlike the gods of Mount Olympus at their zenith.

The HOLLYWOOD BABYLON books were meant to draw attention to the futility of Hollywood trying to set a standard for moral authority where none existed. What could be more apropos than to compare Hollywood with ancient Babylon? In the twenties, even Babylon would have had a hard time catching up with characters like Barbara La Marr or Nazimova. The original French edition of HOLLYWOOD BABYLON was more of a coffee-table book, oversized with beautiful reproductions of stills Kenneth spent a lifetime collecting. Anyone who was fortunate enough to own a copy would be disappointed in the American editions, which had none of the glamour of that first notorious edition of 1959.

One of the tragic aspects of the Babylon saga as it unfolded before me that year was the lack of preparation allowed Kenneth for a proper follow-up to the first edition. E.P. Dutton had advanced him a sizable sum which evaporated before he ever got to Hollywood to spend it. A self-confessed spendthrift, advances seldom encouraged results. Ken arrived at my apartment at 9136 Beverly Boulevard with the following items in tow: a white violin trimmed in blue neon – a prop from one of the fabled “Gold Digger” films of the thirties (and it still lit up on its own white pedestal); a six-sheet (81×81) poster from Eddie Cantor’s WHOOPEE! (also from the early thirties (this poster was a hoot as it had multiple images of Cantor’s huge eyes, resulting in a psychedelic montage in dazzling colors on linen); and last, but far from least, a large framed autographed portrait of Valentino. Ken also brought a suitcase and briefcase, but no typewriter.

At this stage of the book’s development I had seen the text of the LIONEL ATWILL chapter which was culled from old movie magazines of the forties which chronicled Atwill’s fall from grace during a sensational trial regarding a Christmas party at his Pacific Palisades abode where two underage girls set the old boy up by telling all to the press. The end result was disgrace and financial ruin for Atwill and a field day for the Hollywood press, who by now had a lot of experience with these Hollywood hound dogs in Hamlet attire. Ken hired me to provide photos and background information from the usual sources like the Academy library and the AFI. He quickly settled on a portrait I had of Atwill in profile from MURDERS IN THE ZOO, a pre-Code film with lots of sadism and cruelty. This particular still had Atwill in the shadow of a mamba, which made the leering actor all the more sinister. Lionel Atwill, for those of you who may not know the name, has been forever immortalized by MEL BROOKS (of all people) in his film, and later the musical based on, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. In the film, actor KENNETH MARS plays an inspector with a wooden arm based entirely on Lionel Atwill’s unforgettable performance in Universal’s last classic Frankenstein with Karloff as the monster: SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Lionell Atwill in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN

In today’s world view, what Atwill did in the privacy of his home on that Christmas Eve over half a century ago would not even merit a nod on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, and I mentioned this to Ken at the time. These tales of long ago needed to be really off the charts to make them shocking, even in the 80′s. However, lodged in Kenneth’s imagination was this image of Lionel Atwill as the kink of all kinks in the Hollywood he so admired that he was to have a place in it no matter what anyone might say to the contrary.

As the days went by it became clear to me that Ken had lost his mojo when it came to putting the book to rest. He enjoyed the research and loved looking though stacks of photographs but when it came time to create a narrative, the lawyers at Dutton quickly took the wind out of his sails. He had to depend on the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” For example, he could not come out and say Cary Grant was having a sexual relationship with Randolph Scott, but he could imply it by showing a series of suggestive photos of the two men living together in Hollywood bliss with the boys at breakfast and at play in their very own playhouse.

The “coroner to the stars,” Thomas Noguchi, who was in charge of all the autopsies of the famous for fifteen years became a favored source for many of the more unsavory stills in both editions. Kenneth had made a contact in Noguchi’s office and scored many death shots, some of which remain unpublished. Noguchi loved the limelight and was very aware of Kenneth Anger and his books; whether or not the two ever met is still a mystery. Noguchi was tossed out of office for revealing too much regarding the deaths of both William Holden and John Belushi, which in its own perverse way was very Kenneth Anger, but hey–this is Hollywood after all.

Kenneth became so distraught over the book that he even at one point cooked up a plan to inform his editors in New York that the book would have to be put on hold as he was ill with HIV. It took all my powers of persuasion to talk him out of that one. He had gone so far as to ask around town for a doctor willing to go along with his plan.

Kenneth Anger

At this point I feel the need to explain just how generous a friend Kenneth was at this point in time. We had been good friends for at least five years and he was never anything but a loyal and caring person at all times, in spite of what has been written about him in print. The Kenneth Anger of the 80′s was stubborn, and insensitive to minorities, and yet he would loan money to any of his colleagues if he felt they needed assistance. The fact that he was famous never really meant much to him as this was not something he could take to the bank when the rent was due. I can’t tell you how many times at universities (of all places) he would be approached by a student congratulating him on writing LOOK BACK IN ANGER. If he felt like it he would correct them with, “Sorry, that was John Osborne.” More often than not he would just sigh at the prospect that colleges ceased to teach anything anymore.

It was not easy adjusting to “life with Anger,” and I felt uneasy when I was home because Kenneth would go for hours without saying a word. He would find a corner of the bedroom and just sit there in the dark with his thoughts. I remember one particular morning during his stay when my phone rang way too early in the morning for my taste. When I finally answered, it was Helen Bilke, my neighbor across the courtyard, who rang me up at seven in the morning to find out who that wonderful man was who was staying with me. When I asked why she needed to know–especially at 7am–she replied, “Well, honey, he is on his knees in the courtyard cleaning the wedges between the tiles in the walkway with a TOOTHBRUSH! I mean, your friend has been at it since daybreak and it looks wonderful.” This was my introduction to Ken’s drug habits and had they all been so constructive they might never have been written about at all. When Ken was on speed or uppers he was like a demonic Joan Crawford, and dirt–look out! My mother came to visit during Ken’s stay with me and when she saw my living room after two weeks with Kenneth as a house guest, the first words out of her mouth were, “Marry him. He’s a keeper!” My living room glowed from Pine Sol and window cleaner, every picture frame was so clear they looked transparent, the floors were mirror-like; the whole apartment was a showplace, especially with that neon violin glowing in one corner and WHOOPEE! lit up in another. Now this was Anger management at its best!

One weekend afternoon I took him to the autograph collectors show over at my friend Beverly Garland’s hotel and watched as he worked the room. At one point we ran into an acquaintance of mine, Joe Dante, who, besides directing films, also is a fan at heart and collects like one. I introduced him to Ken, and Joe, who was visibly impressed, told him who he was and Kenneth smiled and said, “Oh, Joe Dante. Yes, I think I’ve seen your magic act in New York.” Joe’s smile quickly went upside down and coldly replied, “I am a film director, not a magician,” to which Kenneth shot back, “Well maybe you should try magic. People might then know your work,” and walked away, leaving Joe extremely pissed off.

Among the things Kenneth could not tolerate with admirers and fans was the mispronunciation of his idol Aleister Crowley; so many people say the last name as if it sounded like ‘cowly’ instead of ‘crow’, like the bird. To do that was grounds for banishment. He also could not stand smoking of any kind and really never had more than a glass of wine. His bête-noir would always be drugs, just like his idol, the great beast Crowley. In the glory days when Ken was house Magus for the Rolling Stones and quite the rage, he ran into a man who introduced himself as “Chemist to Her Majesty, the Queen.” He confided to Ken that the royal family got their prescriptions in giant crystal apothecary jars and the one that contained Cocaine had the instructions on it, “TAKE AS NEEDED.” Ken loved to tell that story to anyone who cared to hear it.

