Wave of Mutilation

As much as I’d like it to be, this is not a post about the Pixies, but that doesn’t mean it has absolutely nothing to do with them. I bring them up here at the start because their music, much like that fantastic cover of the Carpenters classic, tends to be a little bit on the dark – some would even say depressive – side of things. But there is almost always also a point to their lyrics, a reason for the malaise and ennui, and like all great musicians their work goes deeper then just being able to play well and craft a catchy tune.

Movies can sometimes be a lot like Pixie lyrics. Films like Babel or In the Bedroom or Platoon or Leaving Las Vegas can seem pretty grim for most of their running time, but there is a depth and meaning to all the heartbreak and sorrow that resonates so deeply each of those pictures become impossible to forget. Despair and darkness can be a good thing, and as long as there is purpose to the pain I’m all for stories that head straight inside the heart of darkness and holding nothing back.

What I do I have problems with are motion pictures like Downloading Nancy. Technically well made, gorgeously shot by the great Christopher Doyle (resembling a little his dynamic work on Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express) and extremely well acted by its three leads Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell and especially Maria Bello, director Johan Renck’s debut work a piece of straight-up nihilism that’s about as appetizing as mainlining battery acid.



This is a movie obsessed with depression. It is about a self-destructive woman named Nancy (Bello) whose 15-year dysfunctional marriage has driven her right around the bend. Apparently abused as a child, she likes things a bit rough (if you get my meaning), golf-obsessed husband Albert (Sewell) too caught up in his own superficial world to notice his wife is slowly falling to pieces.

Keeping thing simple, she comes to the conclusion that the only way she can be free and happy is to be dead, but she can only experience that if she can find someone to end it all for her in the act of absolute sexual brutality she desperately longs for. Patric is the man on the internet Nancy meets who likes it nearly as rough as she does, while Amy Brenneman also stars as one of the most singularly unhelpful therapists I’ve ever cinematically encountered.

If there were some deeper meaning to Pamela Cuming and Lee Ross’ screenplay (based upon the latter’s original story) I’d be okay with all this masochistic darkness. If I felt like I was learning something deep or meaningful about the human condition, I’d be okay with 100 or so minutes of straight-up despair. Heck, I’d have settled for one of the characters having some sort of emotional recognition that felt genuine or honest, at least then I could try to convince myself in some small way there was some sort of merit to all this depravity.

But nothing like that ever takes place. All this movie wants is to deliver the pain, and it wants to do it in as unsettling a way as possible. This has got to be the singular most uncomforting film I’ve seen all year, and while I appreciate and respect the fact that Bello and Patric were so willing to shed themselves so emotionally (and physically) naked for it that alone does not make watching such an irredeemable crock of hooey even slightly worthwhile.

I have a problem with movies that are all about and for the suffering with no other reason to exist than that. I’m not saying all stories have to have happy endings with rainbows and butterflies and little animated birds chirping brightly, not at all. What I am saying is that there has to be some point to the malaise, some reason for it to matter. After all, viewers are the ones who have to sit there for two hours and absorb it all in, and if your going to spend all that time making us feel like crap you sure as hell better make sure there’s damn good reason.

In other SIFF news, I just noticed that there is ANOTHER mockumentary on the SIFF docket, and like Mothers & Daughters it is a Canadian production. It’s called The Baby Formula and has its first screening on Tuesday. On the plus side, it actually sounds kind of interesting (lesbian couple desperately wanting a child secretly – and separately – go to a doctor and get impregnated with genetically modified ‘female’ sperm made from their own DNA). Maybe I’ll to give it a shot. After all, the Canadians can’t screw up the format twice in the same festival, right?

Over the "Moon"

The one major drawback to SIFF is also the one thing that makes it stand out from the international film festival crowd, its size. With so many features, documentaries and shorts, it’s sometimes easy to become overwhelmed to the point you actually forget some of what you seen. Especially if you see it early, like during the press screening period that happens weeks before the festival starts, and unless the picture stands out as magnificent the chances you might forget it – even for an instant – is unfortunately pretty high.

That’s what happened to me in regards to director Duncan Jones excellent science fiction drama Moon. I actually saw this movie all the way back in April, and it didn’t even occur to me that it was playing during the first week of SIFF until the moment I was suddenly sitting down with the director to talk about. It was completely absent during the Thursday’s recap of my early personal favorites, the fact I didn’t mention it making me feel a bit like a total idiot.

