SIFF 5/26-5/31

Hokay, this catches up with the rest of what I've been doing, so it's not in strict Film, Date, Time format. That will follow, and YES, there will be party news soon!

So I got you up to SIFF’s Opening Night. On 5/26 I first saw Boy Culture, filmed in Seattle, about the life and times of a male hustler. Not as racy as I’d hoped, alas. Fun, if a little strained. Everyone hooted when in a scene where two of the leads are supposedly heading to Portland, they’re shown driving north on I-5. The director, Q. Allan Brocka, later said it was edited that way and you see the city better from that view. And that people outside of the NW wouldn’t notice. Then came AKA Tommy Chong, a doc about poor Mr. Chong’s prison sentence for selling bongs. Total entrapment! He says his stint has made him more of an activist, and when people ask him what prison was like he tells them “You’ll find out.” It’s been ages since I saw Up In Smoke, I might check it out again.

The next day, I finally saw The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, which was even more amazing than I thought it’d be. A boy taking piano lessons from the dictatorial Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conreid) has a raft of anxiety dreams as a result, with bizarre sets and stranger songs (the audience applauded after two of the more outrageous musical numbers). The little boy (Tommy Rettig) was amazingly cute, even the woman behind me kept commenting “He’s so cute!” I later looked him up on imdb.com, and found out he’s dead! This is a film I definitely want to see again.

Then The Scarlet Letter, a silent film version starring Lillian Gish, who was luminously radiant. Live music accompaniment by Donald Sosin. Well worth seeing. While waiting in line, the Nokia cellphone folks passed out free mints. Then Expiration Date, another shot in Seattle film about a young man who’s convinced he’s going to die when he turns 25 because of a family curse. Good fun, though it seemed to go on a bit too long towards the end, which I find with a number of films these days, actually. This will be released later; you could wait for the DVD, unless you want to rush right out and support locally-made films. Afterwards, everyone was given a free carton of chocolate milk. You have a second chance to see this film June 16 at the Egypto, 4 pm.

Sunday I checked out Al Franken: God Spoke, a doc on the comedian/satirist. Of course, that’s going to go down well in liberal ol’ Seattle, and the audience enjoyed it muchly. There was a face-off debate with Ann Coulter. I used to dislike her, but since seeing her on the cover of Time magazine within the last year, when she looked so gaunt and thin, I’ve begun to feel quite sorry for her. I think she’s in denial about being anorexic, and she’s such a perennially negative and angry person, you know she must be desperately unhappy underneath it all. And being physically ill, as she clearly is, obviously would add to her misery. Poor Ann. It’s disturbing to look at her stick-thin legs. Shudder. Al thinks he might want to run for office, especially since the murder (oops, I mean the unexpected tragic death) of Senator Paul Wellstone. Don’t do it, Al! I think he’d be better making his observations from the outside.

That night I did my first interview with Kirby Dick, director of This Film Has Not Been Rated, a movie I quite enjoyed. He got a great reception from the audience he said; “I felt like a rock star!” The film opens later, and I’ll do the interview then.

Monday, May 29. Saw The Play, a doc about women in Turkey who put on a play about their lives. When I realize that I’m not working in the fields as a peasant, married to a man I don’t like, who also beats me, and I have to drag my own self off to the hospital to give birth alone, well, it makes me feel like I really don’t have that much to complain about in my life. The kind of film that gives you a sense of perspective. On leaving the theater, the Broadway Performance Hall, encountered the free Starbucks booth in the lobby. Free coffee and tea, and friendly servers. Check it out!

On Tues., saw a press screening of Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner. Well, pretty obvious what that’s about, isn’t it? Very interesting, again I thought it seemed a bit too long by the end. Definitely the kind of thing you can wait to see on DVD, but the director, Freida Lee Mock will be in attendance at the SIFF screenings, so that would make them more interesting; June 3 at 3:45, June 5 at 6:30, both at Broadway Performance Hall.

Then a big historic epic, Anne of the Thousand Days. Very good, great performances, and the kind of thing you really need to see on a big screen. This was part of a series where famous folk chat about a film they like; this was had been picked by Grammy-winning soprano Jane Eaglen, and she spoke about it after. I have to admit that didn’t really add that much to the event for me, but I was glad to see the film.

The next night sat with Kathy Fennessey and Bill Kennedy at Old Joy, about two old friends who go away together for a weekend. Filmed in Oregon. Too slow and meandering for my tastes, frankly, but duty compels me to mention it’s screening again June 2, 4 pm, at the Egypto. I see the program says it’s “a film about our inability to stop the hands of time, and the search for sanctuary in an increasingly chaotic world,” which is sure more than I got out of it. One of the leads is Will Oldham, a musician, he did well. I had more fun hanging out with Kathy and Bill at Linda’s Tavern afterwards (they liked the film more than I did as well). Then to the NW Film Forum for The Case of the Grinning Cat, an interesting French doc about some cat graffiti that appears around Paris, mixed in with various political observations. The director (Chris Marker) has a great, light-hearted, off-kilter sense of humor. He should check out one of my favorite new sites dailykitten.com.