18th ANNUAL SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1992 Jeff Meyer
I'm a bit late with the usual Seattle Film Festival preview; it opened last night with Yves Roberts new romantic comedy, LE BAL DES CASSE-PIEDS. (From the description, the film sounds good, but an opening night ticket is $25, which made me decide to skip it (as usual). The price tag includes the opening night party; the champagne's okay, but we're talking *very* cheap goose pate here.)
*Anyway*, the Festival expects another bumper crop this year, after a whopping 70% of last year's SIFF showings sold out (nearly 100,000 admissions.) Not bad for a regional festival, or for a non-profit organization; it also is one of the longest (if not the longest) festival in North America, running continuously for 3 1/2 weeks. This year it expands from three to four theaters, adding the Neptune theater in the U District (it looked to me like they've got a new screen in there when I saw CASTLE OF CAGLIASTRO there last week.) Not that many more films have been added, but almost every film is being shown twice. This is greatly appreciated by we fanatics, particularly as the showings are within no more than two days of one another, making planning a somewhat simpler task.
As usual, I've purchased a Full Series pass, which allows me to get into everything but the Opening Night film, the two seminars being held, and a new sub-festival within the SIFF, a Children's Film Festival. Below are some of the major events and/or films that have interested me from the 18th Annual SIFF Festival, and which I plan to (in most cases) consider seeing. Any comments for or against seeing these, or info/rumor/slander you've heard about them, will be gladly accepted.
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OPENING NIGHT: LE BAL DES CASSE-PIEDS (France, 1992) a US premiere, a romantic comedy by Yves Robert, who did my two favorite SIFF films of last year, MY FATHER'S GLORY and THE CASTLE OF MY MOTHER (not to mention THE TALL BLOND MAN WITH ONE BLACK SHOE.) A veterinarian (Jean Rochefort) is deserted by his wife, and after a period adrift, has a witty, urbane beauty (Miou Miou) enter his life. You can guess the rest. Given the director and the cast, I have a hard time seeing this being a disaster, or even a crisis.
CLOSING NIGHT: EQUINOX (USA, 1992), a new Alan Ruldoph (directed & written) film, has twin brothers, separated at birth. One grows up in a loving family, one doesn't, and they proceed through their lives until they run into one another at the end. Both brothers are played by Matthew Modine. Others include Lara Flynn Boyle (TWIN PEAKS), M. Emmet Walsh as the good brother's foster father, and Fred Ward as the gang chief who recruits the other brother. Lori Singer's in it, too.
RETROSPECTIVE/TRIBUTE: To Robert Wise, director of classics such as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, WEST SIDE STORY, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE SAND PEBBLES, THE HAUNTING, STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE (oops!), and film editor on CITIZEN KANE. Certainly one of the most varied and interesting film careers around. The films that will be shown (for free, except THE HAUNTING) are:
THE BODY SNATCHER: Boris Karloff, Henry Daniell, and Bela Lugosi in a Val Lewton (CAT PEOPLE) suspense film; Halliwell says this is the best of the Lewton films.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL: Good-natured scientific hi-jinks in Washington, D.C. :-)
THE SET-UP: A down-and-out boxer is expected to get beaten by his younger opponent. Robert Ryan in the title role.
SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME: Paul Newman's second film, a documentary of Rocky Graziano (another boxer, kids.)
THE HAUNTING: Absolutely wonderful, *spooky* British film which THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE was based on. Great cinematography and atmosphere. Wise will attend and talk about his career.
[Actually, THE HAUNTING was based on the novel THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson, while THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE was based on the novel HELL HOUSE by Richard Matheson. -Moderator]
ARCHIVAL PRESENTATIONS: Several restored/re-discovered films are being shown at this year's festival. A 1924 silent version of PETER PAN, photographed by James Wong Howe, and with piano accompaniment by Robert Israel. ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, an Italian epic from 1960 (never shown in its three-hour uncut form in the US) about a Sicilian woman and her five sons that move to Milan to make a better life for themselves (Halliwell gives this two stars.) And Michael Curtiz's part silent, part-talkie 1929 version of NOAH'S ARK--biblical epic in the Hollywood manner.
THE SECRET FESTIVAL: Nobody knows what's going to be shown, and when we find out, we can't tell anybody. It's usually esoteric, though. (My personal hope: Fox's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. My personal fear: FIRE, WALK WITH ME.)
And the international selection...
EVENTS LEADING UP TO MY DEATH (Canada, 1991), a comedy about a young man trying to escape the web of his Suburban Family From Hell.
THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Czechoslovakia, 1991), which recounts a young boy's memory of a substitute teacher who becomes a hero to his class, but doesn't quite live up to his reputation.
LA DISCRETE (France, 1990), a wry film about a young writer who, when his girlfriend dumps him, decides to go out, seduce a woman, and then dump her, recounting the entire experience in a book. His plan does not go the way he planned.