Why? Because this movie, even in spite of some relative problems with over-familiarity and predictability, is a total grabber from start to finish. The story of corporate drone Sam Bell (Sam Rockewell) at the tail end of a three-year contract working alone (save for the companionship of singular robot named GERTY, wonderfully voiced by Kevin Spacey) in a mining plant on the Moon, the film is a glorious 1970’s/1980’s style throwback that makes you think almost as much as it entertains.

Not wanting to give too much away, threw a seemingly random and bizarre sequence of events Sam ends up coming face-to-face with what appears to be a three-years younger version of himself, the two men having to figure out what is going on before a retrieval team from the corporate office arrives to assess the situation. Is there a conspiracy, the company hiding a secret the two Sams were never meant to discover? Or is it all a figment of the man’s imagination, almost 1095 days of solitude taking their toll on his fracturing psyche?

The answer isn’t all the surprising, to be completely honest, but the journey is still so enthralling the fact I pretty much had the whole story clocked the moment Sam One and Sam Two met for the first time didn’t really bother me. Jones creates a magnificent fusion of 2001, Silent Running, Outland and Gattaca consistently thought-provoking and engaging. There is a smooth, almost pulsating tension running through the picture that got a little bit under my skin and kept me gingerly creeping to the edge of me seat, the filmmaker plays things just close enough to the vest I couldn’t help but want to see more.



It also helps immensely that Rockwell, easily one of the most underrated and undervalued actors of his generation (his work in films as diverse as Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, Confessions of Dangerous Mind, Choke, Frost/Nixon and Snow Angels shows an almost unbelievable range) this dual portrait of one man’s journey at two points in time is arguably one of his very best. What he does here is like what Jeremy Irons accomplished in Dead Ringers, and if there were any justice in the world voting members will take the time to seek this small sci-fi drama out a give the guy the Oscar nomination he totally deserves.

As the film starts going into limited release in just a couple of weeks, I’m going to leave things there for now. There is so much more to talk about and discuss, and I almost can’t wait to get into that interview I had with Duncan. That said, here’s one quote from our brief 20-minute chat I think you might enjoy, the two of us having a debate on the two different types of directors who graduate from making commercials and go into the world of feature-length motion pictures. I have to say, to me at least, I don’t just think his answer is a good one, I feel it’s downright refreshing.

“I think there are two different types of [commercial directors]. I think there are those who want to make feature films to start off with, and commercials are a root to making [them]. They use commercials to learn, to explore the medium and to get better at the craft, and I think that’s the type I am.”

“And then there are the people who make a fantastic living making commercials and kind of just feel like they should probably make a feature because they’ve done so many commercials, and I think those are the guys who maybe have a little bit of a problem doing something that doesn’t come naturally to them. [Commercials], it is about the look of things, it is about the visuals, and if you don’t want to look deeper than the surface it’s easy to fall into that trap when you start making feature films.”

“For me, it is about the characters. The visuals are important. The look is important. But the characters and their story are more important. For some guys maybe that’s not the same, it’s not the point for them. They like blowing things up and showing off their technology, and sometimes that can be entertaining but, personally, I think a really good film needs to have more than that. Hopefully it shows in [Moon] and in the other films I’ll get the opportunity to make.”

Moon opens in New York and Los Angeles on June 12 and then expands from there. It should have been in the top five in my first week top ten recap and it is a movie I hope everyone goes out and sees and I apologize for letting it slip my mind.

First Week Top Ten

We’re now officially one week into the 35th Annual Seattle International Film Festival. Granted, regular screenings didn’t start until last Friday (only the opening night picture, In the Loop, screened on Thursday), so I guess I should be making that statement tomorrow instead of today. But it’s too late now as I’ve already written it, and while there are plenty of things playing tomorrow night I haven’t seen considering the number I already have I think I can write the rest of this entry in relative good conscience.

What in the world am I talking about? Well, I figured as we’re through the first seven days I might as well rate my favorites of the festival up to this point so far. After all, we are a culture suddenly obsessed with lists, so my adding one more (no matter how obscure it’s going to end up being) isn’t going to hurt anything.