Anger

As the weeks worn on I began to feel some concern regarding Ken’s ability to get the book done. He really wanted it to be successful, and to accomplish that it had to be as daring and scandalous as the first had been in 1959. E.P. Dutton wanted the book to succeed as well, but they simply did not understand what Kenneth was trying to create with his off-kilter vision of Hollywood, at least the Hollywood in his imagination. They wanted tell-alls without the backlash and this was not a task even Kenneth Anger could accomplish without bringing the lawyers down on him (and ultimately the publishing house itself). Looking back, it was providential that the photographs could say what he could not. The final result is a beautiful failure, as the life was taken out early on and even Dr. Frankenstein would have had a hard time resurrecting this Babylon.

One night not long after we did our last round of libraries and bookshops, he wanted to see Marty’s new film–Marty being Scorsese, a longtime admirer of Kenneth’s films. On occasion he lent Ken his editing rooms in New York to work on his projects. Marty’s new film was KING OF COMEDY and so off we went to Westwood with my then-girlfriend Susan in tow. The film was not one of Ken’s favorites but he did respond to the obsession-with-celebrity aspect of the piece. We were all surprised at how well Jerry Lewis responded to Marty’s direction. The film placed Kenneth in an odd frame of mind, and afterwards he treated us to a ride in one of those horse-drawn carriages that used to be available for hire in Westwood to take in the sights around the square. When we arrived back at the apartment I served some wine and Susan and I got a little high and I guess the emotions that I suppressed came out sort of all at once, and I begged him to try and finish the book as it was so very important to his career, etc….Well, as soon as I started talking I knew this was not what he wanted to hear, least of all from me, so after a rather awkward silence he went off to bed and so did we. The next morning we woke up to find that Kenneth had quietly packed all his things and left before daybreak for New York. He left me a note, which said:

“David,

I tried to sleep after your comments last night and I decided that the only way to finish this thing is to go home now and just focus on the work at hand. I am very moved that you care so much about what happens to me. There are not too many people in my life that do. Thank you for all your support and especially for the use of your wonderful photos. I have left you and Susan two signed posters that my friend Page Wood made for LUCIFER RISING…. Oh, by the way, I can’t get that funny story out of my head about your favorite actor, Zucco…may have to do something about it.

Love,

Ken”

George Zucco

The letter, and Ken’s abrupt departure, left me feeling a bit guilty, but hey, if it got him to the place he needed to be to finally get HOLLYWOOD BABYLON II off and running, then so be it. His reference to Zucco–meaning the late character actor GEORGE ZUCCO–was not so surprising as we had a very amusing evening during his stay talking about how roles sometimes stay with an actor and what might happen if an actor should do a RONALD COLMAN, like in A DOUBLE LIFE, and just wig out and become their character.

I showed Kenneth an old VHS copy of a Monogram quickie starring Bela Lugosi called VOODOO MAN, which features my old pal George Zucco as a high priest dressed in a black magician’s robe while wearing the most unfortunate headdress of feathers…Well, it was a sight… The whole film was like an Ed Wood fever-dream with Zucco calling out to the god RAMBOONA for guidance–whoever RAMBOONA might have been…

When the film was over Ken and I had a great time second-guessing what happened to both Lugosi and Zucco after letting themselves go in such an undignified way. I speculated that Zucco probably went a bit off and ran out of Gower Gulch, where Monogram made their little seven-day-wonders, and went screaming down Hollywood Boulevard about the god, RAMBOONA. Lugosi, on the other hand, probably just went to his cigar shop on the boulevard and bought his usual drugs and went home, got happy, and then just crashed.

I now realize only too well to be very careful what you put in other peoples’ psyches, because Kenneth was just desperate enough for copy that he took my little fantasy and went all the way with it, creating out of nowhere a whole scenario where Zucco goes off the deep end and takes his wife and daughter with him to the funny farm. Now, this was bad enough, but not too long after his book came out I discovered that Stella Zucco was not only very much alive but beside herself over what Ken put out there about her loved ones. When I heard about all of this I managed to get a letter to her explaining that I adored her husband’s work and all this was a terrible misunderstanding… I, of course, never got a reply.

The other tale from the book that was way, way off was the one about James Dean. Now, all those tales of passing out in leather bars and having cigarettes put out on him were true–the problem was they happened to MONTGOMERY CLIFT, not JAMES DEAN! My favorite contribution to the book is the photo of Vincent Price sporting fangs for a film not many people ever saw (and that includes his horror following), a British portmanteau known as THE MONSTER CLUB. The image of Vincent smiling through his fangs seems to be in on Kenneth’s cosmic joke that Hollywood is, after all, fabrication on a grand scale. It was Vincent Price himself who told me one afternoon that, “Hollywood is one of the most evil cities on the planet,” and he had personally witnessed enough in his lifetime there not to kid around when it came to this Babylon known as Hollywood.

Not too long after all this went down I had one of my Technicolor dreams and, as luck would have it, I remembered it and always will. In my dream George Zucco was not only alive and kicking, he was also singing and dancing….at the BACKLOT at STUDIO ONE. In my dream George had a cabaret act and I was there, front row center, as he came out in a tux, just like he looked in THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, where he shined as Professor Moriarty, giving perhaps a definitive take on the role. Anyway, here was George Zucco with a mike in one hand coming from behind the curtain as the band opened with THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, which George handled a bit like Rex Harrison in MY FAIR LADY, with a touch of Fred Astaire. After his opening number he said to the audience, “Welcome to the breakfast show!” After a couple of jokes like, “I just finished a picture over at PRC. The salary is such a comfort as it pays all my postage,” he got a laugh from the industry crowd who knew all too well that PRC paid zip to their talent. This went on in my mind for a while and it was sooo real you just would not believe it. Then, the actor known to his fans as “the man with the neon eyes” pulled up a stool and was hit with a yellowish spotlight. With his eyes in full flood he began to sing in that cat-like purr of his the tune written by Barry Manilow, ‘MANDY.’

I can never forget hearing my favorite character actor from the 40′s singing lyrics like these: “Oh, Mandy you came and you gave without TAKING…”

WELCOME TO THE BREAKFAST SHOW!

CINEVEGAS OPENS! PART 1

The annual Las Vegas film festival is celebrating its tenth anniversary and, since I have been covering it for many years, I can honestly say it has become a major event in Las Vegas and in the film industry. I’ll be seeing a lot of movies and attending all the evening parties!

CineVegas opened Thursday, June 12 with a screening of THE ROCKER, starring Rainn Wilson from the wildly popular sitcom “The Office” and Christina Applegate, now starring in a terrific sitcom called “Samantha Who?” Except for Applegate, the entire cast was there. I love Jane Lynch, though in THE ROCKER her comedic talents are not exploited. Who can forget Jane’s role in THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN? I even liked her on “The L Word.”

The Opening Night’s after-party was held at The Palms Moon nightclub. THE ROCKER opens August 1st.

On Friday I saw EXPLICIT ILLS and YOUR NAME HERE. The stars of YOUR NAME HERE, Bill Pullman and Traci Lords, were at the screening. I love Bill’s co-star Taryn Manning!