ZEBRAHEAD (USA, 1992) about an inter-racial romance in Detroit.
EIGHT BALL (Australia, 1992), describes an ex-con and a handyman who become friends, and their efforts to raise the former's son.
FLIRTING (Australia, 1990) Another Australian coming-of-age film, this one set in 1965 and involving inter-racial romance.
SPOTSWOOD (Australia, 1991) Anthony Hopkins plays an efficiency expert sent to a moccasin factory to improve productivity, who discovers the pleasures of living a bit more leisurely. (This does look good.)
MONTREAL SEXTET (Canada, 1991) A collection of vignettes by six directors set in Montreal.
WISECRACKS (Canada, 1991) A collection of routines and interviews by female comics, including Whoopi Goldberg, Paula Poundstone, The Clichettes, and Kim Wayans.
SWORDSMAN IN DOUBLE-FLAG TOWN (China, 1990) Basically a cross between a swordsman epic and a western.
ZENETROPA (Denmark, 1991) Already reviewed in rec.arts.movies.reviews. I think I'll give it a miss.
BETTY BLUE L'INTEGRAL (France, 1986/91) BETTY BLUE with footage cut from the original, i.e. a Director's Cut. From the guy who directed DIVA.
THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND (France, 1990) Jean Rochert plays a man who enjoys hairdressers and haircuts, and how he falls in love with one (a hairdresser, not a haircut.)
L'ELEGANT CRIMINEL (France, 1990) Daniel Auteuil plays a criminal that Lacenaire, the character in LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS, was based on.
LESSONS IN DARKNESS (Germany, 1992) Warner Herzog's new film, a collection of scenes during and after the invasion of Kuwait.
MARTHA AND I (Germany, 1990) A new, gentle drama starring Marianne Sagebracht of BAGHDAD CAFE. A boy grows up in his Uncle's house before the outbreak of WWII in Prague.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME (Great Britain, 1992): A new documentary by Errol Morris (THE THIN BLUE LINE), on the writings of Stephen Hawkins. Music by Philip Glass--this looks good.
THE DIRECTOR'S PLACE (Great Britain, 1991): Developed by the BBC, this is a series of portraits about well-known directors, in this case John Boorman and Nagisa Oshima.
ENCHANTED APRIL (Great Britain, 1991) Miranda Richardson and Joan Plowright in the story of four British women in the 1920's who rent a villa on the Italian coast.
THE FAVOR, THE WATCH AND THE VERY BIG FISH (Great Britain/France, 1991) Bob Hoskins *and* Jeff Goldblum? I'd go for it. Hoskins plays a photographer of religious art who is told he must find a model to pose for Jesus. A hirsute Jeff Goldblum turns out to be a dead ringer for Him.
NAKED MAKING LUNCH (Great Britain, 1992). The making of NAKED LUNCH (the movie, not the book.) Cronenberg and Burroughs (and Davis and Weller) are all interviewed.
ONE FULL MOON (Great Britain, 1991) An atmospheric Welsh film about a boy and his guilt.
A QUESTION OF ATTRIBUTION (Great Britain, 1991). Almost ten years ago, director John Schlesinger and writer Alan Bennett put together one of my favorite little films, AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD, about Coral Browne meeting exiled spy Guy Burgess in Moscow. A really wonderful film. Now they have both returned to do a film on another one of the members of the infamous spy scandal, Sir Anthony Blunt. Blunt is played by James Fox, his new inquisitor is played (in a remarkably fine piece of casting) by David Calder (recognizable to some from the BBC STAR COPS series), and Prunella Scales as (I am not joking) Queen Elizabeth.
[I just saw this tonight--a really excellent film to start the festival out with. It jumps very well between the searching for truth in the investigation of art and the searching for truth in investigations of people. Calder plays marvelously well against Fox, and Fox has a wonderful 10 minute dialogue with Scales, with both of them talking about one thing and meaning something completely different. Top-notch; as good, I think, as AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD, though not having the wonderful finale of the first film.]
THE SUSPENDED STRIDE OF THE STORK (Greece, 1991) A new film by Theo Angelopoulos, dealing with a TV reporters story into the fate of refuges and political exiles in Europe.
DAYS OF BEING WILD (Hong Kong, 1991) A big award-winner in the Hong Kong film awards, it details the strangely-linked lives of a group of young people in Hong Kong in the 60s.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (Hong Kong, 1991) YES! A new Tsui Hark (CHINESE GHOST STORY, TERRA-COTTA WARRIOR, SWORDSMAN) high-adrenaline martial-arts manic film. Set in 1875, a young patriot works at changing the government of China, while attempting to rescue his gal from nasty American slave traders. Ya gotta love it!
THE STRANGER (India, 1991) The last film of the late Satyajit Ray, a long-lost uncle comes to live with a "modern" Indian family.