So, without further ado, here are my votes for the Top Ten films of SIFF through the first week:

10. Pop Star On Ice – Outstanding and highly entertaining documentary chronicling United States figure skater Johnny Weir as he competes for Olympic Gold. Anyone who has ever seen the guy skate already knows how much of an outspoken character he is, but I didn’t expect him to be so interesting and compelling as well. Directors David Barba and James Pellerito do an excellent job of showing the highs, lows and mesmerizing in-betweens of Weir’s life, the film having an emotional resonance I admittedly wasn’t quite prepared for.

9. Summer Hours – To quote my review of director Olivier Assayas’ latest project, “There is an exquisite, almost longing ebullience to Summer Hours that lasted long after I left the movie theater, many of its themes whipping through my head like a whirlwind. I found that I didn’t want the film to end, that I wanted to see what kind of adults the siblings’ children would grow to become, to discover what sort of world it would be they would inherit. While not a masterpiece Assayas has still achieved something modestly miraculous, the finished product a memorable journey I can’t wait to embark on again.”

8. Morris: A Life with Bells On – If you scroll down you’ll see I already extolled the virtues of this winning mock documentary quite thoroughly. I also had the pleasure of interviewing the film’s star and writer Charles Thomas Oldham. Here’s my favorite quote (partly coming from my question asking Oldham where he hoped to go from here): “Worldwide domination, ideally, is the plan. That sounds nice. No, seriously, ideally I’d just love to do this again. That’s really what we want to do. I’ve been a lawyer, I’ve been a banker, they are the worst jobs on the planet. They’re dull, and they’re uninspiring to me (although there are [probably] plenty of people out there who enjoy being lawyers and bankers - I'm just not one of them). I love [acting], and I certainly love filmmaking. It is the most extraordinary way to make a living.”

7. Paper Heart – Another mock documentary (this festival seems to be full of them), this one revolving around actress Charlyne Yi as she travels across America trying to discover whether or not love exists, falling in l’amour with fellow actor Michael Cera along the way. Sweet, beguiling and beautifully awkward, this is one of those movies you can’t help but smile about each every time you think about it.

6. The Beast Stalker – Hong Kong director Dante Lam delivers a forceful, highly kinetic action opus that had me at the edge of my seat start to finish. A few too many of the genres usual quirks aside (the slo-mo inherent in Asian action cinema really has to stop), the central story (disgraced cop tries to redeem himself when a prosecutor’s daughter is kidnapped by trying to rescue her himself) is so gripping and suspenseful I found it impossible to look away. (The director has a second film playing at the festival, Sniper, and the buzz is that it is even better than this one. I can’t wait.)

5. Passing Strange – Spike Lee’s expertly photographed documentation of the landmark Broadway production’s final show. Extremely intimate, watching it I didn’t just feel like I was in the audience, at times I even felt like was actually on the stage itself. (There is no trailer for this yet, the video is from the 2008 Tony Awards.)

4. Spring Breakdown – Dumb? Yes. Silly? Definitely. Funny? You better believe it. How this inspired lowbrow comedy starring Parker Posey, Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch (who also co-wrote the screenplay) is being shuffled straight to video is beyond me because this movie has laughs, lots of them. As underappreciated gems go, as far as SIFF 2009 is concerned this one might just be at the very top of my list.

3. Deadgirl – I cannot get this movie out of my head. I knew what was going to happen, I knew where it was going to go and I knew exactly the way in which it would end. Nonetheless, this story of two teenage boys and their undead corpse crawled under my skin and refused to let go. Disturbing, to say the least, but also unforgettable, and that’s not a gift I’m going to even remotely take for granted.

2. The Hurt Locker – One of the best films of the year, Kathryn Bigelow’s dynamic opus of a bomb disposal unit working Baghdad is easily one of the more kinetically ferocious pieces of work of the director’s entire career. It’s a ticking clock thriller where danger lurks around every corner, and by the time it was over I’d realized I’d sweat so hard I’d have to go home and change into a new shirt.

1. In the Loop – No surprise here. I’ve been talking this one up since the very first moment I saw it at the SIFF press launch almost a month ago. As satires go, this one is as smart and pointed as any of the best ones you can call to mind. As comedies go, it’s so fall on the floor funny I could almost foresee myself watching it as many times as I’ve seen A Fish Called Wanda or Some Like it Hot. As 2009 goes, it’s not just the best film I’ve seen at SIFF, it’s the best film I’ve seen this year.