By the way, all UFO fans must rent ALIEN AUTOPSY starring Bill Pullman. It’s hysterical! Remember the Ray Stantilli documentary? This is the real story. Maybe…

Friday night was the after-party at Palms Place celebrating CineVegas 10th Anniversary. Saturday I attended the screening of DARK STREETS. At the Palms Pool was the after-party concert, A Concert for Giving Featuring Bijou Phillips, among others.

I like Bijou as an actress, but who knew she could sing?

There was a special charity screening of GET SMART, on Sunday. Seeing GET SMART later in the week, I went to a screening of BIG HEART CITY. The Viva! Cinevegas After-Party was held at Dos Camino at The Palazzo celebrating Mexican filmmakers.

Actor Dennis Hopper is Chair of the Creative Advisory Board for CineVegas. He has held the position since 2004. Hopper’s active participation has given CineVegas a high profile. Hopper keeps making the calls and bringing major premieres and stars to CineVegas. He brought Charlize Theron to CineVegas last year!

This year’s Marquee Award winner is Anjelica Huston. A Half-Life Award will be given to Don Cheadle, Rosario Dawson, Viggo Mortensen and Sam Rockwell. All honorees will participate in moderated conversations, open to the public, on June 20 and 21. Also being honored is actor James Caan, who will receive the Vegas Icon Award. This award will be given on Friday, June 20, in a ceremony at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

CineVegas continues until June 21 with a closing night screening of THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD, starring John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, and Emily Blunt.

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

“The Diving Bell and The Butterfly” is the poetic title of the acclaimed, 1997 autobiography of a leading French fashion editor, Elle’s Jean-Dominique Bauby, as well as this film adaptation (Miramax) by the noted painter turned filmmaker, Julian Schnabel, which led off the Festival’s screenings for critics in mid-September.
‘Jean-Do’ (in the film, the piquant Mathieu Amalric of “Kings and Queens” and “Munich”) as he was known, had a devastating cerebral stroke, at 43, which left him a victim of “locked in syndrome,” able to communicate only by blinking the remaining, working muscle of his left eye-lid. (My partner quipped that Schnabel’s film might be aptly titled, “My Left Eyelid.”)
That is, in order to utter a single word, Jean-Do’s therapists had to verbally run through the French alphabet to gather every letter of every word for his blinks, a brutally tedious business that makes Bauby’s creation of an entire literary work something quite miraculous.
“The Diving Bell” nearly replicates Alejandro Amenabar’s 2004 “The Sea Inside,” which featured Javier Bardem, as the eminent-but-totally paralyzed-Spanish author, Ramon Sampedro, who wrote his way out of his 30-year physical straight jacket by, ultimately, obtaining euthanasia. “The Sea Inside” won the Best Foreign Language Oscar of 2004)
In Schnabel’s film, Bauby becomes reconciled to his fate long before expiring due to a clogged tracheal breathing tube.
Schnabel is nothing if not inventive in lolling the camera over to pan vistas approximate to Bauby’s ‘butterfly’ point of view or interpolating whimsical photos of the handsome young Brando in place of the less than dashing M. Amalric. Schnabel’s final image, reversing Antarctic glacier slides by running them backwards, is ironic, but it fails to work for me as persuasive reparation. Such global warming catastrophes can no more be repaired than the life of an ingenious stroke victim.
I appreciate the authenticity of New Yorker Schnabel’s working in French (from a translation of Ronald Harwood’s English screenplay) at the hospital where Bauby was treated and featuring the therapists who worked with him, even though Schnabel claims to dislike films set in hospitals, as I do.
Schnabel’s first choice of Johnny Depp (who played two screaming queens for Schnabel in his previous film, “Before Night Falls”) for Jean-Do would have been a more commercial one for Miramax, but Mr. Depp did better for Disney, Miramax’s parent company, by repeating his inspired pirate queen in “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Two footnotes. The flashback scene of the pre-stroke Jean-Do shaving his invalided, crotchety, 92-year-old father (Max Von Sydow, age 77) is the best scene in the film for me. Every stroke of the safety razor is amplified on the soundtrack by boosting the scraping sound. The scene becomes surgical, anatomizing their father-son co-dependency and showing the vibrancy of Amalric possessed of all of his physical faculties. It is also a tribute by Schnabel to his own beloved father, who died at 92, while living in his son’s West Village home.
Schnabel had a flood of film offers following his marvelous “Before Night Falls,” (2000), which starred Javier Bardem as the fugitive gay Cuban poet, Renaldo Arenas. In the long interim since that film, Schnabel wrote a screenplay adaptation of the popular novel, “Perfume,” but fell out with the producer and got bounced from that production. He understandably loathes the 2006 film of “Perfume,” which he thinks truly stinks.
It strikes me that Schnabel’s three films, including his first, “Basquiat” (1996) are all biographies of tormented figures in the art worlds of three nations.
Schnabel claims that before signing on to direct “The Diving Bell (of death) and the Butterfly” (Bauby’s flitting mind and wandering eye), he turned down a slew of commercial projects including “8 Mile” and “American Gangster.” I don’t think Schnabel should have rejected all of those opportunities. Although he won the Best Director award at Cannes for “The Diving Bell,” he coveted the Palme d’Or, which went to the Romanian abortion drama, “4 Months, 3 weeks and 2 Days,” which was also shown at the New York Festival.

MARRIED LIFE

“Married Life” (Sony Pictures Classics) is as prosaic as its title. Writer-director Ira Sach’s third film is leaden and feels considerably longer than its 90-minute length, despite its excellent cast of Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, and a new blonde yum-yum, Rachel McAdams.
The picture is a highly conventional sexual rondelet of infidelity, with husband Cooper attempting to poison his wife Clarkson in order to marry McAdams, possibly because divorce is unheard of in their bourgeois set. The year 1949 is conveyed by the style of the autos; the Pacific Northwest setting I only gleaned from the program notes.
When the author-director acknowledged, at the press conference, that he was a gay man, I subversively thought, “Is that why the film lacks the slightest hetero lubricity?” I tabled that too personal supposition, and realized that you can’t have homely Chris Cooper as the sexual fulcrum of such a lusty comedy when he is, of course, bound to be trumped by the handsome Brosnan. Moreover, you can’t play off a genre flick like “Sudden Fear,” as Sachs said he had, (in which Joan Crawford is fearful of her hunk husband, Jack Palance, as a potential poisoner), when “Marriage”’s lame script (from an obscure 1952 English novel) seems much more a Feydeau sex farce than a thriller.
Sach’s says his last two films have been “realistic,” (his previous, “40 Shades of Blue” – 2005, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance), but, frenzied infidelity has, of course, its own reality. Comedy may simply not be Sachs’ bailiwick. Patricia Clarkson, however, is “a sunny, funny, honey” treasure of the American film, as this picture is not.