THE BACHELOR (Italy, 1991) Filmed in English, this features Keith Carradine as a young Victorian man and the women he meets. It also stars Miranda Richardson and Max Von Sydow.
BOILING POINT and A SCENE BY THE SEA (Japan, 1991): Two new films by Takeshi Kitano, who directed and starred in last Festival's VIOLENT COP. (Given that film, I'll probably skip these two, though the latter is in a very different vein.)
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN (Mexico, 1992) A new film by Alex (REPO MAN, SID AND NANCY) Cox.
THE LEGEND OF THE MASK (Mexico, 1990) A deceased masked wrestler is given the Citizen Kane treatment.
ROY ROGERS, KING OF THE COWBOYS (Netherlands, 1991) A man who grew up loving Roy Rogers movies as a kid comes to America to meet his idols. He does!
THE BEWILDERED KING (Spain, 1991) Supposedly the first comedy of manners set during the Spanish Inquisition. (Except by Monty Python.)
BROTHER'S KEEPER (USA, 1992) A documentary about a group of impoverished bachelor brothers who, when one is found dead by the police, are arrested for murder; and the outpouring of support for Delbert Ward, the accused brother from the community that had left the brothers.
GALAXIES ARE COLLIDING (USA, 1992) Right before his wedding, guy is getting very weird, and goes out into the desert and disappears. Family assumes he's dead and turns the wedding into a funeral. I don't know; I've had bad vibes about bizarre comedies set in the desert since that awful thing with Crispin Glover last year.
GAS, FOOD, AND LODGING (USA, 1992) Brooke Adams and Ione Skye as mother and daughter, living in a small New Mexico town, in a "small, personal drama."
INSIDE MONKEY ZETTERLAND (USA, 1992) Another one of those 1001 crazy character dark comedies, notable for having Rupert Everett, Katherine Helmond, Sofia Coppola, Bo Hopkins and (aiieee!) Sandra Bernhard in it.
JOHNNY SUEDE (USA, 1991) This has gotten a lot of word-of-mouth. Basically, a guy gets hit on the head, and thinks he's the next Rickie Nelson.
MAD AT THE MOON (USA, 1992) The new film by Martin (APARTMENT ZERO) Donovan, about a woman (Mary Stuart Masterson) in the early 1900s who marries a farmer (Stephen Blake) but is still in love with a ne'er-do-well (Hart Bocher). Suspense follows.
MONSTER IN A BOX (USA, 1991) The new Spaulding Gray talks-to-the-camera film.
NIGHT ON EARTH (USA, 1991) The new Jim Jarmusch let's-wander-around film. Has Winona Ryder as a cab driver, for the info of the r.a.movies Winona legion.
RAMPAGE (USA, 1991, but supposedly kept from distribution for six years) William Friedkin's story of a serial killer who is definitely nuts, and the D.A.'s (Michael Bien) struggle to decide whether he should ask for the death penalty or not.
THE WATERDANCE (USA, 1992) Neal Jimenez's (writer of RIVER'S EDGE and FOR THE BOYS) partially-autobiographical story of a writer who breaks his back and goes through the changes this brings about. Stars Eric Stoltz, Wesley Snipes, and Bill Forysthye.
THE ENQUIRERS (USA, 1992) Takes the idea of "what if all those Elvis sitings in the tabloids were *true*?" You mean they aren't?!
NOT MOZART (Great Britain, 1991, video): A collection of shorts that are sort of about Mozart. One, M IS FOR MAN, MUSIC, MOZART is by Peter Greenaway.
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Oh.... and *how* could I forget the Midnight Festival? Good dirty trash, as you like it. Luckily for us slowly fading yuppies, they've limited it to Saturday nights only. Films are:
THE ICEMAN COMETH (Hong Kong, 1991) A good and evil super-swordsman are frozen in the Ming Dynasty, but are rejuvenated in the present day! (No doubt sharing the same iceberg as Captain America.) They both cope with the modern world, before their inevitable climatic battle.
VEGAS IN SPACE (USA, 1992) Sort of like FLESH GORDON, but cheesier. The adventures of Captain Dan Tracy of the U.S.S. Intercourse...
SEX AND ZEN (Hong Kong, 1991) Man in ancient China loves girls. Man is funny and is a poet and sings well and flosses regularly. Unfortunately, man has small penis. So man takes the obvious solution: he has magician transplant a horses' sexual organ onto himself. "Zany and full of laffs!" Unh-huh.
REVENGE OF BILLY THE KID (Great Britain, 1991): I think I'll just quote this one verbatim: "When frisky farmer Gyles Macdonald, uncouth and alcoholic, has a torrid liaison with the farmyard goat, little does he know of the horrific consequences that will ensue." I'll bet! (Maybe this film was based on University of Washington Fraternity activities.)
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Like I said--let me know if you've good, bad or indifferent things to say about any of these. As usual, I'll burn myself out over the next three weeks, take a couple of months to recover, and get reviews out in July or August. Until then, Aloha.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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