HONORABLE MENTION
The Cove - Louie Psihoyos' documentary by all rights should be sitting in that number three slot. It is as good a piece of investigative filmmaking as anything I'm likely to see. But as much fun as it is, that final 20 minuts unnerved me so much I have trouble talking about the movie more than just saying, "It's good - it's really good," to whomever asks me about it. Unfair? Yes, but unfortunately that's the place I'm at right now. All I can add is that this is a movie everyone should see, the truth Psihoyos unearths one the whole damn world should take the time to do something about.

Mocking the Doc - Part II

I don’t normally repeat myself, but I just finished watching Canadian director Carl Bessai’s comedic drama Mothers & Daughters and it is another mock documentary to add to the 2009 SIFF list. It’s also been pointed out to me that, technically speaking, my favorite film of the festival In the Loop is also (more or less – but I don’t totally agree) one as well.

Mothers & Daughters is exactly why I do not typically like this particular genre. It is everything that annoys me, sort of the familial single camera cousin to Crash or Babel or Crossing Over. While the issues Bessai’s film are concerned with aren’t nearly as heady as the ones faced in those pictures, its multi-character structure is, and as far as the format goes combining it with the mock doc isn’t exactly my concept of a good idea.

This movie is arch and annoying. Chronicling the relationship between a handful of mothers and their respective daughters, on the surface the movie is supposed to be about the bonds between parent and child that irrevocably shape their lives for both the good and the bad. But the film is so overdone, so shrill and cloying, I never believed for a moment that any of these women were flesh and blood human beings. The film felt forced and false, and the only thing I wanted while watching it was for the darn thing to come to an end (when 86-minutes feels like 186 you know you’re in trouble).

To be fair, not everything is a disaster. Actress Tantoo Cardinal (you might remember her from a variety of projects, most notably 1998’s Smoke Signals) is outstanding. She is the only one that seems to tap into her character’s inner essence and I never felt like she was acting the part. Cardinal simply was Celine (a professional house painter regretting past choices made in regards to her own daughter now being given the opportunity to help out a young woman on the verge of motherhood herself), a part of me almost wishing we could have seen a movie only about her life and have left the rest of the women on the cutting room floor.

Like I said, not a lot to say here. I just felt like if I was going to extol the virtues of a couple of mock documentaries I did like I should probably point out one I mostly didn’t care for. Mothers & Daughters is that movie, and as of right now it is the only film I’ve seen at SIFF I sort of wish I’d never taken the time to view in the first place.

And now... back to a movie I do REALLY like...

Mocking the Doc (with bells on)

While two out of about 400 (well, three if you count an ingenious German short film about elder care, retirement, apprenticeships and zombie killing that I can’t for some reason remember the title of) cannot be considered a trend, I still think it is worth pointing out that a couple of the most popular titles to be discovered by audience during the opening weekend just happened to be mock documentaries. The British import Morris: A Life with Bells On had its North American premier to a virtual sellout, while Sundance favorite Paper Heart packed both of its houses nearly beyond the breaking point.

Personally, this is not a format I think works particularly well for a full 90-plus minutes. With rare exception (last year’s horror double-team Cloverfield and Quarantine both come to mind), films that go in this direction usually tire me out. You just can’t sustain the gag, and after a while it almost always begins to feel like the energy has waned and my attention span has wavered right along with it.

Not so with this pair. The former, still looking for a domestic distributor (and certainly is deserving of one), revolves around the trials and tribulation of an English Morris Dancer (a peculiar folk dance involving hankies and wooden sticks), while the latter stars (and was written by) Charlyne Yi and revolves around her sudden romance with movie star Michael Cera during her filming of a documentary all about love.

They’re a crazy little pair with just about nothing in common, yet both are made so skillfully that if you didn’t know they were fake going in you’d almost think (especially in regards to Paper Heart) they were 100-percent real. The casts for both films are decidedly game, staying in character even when the central action has nothing to do with them at all. They are perfect examples of how to do this genre proud, and I think if general audiences are given they chance both of them might end up doing reasonably well as far as ticket and DVD sales are concerned.

I actually had the opportunity to sit down with Charles Thomas Oldham, writer and star of Morris, on the eve of his premiere and our free-flowing (and quite funny) conversation lasted almost a full 40-minutes before we both came to realization we should probably end or we might end up sitting on couches at the W Hotel for the rest of the afternoon. While I’m not going to reprint the entire thing, I liked the film so much I’d be remiss for not at least transcribing some of the better bits.