I JUST DIDN’T DO IT

“I Just Didn’t Do It” is the not-guilty plea of a slender, mop-haired Japanese youth (Ryo Kase), falsely accused of groping a 15-year old schoolgirl on a jam-packed Tokyo commuter train.
This honest kid is told at the outset of this excessively long, 143-minute procedural, to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a small fine, or face protracted jail time and a judiciary that is less interested in his innocence than its near-perfect record of convictions.
The boy refuses to cop a plea and demands exoneration. (We see in the opening scene that the offending hand hiking up the girl’s skirt is much more powerfully veined and older than that of the slender, tapered hand of the young accused.)
This near-documentary of Tokyo’s penal and judicial system marks a notable change for writer-director Masayuki Suo from his delightful hit, “Shall We Dance,” (1996), but the poor lad’s ordeal and the ultimate, terrible wrong done him makes the audience suffer with him because of the film’s length and its’ successive repetitions.
The attempt by the youth’s defense to recreate the precise configuration of the train door’s overcrowding, for an exonerating video presentation to the court, struck me as both wonderful and absurd.
It is miraculous that the lad’s defense team could find the vanished woman who witnessed the incident on the train and came forward to protest the lad’s arrest, only to be dismissed by the police. That the judge refuses to accept her testimony, prior to convicting the wretched young man, is a heartbreaking injustice as great as the youth’s false arrest and imprisonment.
Poor boy. He should have paid the fine, but he “just didn’t do it.”

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS

I felt obligated to see “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” (IFC First Takes) because it was the buzz film of this year’s Cannes Festival and earned for its Romanian writer-director, Cristian Mungiu, the Festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.
I knew the title signified the length of term prior to an illicit, late abortion in Ceaucescu’s repressive Romania of 1987, and that it was shot, by Oleg Mutu, the cinematographer of “The Death of Mr. Lazauescu,” a great, but deeply depressing Romanian film of two Festivals ago, in gray-green dun color. So I knew the picture would not be pleasurable.
The Festival screening began at 10 a.m., an unfavorite hour for this late-nighter, in an as-yet uncooled Walter Reade Theatre. So my receptivity was not great. In the opening scene, as the young women dorm mates (four to a room) discussed obtaining black market Kent cigarettes with their male, dorm fence, prior to the lead, blonde Otilla’s (Anamaria Marinca) obtaining a clandestine hotel room to relieve her close friend, the dark Gabita’s (Laura Vasiliu) four-months-gone pregnancy, I knew I would simply have to endure the ordeal. Indeed, the film was just as wintry and oppressive as being in the, bleak, iron curtain country which Romania was in those days.
Abandoning the important birthday party of her boyfriend’s mother (shown us in such tedious, tightly-framed bourgeois, gemutlichkeit torpor you could plotz), she deserts her boyfriend’s family gathering to tend to her friend.
And then a miracle occurs, rather like the epiphanies of the Dardennes Brothers’ films, in which love is transcendent–transforming a seemingly immoral tale into a sublime morality. The comradeship and solidarity of the women, complicit in an act that could have sent them both to prison along with the abortionist, transcended the awful deed. (Mungiu, 39, whose third film this is, shows part of the bloody, aborted fetus’ umbilicus, enough to make us severely chastened.)
Mongiu told us he had deliberately eschewed quick cutting in favor of long takes, as well as use of any sophisticated equipment like a Steadicam. He wanted the film to look bare and ultra-spare.
Anamaria Marinco is a truly marvelous actress, but Mungiu, who flew her in from London, (where she made a TV series, “Sex Traffic” which won her a BAFTA Award in 2005) disliked her audition, as he had all the women her age he had seen, and only came to admire Marinco as she became the part of Otiilla on film. Evidently, she speaks perfect English in order to appear on the British telly, as did the former English major, writer-director-producer, Mungiu, at his Festival press conference.

The 1970’s saw a huge boom in the Israeli Film Industry. In 1964, SALLAH SHABATI was the first Israeli film nominated for an Academy Award. During the 70’s four different films received nominations (’71, ’72, ’73 and ’77). There were art films, comedies, exploitation films, ethnic farces, dramas, musicals and more. It was a breeding ground for both artists of a new generation (The Israeli Baby-Boomer if you will) and of more experienced filmmakers from the decades before. Television only had one Channel (in black & white) and Israelis loved local cinema.

Many people exited the industry throughout the 80’s (some to equally successful film careers in the United States, some to new fields). Due to commercialization, politics and the growing popularity of the VCR, by the end of the decade, the industry was dying. The cherry on top – multi channel television was introduced in the early 90’s. With cable TV and video, the film industry was no longer needed. As a result, finances became hard to find and fewer films were being made. The only resort was government financing, which was hard to receive and didn’t always go to the best projects.

Fast-forward to 2006 and Israeli films are on the map again. Recent international successes and releases of films such as LATE MARRIAGE (2001), YOSSI AND JAGGER (2002), WALK ON WATER (2004), USHPIZIN (2005) and more, are helping the local industry to recuperate. The increased popularity is resulting in larger finances and an impressive crop of films. It’s a good start but there is still a long way to go, both in quantity and quality.

The Israeli Film Festival is the largest showcase of Israeli films in the United States. The 21st edition of the festival took place in New York between Feb 23 to Mar 9 (with more dates set for LA and Miami) it featured 42 Israeli films and television dramas and a number of shorts.

Following a modest reception, the opening gala of this year’s festival started out 15 minutes late (“on Israeli time” as they joked). At the top was a long video roll of commercials and mentions of all the festival’s sponsors, from the biggest to the smallest. Little did the audience know that this presentation would precede each and every one of the festival’s screenings. Two awards were handed out: The Cinematic Achievement Award to veteran Israeli director Haim Bouzaglo (who had two films featured in the festival) and the Visionary Award to David Brown (producer of JAWS, DRIVING MISS DAISY and many others).

The choice of award winners indicates an identity problem for the festival – There is no separation between nationality and religion. The Los Angeles edition of this year’s festival saw Bernie Brillstein, James Schamus, David Linde and Amos Gitai all receive awards. While all recipients in both editions deserve their titles and accolades, only Bouzaglo and Gitai actually have anything to do with the Israeli film industry, the others are connected only through their religion. An Israeli Film Festival should award personalities who impacted and contributed to the development and preservation of Israeli films and leave the Jewish Film Festival to award deserving personalities in the American-Jewish community.

The feature presentation of the opening gala was OUT OF SIGHT, directed by Daniel Sirkin, winner of the Best Director award from the Israeli Academy. The film tells the story of Ya’ara (Tali Sharon), a young blind woman returning to Israel from Harvard University, in order to mourn the death (by suicide) of her best friend, Talia. As the week progresses, fueled by childhood memories, she begins to question the reasons for Talia’s suicide and sets out to find the truth. Even though OUT OF SIGHT is far from innovative, it keeps the viewer’s eyes on the screen. The strong cast, led by Tali Sharon (who previous to this film was a television-soap star) and rounded up by Assi Dayan makes up for what the filmmaking is lacking. Dayan himself is a legendary Israeli film director and was nominated for the Most Promising Actor award at the 1970 Golden Globes, for his role in Jules Dassin’s PROMISE AT DAWN.

None of the films in this year’s festival were striking as the next international hit. A few critically acclaimed television dramas were screened, most notable were Dana Modan’s LOVE HURTS (“a romantic drama about young Israelis at the beginning of the millennium”) that won many Israeli television awards and REACHING FOR HEAVEN, that focused on a family torn by the father’s return to religion. The Israeli TV Academy awarded Orly Zilbershatz the Best Actress for her portrayal of the wife. Both she and Yoram Hatab as the husband give superb performances. These TV shows are not made with the intention of being projected on a big screen and aesthetically they are sometimes hard to watch in that format – the acting truly saves the day.