So many comedies don’t come close to meeting expectations, so to encounter one that pole vaults right over the top of them it’s the least I can do to spend a couple of minutes urging you all to check it out. It’s part of the job, after all, and I have to say that, if it wasn’t, I’m not entirely sure I’d love to doing it near as much energetically do.

It’s a big night. Are you excited about your North American premiere? “You always get nervous because, it’s your baby. In the case of Morris, [I’ve] lived it and breathed it for three years. Suddenly you’re putting it in front of audiences and you don’t know what’s going to happen. You think, ‘Why didn’t you laugh at that bit? I liked that line, I thought it was funny.’ Then they laugh at a different bit you didn’t expect and you think to yourself, okay, fine, whatever, I get it. At a certain point you just have to let it go. The audience decides for you if you got the job done, hopefully for us they’ll think we did.”

Are British comedies better than their American counterparts? Do you worry that British humor just doesn’t connect for audiences over here or is that a cliché argument not worthy discussing? “I’m thinking of what you’re saying there and, naturally, I would always think of Frasier, not just because I’m in Seattle but because it is my favorite comedy. That’s the best English Farce outside of Fawlty Towers that’s ever been written. It’s so well done, and I keep on watching [that] and thinking this is so amazing, and yet it’s so English, and yet it is also so popular over here [in America]. I think any comedy that is done well, and especially if it is not nasty and it is done genuinely, I think it will translate, doesn’t matter if it is British, American or something else. Good comedy makes people laugh, and I [think] we made good comedy.”

What were you thinking when writing this? Did you always know you were going to act in it as well as write the script? “It was actually as calculated and as cynical as that. I’ve been an actor for a while now but I came to acting quite late. I used to be an investment banker and a lawyer and then I discovered I wanted to wear tights and makeup and all of that. So I went to drama school quite late and graduated at 32, which is a tough time to leave especially when you’ve got red hair and are 6’3”, and I was really struggling.”

“At the same time, though, I was able to start doing really well doing voiceover work. I’m very lucky to this day to being voiceover work, but you get to the point where you have to make a choice, and that’s to be doing voiceovers all the time or, in the back of your mind, you say I’ll put all this success here to good use and write something for myself to star in. I’ll give myself the chance no one else is giving me. And so, using the Noel Coward school of writing and the like, I wrote myself the biggest part, cast myself in the lead role and then had an absolute ball. It’s that simple.”

Why Morris Dancing? Where did that come from? “There’s something about Morris that just appealed. We knew we could make it for cheaply. But, basically, at the end of the day I just thought it was funny. I look at Morris Men and can’t help but think, yeah, that’s funny.”

But how do you prepare for a role like this? How do you become a Morris Folk Dancer? “This is your forensic cross-examination quality because you’ve uncovered my deep dark secret. The truth is I lived with a Morris family when I was 16. When my parents went to Australia I stayed in the U.K. and went to stay with my next door neighbors. I went from a typical, British Middle Class with a small ‘c’ and not particularly artistic family [to] a very, very folksy, artsy, energetic family surrounded by artists of all types doing Morris Dancing in the backyard during BBQs. It was the most extraordinary different world, and I think was assembling nuggets [back then].”

“Obviously I wasn’t writing a film, but there was something about the Morris world that was permeating through me and I channeled that for the script.”

Were you surprised at all at the cast (Naomie Harris, Derek Jacobi, Greg Wise, Ian Hart, Dominique Pinon) you were able to assemble for this film? “Completely and utterly. I get such a kick rattling off all the names. Given that we were paying them a 150 Pounds a day – everybody got that, it was a flat rate – it was absolutely extraordinary that we were able to get the talent we did, especially to that extent. If I never work again, I can die happy after having made this having acted beside Derek Jacobi and Greg Wise and Ian Hart.”

Ian Hart is such a criminally underrated actor. I mean, funny enough, over here he’s not so much, but back home he is. I mean, he [was] in Dirt over here and that was a much bigger hit in America than it was in [England]. But he’s just the most outstanding scouter, and he’s fantastic just to have around. I love telling the story about when we were shooting one day [outside] and we had about 200 extras there and the kids, as they always do, want your autograph afterwards I felt like a total fool. I kept looking at them saying, ‘Actually, you want his autograph,’ and they’d be like, ‘No we don’t, we want your autograph. You’re the star. Why?’ So then I’d be like, ‘Harry Potter?’ and the lines would suddenly go like whooom! and my whole line evaporated. But he was great; he stood there for at least an hour signing autographs and pictures for the kids. It was great.”

Sounds like you almost wanted to pinch yourself a little bit. “Yeah. Maybe. I mean, like Naomie Harris flew in immediately after the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 premiere – and I’m betting her agent had no idea why she wanted to do it – and she jumped on a plane and she was here filming the beach scenes the following day. Freezing, just freezing her backside off on a cold Dorset beach, and she didn’t complain, knew her lines inside and out, and was just a total delight to work with. Same thing with Dominique Pinon, who is a hero if mine, he was just mental and brilliant. It really was a real master class of actors. We were so incredibly fortunate. It was great.”

What was your immediate reaction when you got a call from SIFF asking to premiere your film? “When we got picked for SIFF it was really out of the blue and it was like, wow, that’s f**king fantastic. We were beyond thrilled, and it was a great opportunity for us to come to the States and hopefully sell it, but there is that moment when you step off the plane and think, how are people going to respond to a film about Morris Dancing? Are they going to like it? All that goes through your mind. But it was brilliant to be picked for SIFF. I’m still a bit unbelieving that it actually happened.”

What do you hope happens from here? What are your plans? “Worldwide domination, ideally, is the plan. That sounds nice.”

“No, seriously, ideally I’d just love to do this again. That’s really what we want to do. I’ve been a lawyer, I’ve been a banker, they are the worst jobs on the planet. They’re dull, and they’re uninspiring to me (although there are [probably] plenty of people out there who enjoy being lawyers and bankers - I'm just not one of them). I love [acting], and I certainly love filmmaking. It is the most extraordinary way to make a living. You’ve got Derek Jacobi or Dominique Pinon saying your words and you just think, yes, I lived a charmed life. In the end, I think the only thing you could ever want after that is the chance to do it again.”

Hasty Departures

It might come as a surprise, but the one movie I might have been looking forward to over any other (well, save maybe Kathryn Bigelow’s sensational The Hurt Locker) was director Yôjirô Takita’s Departures. This was, after all, the surprise winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, beating out supposed frontrunners The Class and Waltz with Bashir for the prize.

Sad to say, after seeing it I can’t quite understand how this upset took place. Sweet, sometimes moving and definitely heartfelt, Departures is nonetheless a bit of a disappointment, repeating itself far too much and not really going anyplace you don’t readily expect right at the start.

It’s an intriguing concept, to be sure. The film follows cellist Daigo Kobayashi (soulfully played by Masahiro Motoki) as he moves back to his home province with his wife after the big city orchestra he plays for disbands. In need of work, he answers an add asking for someone to help assist with ‘Departures.’ Thinking this advertisement must be for a travel agency he immediately applies and hopes for the best.

He gets the job, but the position isn’t with a travel agency. Instead, it is to assist with the ceremonial ‘encoffinating’ of corpses before they are sent for cremation, not exactly the type of work he ever expected to be involved with. While frowned on by the community, Daigo finds himself learning to love his new job, however, the value of what he is doing for the families involved one they seem to appreciate almost beyond words.

There’s more to it, including a subplot about a missing father, an elderly owner of a bathhouse and marital strife caused by the supposed ‘disgrace’ of Daigo position, but it all is trotted out rather perfunctorily if you ask me. What is wonderful is the encoffinating ceremony itself, Takita tapping into that emotional wellspring family members can’t help but feel when a loved one passes.

But even watching those grows tiring after a while. There is, unfortunately, a problem with overkill, the ceremony presented so many times the film’s 131-minute running time almost begins to feel like a funeral dirge itself. I also felt that the ultimate resolution of the missing father subplot was cloying and false, and while Motoki admittedly does an admirable job of hitting the emotional center of the moment, I myself never was moved by the event near as much as I felt I should have.