METALLIC BLUES, of the surface, seemed promising. Shmuel and Sisco, two used-car dealers, buy a spotless 1985 Lincoln Continental limousine for a bargain price. They send the car to Germany and set on a cross-country trip in order to sell it to a specialized car dealer for a handsome profit. Such a great premise for a wild road comedy. The film stars Moshe Ivgy and Avi Kushnir, arguably two of the best actors in Israel today and as far as their chemistry goes – they deliver. Unfortunately the film stops them in their tracks every time they start to shine, by adding unnecessary drama as Shmuel (Kushnir) tries to cope with his family’s history in the Holocaust and the historical fear and anger he feels towards Germany. The drama simplifies and cheapens the already existing tension and historical context deriving from two Israelis who travel to Germany to sell a car. Then again, if sold as a pure comedy, it may have never gotten the budget to be made.

The Mid-Gala was exciting – In attendance was Dr. Ruth Westheimer, to some, a cultural hero (I was tempted to complement on her classic guest appearance in a 1993 episode of QUANTOM LEAP but froze when the time came to speak). A Humanitarian award was given to Aaron Ziegelman, one of the main supporters of the festival.

The film screened was NOW OR NEVER, the story of David Ben-Gurion’s struggles in the months preceding the founding of the state of Israel. It was a bit of a cheat to program NOW OR NEVER as a feature film as it was obviously a television drama. Being programmed as the centerpiece of the festival had everything to do with its subject and nothing to do with its quality. The film was interesting to watch as with such a story, you can’t lose, but it would have played better on TV.

The Israeli Film Festival is a great operation that has potential to expose the American audience to Israeli films. However in New York, it failed to attract them. Many of the screenings had a full house in attendance but the majority of the viewers were either Israelis or members of the American-Jewish community. Rather than attract a new and younger audience, they are preaching to the choir. One moment that really captured that atmosphere was when the MC of the mid-gala asked “The Israeli Film Festival is 21 years old. Who in this audience still feels like they’re 21?” Everybody raised their hands.

Even with its faults, the festival is a labor of love and an important showcase for Israeli films. The quality of the festival really depends on the Israeli film crop of each year rather than the programming as they literally show everything that was made. Meir Fenigstein, the founder and director (and former pop star!) of the festival, has been running it for 21 years and still going strong. He attends and introduces each and every screening and stands as the only person campaigning for so many Israeli films in the United States today. His dedication to this cause is admirable and I am looking forward to the 22nd edition and seeing the evolvement of the Israeli film industry.

RUSSIAN FILM WEEK in New York happens every fall since the beginning of this century. FIR thought that I, a Russian filmmaker, might have a particular interest in this event.
Russians used to consider cinema not an entertainment but an art form. Meaning that watching a movie didn’t imply just spending money and time for a two-hour, more-or-less successful break from reality, but being touched and/or changed by more-or-less profound thoughts and emotions. The recent political developments in Russia have made certain alterations in the art-versus-entertainment attitude towards cinema: it’s fast-forwarding in the American direction. So, I was curious to find out what films are considered to be “the cream” of the contemporary Russian movie industry.

TRANSIT (dir. Alexander Rogozhkin), a World War II story, opened the week. I went to see the film with grave feelings of apprehension at having to endure gallons of blood, fashionably utilized graphics of destruction, explosions, torn limbs and lots of weaponry; and to lament a catharsis that I will not experience, based on nearly everything I’ve seen for quite some time now.
To the contrary, I was astonished by the opposite: no close ups of wounds, no mutilated bodies, no glow of guns and an invisible touch of visual images that brings you to a different state of mind.
The film’s story unfolds in a realistic set of 1943, at the transit aerodrome located on the Chukotka Peninsula where a group of American pilots from Alaska ferry “Air Cobra” (P-37) fighter planes across the ocean on “lend-lease”. The military routine is disrupted by the occasional presence of American female pilots. It catalyses the internal drama marked by murder and a love affair, deeds of honor and friendship.
The script (by Alexander Rogozhkin) is infused with irony and sad humor. It reminds me of the prose of Andrey Platonov whose writing unfortunately is not very popular in the US. It evokes nostalgic memories of Russian intelligentsia and times when human values were not measured in units.

The Florence Gould Hall, where the opening night took place, was full of people – dressed up Russians, casual Americans, decorated veterans, celebrities, men with flashing cameras, lovers of festivities and connoisseurs of cinema. Not all of them reached the Cinema Village Theatre on 12th Street where the rest of the week was to unfold.

ELLIPSIS (dir. Andrei Eshpai) is a melodrama set in the 1960s. The main character, Kira Georgievna (Evgenia Simonova – a Best Actress award winner), is a well-known sculptor married to a well-known painter. Her happy life is disturbed by the sudden entry of her first husband, unjustly arrested 25 years ago, sent to a faraway labor camp and presently released. Responding to his love, Kira Georgievna is ready to leave her second husband and move with the first one to a different city. But another sudden entry of the first husband’s girlfriend and son from the faraway place prevents this from happening.

VOICES FROM THE BATHROOM:

THE MAN OF NO RETURN (Dir. Ekaterina Grokhovskaya) is shot in the contemporary settings of a provincial town. The multi-layered fabric of the film is woven out of colorful threads of mini-plots concerning the lives of twelve main characters. A military student rebels against following in his father’s footsteps. He makes money by sleeping with a rich older woman, who is the daughter of a retired doctor who used to work in a hospital where a young, paralyzed (from the waist down) girl is brought after poisoning herself. There she meets a young, paralyzed (from the waist down) guy who is beaten up by gay bashers after his attempt to become a whore, following in the footsteps of his classmate, who is the son of a military officer… – You’ve got the picture…?
This is the debut feature from director Grokhovskaya, producer Zadorin, and lead actor Sergei Krapiva – just to name a few.

INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKERS

FIR: Did you have any previous acting experience?
SERGEI KRAPIVA: No. I did modeling. The producer and director saw my face on a billboard and contacted me about a screen test, which I passed. My character has lots of similarities with me, and I am very grateful to Ms. Grokhovskaya and my fellow actors who helped me with techniques to fill in the gaps.
FIR: What do you expect from showing your film in New York?
IGOR ZADORIN (producer): To sell it here.
FIR: Did you contact any distributors?
IZ: No. The film speaks for itself.
FIR: Are you aware of the fact that it’s not commercial?
IZ: Why not? It’s just like CRASH.
FIR: Structurally maybe?
IZ: I have already recouped investments by selling the TV and DVD rights in Russia. I consider this film to be a name-making vehicle for us – myself and director Ekaterina Grokhovskaya. She is also my wife. And as we speak, my team is working on two mega-profitable projects.
FIR: Where did you get the money to begin with?
IZ: I used to have a construction business. My friends, who quadrupled their money in a wink, are laughing at me, but I believe that soon I’ll increase my capital a 100 times while doing what I love.

I checked on what the Russian press were writing about this film. Mainly they were overwhelmed with the return to the big screen of Galina Jovovich (she immigrated to the US in 70s), whose present fame is built up by the success of her daughter, Milla Jovovich (RESIDENT EVIL, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE).