As for my journey through the first full day of the festival, let me tell you getting your sea legs at the start of SIFF ain’t no easy proposition. My day consisted of watching a movie (the fun and frothy mock documentary Morris: A Life with Bells On, a movie I hope to get more into in a later post), interviewing Robert Osbourne, interviewing Charles Thomas Oldham (writer and star of Morris, thus why I’m getting into it later), wrote for a little while, than finally settled down to watch an additional four movies in a row, including Parker Posey/Amy Poehler/Rachel Dratch dumb but very funny comedy Spring Breakdown and the surprisingly disappointing Dominic Monaghan/Ron Perlman midnight horror flick I Sell the Dead.

It’s a lot to do, and it usually takes me a couple of days to get my rhythm down so I’m not continually exhausted. Like anything you do that’s worth the effort of doing, it takes a certain bit of stamina to be a SIFF die hard. You don’t get much in the way of sleep, you drink far too much Diet Coke, eat dinners of popcorn and soft pretzels, and end up running madly around from venue to venue with barely any time to spare like a chicken with your head cut off.

Which is exactly the plan today. After sitting down with Dratch to talk about Spring Breakdown (an interview I’m actually kind of giddy for – I love her on “SNL”), it’s another marathon day starting with the locally produced The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, followed up by the apparently charming Paper Heart, changing venues I’m planning on taking in the Spanish comedy Chef’s Special before finally topping it all off with a midnight viewing of the supposedly gory and fun Norwegian shocker Dead Snow (mutant killer Nazi zombies attack – that fact alone makes it a must-see).

It’s a lot do, of course, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being ecstatic about it all. But SIFF has a way of doing that to a person, and for film lovers life doesn’t get any better than this.

A Moment with a Legend

First thing this morning I received a call from one of the SIFF publicists asking if I could be at there office within the hour, she had a brief window for an interview she knew I might be interested in. It was with Robert Osborne, the well-respected primetime host of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and to say I was showered, changed and out the door faster than the Road Runner is a total understatement.

No one who loves and cherishes the art of film could refuse the opportunity, no matter how brief, to sit and chat with Osborne. Considered the official biographer of Oscar, this University of Washington alum and former Colfax, WA native (roughly 60 miles from Spokane, my hometown) is a titan as far as I’m concerned, sitting with him a ten minute cinema class no college or university could ever hope to equal.

If I sound a bit like a gushing schoolgirl I guess I am. TCM has supplied me more hours of enjoyment and edification than I can even begin to relate, Osborne himself leading me to films I’d probably never have watched had he not spoken so highly of them. Every time I hear his voice I can’t help but feel safe and comforted, secure in the knowledge that, for right now at least, someone out there has a passion and a love for the medium that maybe even surpasses my own.

But enough of this. While our window was brief, Osborne had plenty of interest to say, and instead of dolling it out piecemeal I’m just going to let his words speak for themselves.

On the strengths of Turner Classic Movies: “We just got a Peabody Award calling [TCM] the ‘American Cinematheque,’ and I love that. One thing I love about the channel and the people doing the programming and the people behind it are all people who really do know film and the really know aspects of [it]. It’s not just Clint Eastwood films that we’re showing, not just Jack Lemmon films, it’s everything. We have our Silent Mondays so you get some of the [Greta] Garbo films, and we run some of the more obscure foreign films and we’ll find some of the lesser known films and show those as well.”

“We’ll show things like 1933’s When Ladies Meet with Myrna Loy. Not a lot of people are going to want to see it or like to see it, but if they’re people like you, people who want to learn about the history film, see these old pictures the way they were meant to be seen, you’ll get a chance to see it, and I think that’s great. I’m very proud of that fact.”

On trying to watch films with commercial interruptions: “I love that we show out films without interruptions. Films aren’t supposed to be cut, not for any reasons.”

“You know what’s always confused me, when television first began TV needed film more than film needed television. I don’t know why that they just didn’t then have a law or write into the contracts saying, we’ll sell the films, but they have to be shown uncut. That would have made it start right at the very beginning that when films were shown there would be commercials at the beginning and at the end, but not in the middle. If they had done that they would probably still being [broadcasting] them in that fashion even until today. They should have forced it to happen, and I don’t know why they weren’t adamant about that because [commercials] really destroy their films. You take a Hitchcock movie like Rear Window or Rebecca or Psycho and you put commercials in there, that whole movie is lost.”