PLAYING THE VICTIM (Dir. Kirill Serebrennikov) is a dark comedy. The main character, Valya, works with a police to play a crime victim in the reconstructing of events for a crime scene investigation. The absurdity of his job matches the absurdity of the crimes being reconstructed: one man “feels like” dissecting his girlfriend because she didn’t fully respond to his feelings, another one drowns his woman for the same reason, a third one, for no reason at all, shoots his classmate, and finally Valya himself poisons his entire family.

I wasn’t sure if this highly ironic film, saturated-with- cultural-references, could be fully understood by American moviegoers. Not that there were many of them in the house. But I could count two. Let’s ask the one without a press pass.

CONVERSATION IN THE HOUSE

AMERIAN VIEWER: Lots of killings happened in this movie. Though it’s different.
FIR: In which way?
AV: There are different types of killings: no blood. And the violence is not graphic but suggested.
FIR: So, you’d rather see blood and mutilations?
AV: When you don’t see these elements it makes you use your imagination and think. And when you think, you understand the absurdity of killing and violence. In American movies you usually don’t have time to think.
FIR: Did you see any other Russian films?
AV: Yes. I saw POLUMGLA (Dir. Artyom Antonov). It’s a beautifully shot film about World War II. A young wounded Russian officer is building a tower for radio communications in a northern village (Polumgla) with the help of a crew of captured Germans. They develop human relationships, but in the end all the Germans are shot. The film is tragic.
FIR: Any blood?
AV: No blood. Makes you think…

For me, as a Russian, this week was an incredibly unexpected treat. I cried almost all the time. Cried like beluga. (It’s a Russian expression, I don’t know where it came from, and it makes sense to me. Who am I but a smoked sturgeon, taken out of its pond, but preserved enough not to vanish too soon, taken out of my culture, never embraced an American one, suffocating in the smoky sting of linguistic handicap.) I cried over my beautiful childhood, my ceased-to-exist country (the Soviet Union), my native language, enriched with numerous verbal forms. I cried over the stories told.
Most of the films were about love, regardless the genre, time, period or settings. The characters’ actions and motivations were not driven by monetary or power gains, but by love. And the Russian notion of love implies a great deal of sacrifice. So, all the sadness of these cinematic tales comes from loss of everything, devoured by the pagan fire of love.
Once I spoke to Elena Solovei – a great Russian Chekhov actress now residing in the US. She was invited to NYU to lecture on acting Chekhov. And one of the main topics was about the motivations behind the actions of Chekhov’s women she played so well. “They sacrifice themselves for love,” Elena explained. The students couldn’t understand, and the actress didn’t know how to explain it better. And I don’t know why I’m recounting this incident.
The point is whether the great films of Russian Week have a chance to be seen by general American audience or not. Will there be people who’d enjoy them? – Of, course. Will distributors pick them up? – The prospective is less enthusiastic: not commercial, subtitled, etc… Wait, I’m doing it again – finishing in a minor key. America sings in major! So, let’s say I was really lucky to see 9 out of the 12 great “art-house” films presented. And long live Cinema!

http://www.accentworks.net

As stated in the festival’s website “In 2002, the Tribeca Film Institute successfully launched the First Annual Tribeca Film Festival. Created by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, the mission of the Tribeca Film Festival is to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan.”

It was a great festival. From what I have seen, heard and read almost all the films were worth seeing. This year TFF added more venues giving more films a chance to be in this great festival, perhaps they had to since they had more entries than ever. At the end of a shorts program the director for said program explained that about 3600 shorts were sent in; she watched about 2200 herself, and the remainder was her associates’ share. The festival had venues booked all over Manhattan to be able to handle this huge event. Also, in general, the festival seemed more organized this year.

I attended several screenings and panels. The first film I saw was THE PLAY by the Turkish Director Pelin Esmer who won the “Best New Documentary Filmmaker” award in the festival. It definitely deserved the award regarding the unusual content and the message of the film. A short called I’M CHARLIE CHAPLIN, which featured a little kid being dressed as Charlie Chaplin and going around in NYC in Halloween time to get candy by insisting that she is Charlie Chaplin, preceded THE PLAY. It was simple, cute and funny.

Still from THE PLAY, directed by Pelin Esmer

On the same day, I saw a program of short films called “Private Property”. Some of the filmmakers were present for the Q&A after the screening. The first one in the program was INTERVIEW by Boyoung Lee, which features a job interview. It was an okay film but nothing really “WOW”. Second up was JANE LLOYD by HAPPY (yes, that’s his/her name). This was a great short. The editing was very effective since there was no dialogue, and with bad editing it would have been a disaster. That wasn’t the case here, the short was interesting and captivating. Third was WOMEN WORKERS LEAVING THE FACTORY by José Luis Torres. This short was good because of its visuals but didn’t really have much substance, especially towards the end, which felt like Michael Haneke’s CACHE – in other words, there is no end, the director is telling us “this was a fragment of these people’s lives”. Although an interesting concept; I must say that I felt like I was being held prisoner, I couldn’t wait for the film to finish. The fourth film was SPANISH BOOTS by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese. Well, as an idea perhaps it’s interesting (this is me trying to soften the effect of the upcoming sentence). Other than that, it was a joke, overly dramatic and highly unrealistic (more than a film is supposed to be) as relates to story line and acting. Fifth was SHELTER by Luke Hutton. This was definitely a good short, perhaps the best I have seen recently. Hutton shot it as his thesis project for USC. If he makes the right choices in his directing career over the next few years, we will hear his name with great films. Sixth film was DILEMMA by Boris Paval Conen, a Dutch production. In this film, you can definitely see the signs of it being European from the way it’s shot to what it is concerned about. The outcome of the film sends a message, which is actually very strong “While trying to help other people, don’t forget about yourself”. Seventh was DEAD END JOB by Samantha Davidson Green. I guess, when you hear the title, and hear that it is about an obituary writer, yes, it’s funny. However, that’s about it, it’s funny once. It’s like a joke you would tell someone and say “You should’ve seen it, it was really funny”. I should mention that it got the “Student Visionary Award”, perhaps because of its Hollywood-like shooting technique. However, technique doesn’t convince me of a film’s worth.

Still from KISS ME AGAIN, directed by William Tyler Smith

Couple of days later, I saw a film called KISS ME AGAIN which was directed by William Tyler Smith and written by Smith and Julian Hoxter. The film, set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, could probably relate to the younger hipster crowd – where “hipster” could mean many things. In the film, the main characters choose their hip activities in a somewhat expected fashion, however they stick with their choices unexpectedly too long, which causes one of the main characters – Chalice, played by beautiful Katheryn Winnick – to gain all control of the two love triangles she is in. In this sense, the film is very life-like regarding how sometimes it’s hard to deal with difficult people unless you are willing to go their way, and the film ends with all the characters going Chalice’s way. The director and the producer were present for a Q&A session after the screening. One of the audience members asked the director if the story had any background in reality. Smith replied, “I am refusing to answer it”. Perhaps that meant, “Yes, it does, but I won’t give you the opportunity to pry around more”. I think it probably does have some background in the director’s life, though in the writing process the story may have been fantasized in the direction that the writers wanted it to end.