On growing up in small town Washington State and imagining he’d ever have a career like this one: “Of course, not, no, but there are certain things that I got to do because of my passion for film like going to Los Angeles and getting the chance to associate with these people like Lucille Ball right off the bat. I remember one time being at Lucy’s house and she was showing Funny Face, it was not a new film then, but Kate Thompson was there and – it was the strangest group, actually – Joseph Cotton, Janet Gaynor, Roger Edens, Chuck Walters, Kate Thompson and couple of other people, were all their to watch the move. You went into the living room and she pushes a button and the painting goes up, she pushes another butting and the screen comes down, picks up the phone and tells the projector he could start the film, the film rolls and we’re suddenly watching Funny Face.”

“So, the movie is going on and that number between Kate Thompson and Audrey Hepurn on, ‘how to be lovely,’ comes on, and Kate stands up and actually starts doing the number. I’m sitting there thinking, this is where I’m supposed to be. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“I have to say that, by desire I programmed myself so much that I would be doing this that it doesn’t come as that big of a surprise. Now, I know that is totally stupid. This is like fantasy come true. But I was so strong about that fantasy that it hasn’t come as a surprise. What I can never stop thinking is how lucky I am that I’m the one who got to do it.”

Let the Festivities Begin

One of the things I love most about my job and about living in the city that I do is that I get a chance to cover and enjoy the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Without a doubt, this is the highpoint of my entire year, these 25-days of cinematic goodness ones cinephiles of all ages are almost certain to giddily revel in.

This 35th edition of SIFF promises to be the best one I’ve covered yet. The opening night film In the Loop is without question one of the funniest motion pictures I’ve seen in years, while if the closing night feature OSS 117: Lost in Rio is half as good as the hilarious 2006 Golden Space Needle award-winner OSS 117: Nest of Spies than I’ll be sitting happily in comedic heaven.

But the big news of this festival has to be the arrival of two directorial icons, Spike Lee and Frances Ford Coppola. Both will be presenting new pictures (Spike the documentary Passing Strange, Frances the highly personal esoteric drama Tetro), the former also this year’s recipient of a 2009 Golden Space Needle Award for Achievement in Directing.

They’re not the only major guests expected to attend the festival. “Saturday Night Live” star Rachel Dratch will be at screenings of her new comedy Spring Breakdown, Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti is expected to show up for the debut of his latest Cold Souls, director Kathryn Bigelow will present her gut-wrenching military thriller The Hurt Locker, Andy Warhol icon Joe Dallesandro will be on hand to take questions from the audience after screenings of the documentary Little Joe while TCM’s own Robert Osborne will be the presenter for many of this year’s archival presentations.

These are only a handful of the handful of international guests expected to come to Seattle. On top of that, with almost 400 narrative features and documentaries the list of attendees is in constant flux, and just yesterday one of the festival’s publicists told me that future announcements were guaranteed to knock my socks off.

Admittedly, SIFF is not for the faint of heart. With 14 different locations screening programs at some point along the way, 17 different festival programs (including perennial favorites Contemporary World Cinema, Face the Music, Midnight Adrenaline, Films4Families and the always exciting – just as long as you don’t talk about it – Secret Festival, five award categories and more premieres (31 World, 45 North American and 13 United States) than you can shake a stick at trying to do more than gloss the surface of what is offered is nearly an impossibility.

You know what I say? So what. For my money SIFF is just about perfect the way it is. Yes, it is exhausting, and of course you can’t experience it all but none of that matters as far as I’m concerned. This festival is about the pure, blissful joy of cinema, the sudden bursts of creativity that can make a person laugh, force them to think and bring them to tears. I love it, and as things officially begin this evening I’m as raring to go as I’ve ever been.

Moviefreak.com is proud to present our 4th annual coverage of this 35th edition of the Seattle International Film Festival. Starting to day and running all the way until June 14, please check our Blog for reviews, thoughts, interviews and highlights of this year’s events as seen through Sara’s increasingly-bleary eyes. For the best, most complete coverage of one of the most popular and the largest film festival in the entire world, your number one destination is right here at Moviefreak.com.

Welcome to SIFF 2009

Running from May 21 to June 14, SIFF is "the largest film festival in the US. This year we are proud to present 392 films from 62 countries over 25 days, with 31 World Premieres, 45 North American Premieres, and 13 US Premieres."

This year, SIFF challenges you to Find the Unexpected. Start with the Calendar to look for films on the schedule.

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