Still from WAR TAPES, directed by Deborah Scranton

The next film I saw was THE WAR TAPES which won the “Best Documentary Feature” award in the festival, and it deserves it for its unbiased view. The idea behind the film is great. The production company was contacted by the US Army’s public relations department and was asked if it would be possible to loan their soldiers cameras so they could record their experience in Iraq. 12 soldiers were given cameras and three of the soldiers’ footage were chosen to be in the film. In the Q&A session after the film, the editor explained that they had a total of 4000 hours of footage that they had to sift through. The filmmakers didn’t worry about being politically correct. In the film and in the Q&A the soldiers who shot the footage talked about their feelings about the war and this fired up some people, so there were people yelling at the screen or at the soldiers present. I should mention that the person I was sitting by of course had to be the person yelling at them to shut up at maximum volume. Towards the end of the Q&A session, the police were watching audience for troublemakers.

The next program I saw was called “Animated NY” which featured a high number of short animation films, all produced in NY. The highlight was the premier of Bill Plympton’s GUARD DOG. The compilation featured some animated shorts that have been around for a while, as well as some recent ones.

John Malkovich at the press conference after the screening of COLOUR ME KUBRIK

There were also some press screenings I attended. One of them was COLOUR ME KUBRICK, where John Malkovich plays a Stanley Kubrick impostor during the time Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT was being produced. The screening was followed by a press conference where Malkovich and producer Michael Fitzgerald were present. Most of the questions they were on the order of “Was this certain thing a conscious decision?” Malkovich and Fitzgerald kept mentioning costume designer Vicki Russell, and confessed that she had a hand in it. In some cases, it appears that Russell’s costume designs played a huge role in the film’s development. Needless to say, Malkovich was very good, especially convincing with the impostor’s every possible gesture or accent.

The last film I saw was the FLOCK OF DODOS: THE EVOLUTION-INTELLIGENT DESIGN CIRCUS, which was preceded by GARDEN OF EDEN REVISITED. The short before the film was actually better. The FLOCK OF DODOS was a Flock of Doodoos. Why? It tried to cover subjects that are very difficult to grasp in two hours, especially when the audience comes to the theater with a relaxed mindset, not really ready to think and process deep ideas. The professors or scientists it featured were cut off too quickly, and instead of them there were “cute” little dodo bird cartoon characters on the screen for extensive periods of time. The film was too short and lacked substance. Perhaps, it could make an interesting documentary series (without the dodo-theme) which could extend as far as ten one-hour episodes. Even twenty hours of a documentary series with a subject this vast would be hard-pressed to succeed.

Downloading at a Screen Near You panel. From left to right... Georg Szalai, Steven Soderbergh, Ashwin Navin, Todd Wagner and Dean Garfield.

Other than the screenings, I attended two panels. The first was “Professional Amateurs: Mocking the Truth”. It was moderated by Jim Kelly (Managing Editor, TIME). Panelists were Michael McKean (This is Spinal Tap), Lewis Lapham (Harper’s Magazine), Jeff Goldblum (The Fly), Bob Balaban (A Mighty Wind), and Ed Helms (The Daily Show). The panel members talked about how “mockumentaries” effect our lives and considered how seriously should we take them. It was an interesting panel, especially Goldblum’s display of his signature body language that captured the audience’s attention. The second panel was “Downloading at a Screen Near You”. It was moderated by Georg Szalai (Hollywood Reporter). Panelists were Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies and Videotape, Ocean’s 11), Todd Wagner (2929 Entertainment), Ashwin Navin (BitTorrent) and Dean Garfield (MPAA Representative). Panelists discussed how simultaneous releases of films in the film theaters, DVD, TV and Internet will affect the film industry. Interestingly there wasn’t a fistfight at the end like most of the audience expected.

Another note; in one of the days, coming back from the festival, I went into Tribeca Tavern. In there, I met the producer (Nikki Parrott) and the director (Ben Hopkins) of the movie called 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep; I didn’t see the movie but it was very interesting to meet them. They said the movie was in festivals all around the world. They were in Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Istanbul International Film Festival and some other festivals in Europe. The most interesting part of my conversation with them was that they were very interested in other cultures. Especially, the director, who is originally English, learned Turkish to be able shoot this movie in Eastern Turkey and Kyrgyzstan (they speak a dialect of Turkish) and he was teaching a local guy who was sitting with him in the bar about Turkey. After that he showed his money collection to him which he got from every country he has been. The producer told me that they will shoot other movies relating to Turkey and Turkic Republics.

Well, do you feel bad that you missed the festival? Most of the films that were in the festival got distribution, so you’ll be seeing them soon in the theaters (or who knows, on the internet perhaps).

Paramount Theatre (photo by Pastor Alvarado)

“No matter what, this film would play at SXSW” I made this decision last May after completing work on my short film. “I don’t care if it is rejected from every other festival as long as it goes to South By” – Half a year later and it had been rejected from all but a few when the word came from SXSW. It was in.

The SXSW Film Festival started in Austin in 1994 when it was added to the already famous music festival. It has been one of the fastest growing film festivals in the United States and today is one of the leading fests in the country. Austin is such a warm and welcoming city, every New Yorker I know who came toyed with the idea of staying.

The lines circled around the block for the opening film – Robert Altman’s A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION at the Paramount Theater, a beautiful structure built in 1915 which feels like a mixture of an old film theater and a church. John C. Reilly came out to introduce the film and was enthused to see the excited crowd. It couldn’t have started early enough.

Reilly (who I would love to see as Russ Meyer in the upcoming bio-pic) and Woody Harrelson play the cowboy duo Dusty & Lefty – They completely steal the show with their “Bad Jokes” song – an instant crowd pleaser that will have you crying in laughter. Other than them, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, which follows the backstage happenings at the last live taping of Garrison Keillor’s radio show, features wonderful performances by a great ensemble cast that includes Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones and Keillor himself. Fans of the show will love the film, but to a newcomer it is uneven and loses its beat at times. A new Altman film is always an exciting event: this is much better then THE COMPANY, but it doesn’t fare well opposite his best works.

Peter Bart

“A lot of people, instead of becoming superstars, become F. Murray Abraham” This was the most important lesson I learned from the Peter Bart interview on Saturday morning when he was asked to comment about the “Oscar Curse”. It was a great opportunity to see a personality such as Bart speak. He discussed his days in 1970’s Hollywood, his years as the editor-in-chief of Variety, and the state of the industry as he sees it today. “The lesson of every hit is that everybody tells you not to do it” he said. Indeed.

Until proven otherwise I crown The Alamo Drafthouse and Alamo South as the best film theaters I have had the privilege to sit in. These theaters also function as restaurants. A bar is situated in front of each row and an aisle-way for the waiters to make their way through in front of it (resulting in unlimited leg-space). You could watch the film while eating chicken wings or sipping on beer. The projection and sound quality (especially at the South theater) is superb, and instead of showing commercials and promotional material before the film, they roll various found-footage clips over the screen, from old cartoons to Serge Gainsburg music videos to sketches from the Muppets. It’s almost worth arriving a half-hour before the main show to watch these. It is a perfect environment at which to enjoy a film. And oh, so many films did we enjoy…

Mary Harron’s THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE is the story of the most famous pin-up girl in history who vanished from the public eye after finding religion. Gretchen Moll stars as Page, a bizarre casting choice that so perfectly pays off it is hard to imagine anyone but her in the role. Harron, working with cinematographer Mott Hupfel, created the classiest of films. Predominantly black & white – the visuals are so perfectly shot and lit to imitate a vintage film, it may as well have been excerpted from one (in an interview for The American Cinematographer, Hupfel cites Sam Fuller’s PICK-UP ON SOUTH STREET as a main influence). The color footage… well… Bunny Yeager should be proud to see film images that resemble her photography with such love and dedication. Not only is Mary Harron among the founders of PUNK magazine, and the first person to interview the Sex Pistols in America, she is also a great director – a visionary.

When the film was over, shaken, I forced a copy of my film on Harron. I just had to.

Other than BETTIE PAGE, it was the year of the documentary:

Ron Mann is one of the best documentary directors working today. Each of his films pushes the boundaries of the genre to new places. Unlike most documentaries his are works of pure cinema. TALES OF THE RAT FINK is no exception. This is the story of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, a legendary custom-car designer, T-Shirt designer and the creator of the Rat Fink character and various other monsters who influenced modern culture more than they are given credit for. Rather than use the formulaic talking heads, Mann chooses to interview Roth’s cars: These are being voiced by such people as Brian Wilson (“The Surfite”), Jay Leno, Ann-Margret, The Smothers Brothers, Matt Groening and others. John Goodman delivers the narration as the spirit of Roth, who passed away in 2000. It is all tied together by inspired animation sequences that bring to life Roth’s creations, all single handedly animated by Michael Roberts.

Mann stuck around for a short Q&A, where he presented Roth’s wife (to loud cheers) and invited the audience to the RAT FINK after-party and art show featuring dozens of Rat Fink figures designed by various artists across the country (including one by Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO). True-to-form, Mann headed from the Paramount to the party in a custom-car.

“You would think that at 33 years of age, being a national television reporter, living in a great apartment, having every gadget and device one could possibly imagine, you would think that a guy would feel successful. But I just feel like there’s something else.” Rick Kirkheim has been recording his life since he was 6 years old. In 1991 he finds himself at the top of his game (a star reporter for NBC’s INSIDE EDITION), wondering where life will lead him. TV JUNKIE is edited from over 3000 hours of video diaries and recorded events from Rick’s life following that statement as he gets married, becomes a father to two boys and develops a cruel addiction to Crack-Cocaine. TV JUNKIE is an uncompromising look into the nature of addiction. Never falling prey to clichés or preachy mannerisms, it simply throws reality at the audience. Rick, who has since cleaned up, spends his time today talking to youths in high schools across the country. He attended the first screening of the film.

SUMMERCAMP!, a documentary directed by Bradley Beesley and Sarah Price, follows a group of kids over one summer at the Swift Nature Camp. With music composed by the Flaming Lips, SUMMERCAMP! Is an interesting look at the psychology of American children, their hopes and their fears. Mainly though, it’s a ton of fun and concludes once and for all that everything we saw in those 1980’s Summer Camp Films was true! Two of the camp counselors attended the screening to sing camp songs with the audience afterwards. They were the life of every film party we attended – However, their version of the events sounded nothing like MEATBALLS… I’d like to see an NC-17 film titled CAMP COUNSELORS!

After the screening we headed to the SUMMERCAMP! Party. Two kid bands (one so appropriately named ‘After-Math’) rocked the house with their renditions of classic rock songs, and the catering was delicious. It was a great start for a night that would lead us to the CASSIDY KIDS party, the GRETCHEN party and finally the DARKON party, the best by far. In the high point of the evening I met one of the Sundance screeners who rejected my short (but assured me it was given serious consideration).

STATE VS. REED, directed by Ryan Polomski & Frank Bustoz, tells the story of Rodney Reed, an African American man on Texas’ Death Row who was found guilty in the murder of a police officer’s wife he was having an affair with. Years later, he is still waiting a re-hearing for the crime, which no one really believes he committed. The film offers evidence and interviews that should not be ignored; it never tries to glorify Reed’s character but raises huge question marks revolving his case. STATE VS. REED won the Lone Star Audience Award, given to a film by Texas-based directors.

The Al Franken documentary, AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE, would make every Al Franken fan an even bigger one. The film follows Franken’s tours and campaigns for the democratic party during the 2004 election race. The most memorable scene from the film featured a cross interview between Franken and Republican author Ann Coulter. When asked which political figure in history they would choose to be, Coulter replies: “Joe McCarthy, because he exposed the real face of the liberals”.

The festival featured many worthy shorts. For its visual style, CONEY ISLAND, 1945 was one of the best, with gorgeous imagery of a nostalgic Coney Island. Best was NEVEL IS THE DEVIL, directed by Peter Craig – “A supervisor at a consumer product testing laboratory interrogates two suspects of a devilish prank”. Comedy is one of the hardest things to pull off and NEVEL never misses a beat. Great acting, writing and directing keep it hilarious all the way through. Look out for these guys in the future, if given the chance they could make the next comedy hit.

Other films of note were THINGS THAT HANG FROM TREES, directed by Ido Mizrahi – a 1960’s growing up tale in St. Augustine, Florida. It stars the ever-so-excellent Deborah Kara Unger and Peter Gerety. JAM – winner of the Jury’s Documentary award, the story of the American Roller Derby League and their 7-year fight for recognition. GRETCHEN, directed by Steve Collins – about Gretchen, a melancholic high school student who keeps looking for love at all the wrong places. The film features great performances by newcomers Courtney Davis and John Merriman in addition to a wonderful role by Stephan Root.

WHO THE $#%& IS JACKSON POLLOCK was a delightful surprise. After a long day on our feet we were looking to rest and popped into the Paramount, knowing nothing of the film. It turned out to be a blast. Teri Horton, a 73-year-old former truck driver, bought a painting at a thrift store years ago for $5. When she discovered the painting might be a Jackson Pollock and worth over $50,000,000, she embarked on a crusade to prove to the skeptical art world that her painting was genuine. Teri surprises you even after hearing it all. According to her (made up story), Pollock painted the picture one night at a bar with all his celebrity friends, and for dessert, signed it with his penis. The director, Henry Moses, stuck around for one of the best Q&A sessions we attended, he was vibrant and engaging, the audience loved him. Apparently, just before the festival, Teri was offered $9,000,000 for the painting and declined, refusing to accept anything under $25m.

The last official film party before the music festival rolled into town was also the best. Taking place in a giant warehouse, it featured a live performance by Sleater Kinney (introduced by a pre-recorded video of Henry Rollins), great food (although we may have over-eaten) and free drinks (the key to every successful film party). It ended all too early, and although the festival continued to screen films until the 19th, it was never the same. The music festival brought thousands of people with it and about 1,400 bands. Every coffee shop in Austin became a venue and the film-community-feel that was built up during the first 5 days dispersed. While still fun, it felt like the end of an era, short as it was.

As for how my short did… well, I’m not the one to say, but it seemed to have been received very well. SXSW was the right place for my offbeat project and seeing it at the Alamo South was just about as good as it gets for a short film. While not exactly a review, I was thrilled to find out The Austin Chronicle described some of the scenes as “Lynchian.” With such a comparison, I can’t complain.

The true spirit of independent film rules The SXSW Film Festival. It is unpretentious and uncompromising; the festival crew is so dedicated, it’s heartwarming and no one is treated as a celebrity, rather everyone as film lovers. In a world where Sundance is Jazz, SXSW is Rock ‘n’ Roll!