*recommended
FAAT-KINE
Senegal, 2000. Director: Ousmane Sembene
Thurs., June 7, 7:15 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sat., June 9, 4:00 p.m., Harvard Exit
SIFF SEZ Faat-Kine is a 40-year-old single mother with two kids about to graduate from high school, two ex-husbands, and one respectable job as manager of a gas station. She is a woman who carved her own way in a society shaped mostly by tribal customs and male prejudices. This upbeat celebration of an African Everywoman is the second film in the 78-year-old director’s Everyday Heroes trilogy.
FAMILY PACK
Belgium/France/Canada/Switzerland, 2000. Director: Chris Vander Stappen
Wed., June 6, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sat., June 9, 1:45 p.m., Egyptian
If Hollywood remade Long Day’s Journey Into Night with a few extra twists, it might look something like this French comic bauble about family secrets and lives of denial. Lovely Sacha returns to her family home in 1969 Brussels from Montreal, where, contrary to what her family believes, she has not been studying to be a doctor nor been conducting herself as a heterosexual. Sacha’s girlfriend, for no evident reason, has demanded that she come clean with her family. Once home, however, Sacha finds that her parents, grandmother, and sister are too caught up in their own mundane routines—and their own secrets—to take notice of her revelations. For its first hour or so, Pack delivers some touchingly amusing insights on the way family members gently suffocate one another, but the comedy and the tragedy are both overplayed, and the latter portion of the film is dragged down by trite resolutions and unnecessary epiphanies. M.D.F.
FAMOUS
U.S.A., 2000. Director: Griffin Dunne
Mon., June 11 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Wed., June 13 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ A raucous, in-your-face mockumentary featuring cameos by a delicious assortment of screen luminaries, Famous follows a budding young actress poised on the edge of her 15 minutes of fame. Young Lisa *ard (Laura Kirk) has a modicum of talent and looks. Best known for her work in a surprisingly racy Wheat Chex commercial, Lisa anticipates her big break as her new made-for-television movie, featuring Mira Sorvino and Charlie Sheen, is readied for airing. As she makes the rounds with her best friend Tate (Nat DeWolf)—a gay activist actor/writer who is currently prepping a one-man show about homophobia and his coming-out traumas—Lisa crosses paths in a series of seemingly random incidents with the likes of Sandra Bullock, Spike Lee, Buck Henry, Carrie Fisher, and Penelope Ann Miller. Director/actor Dunne, whose Addicted to Love opened SIFF ’98, here returns to the screen with an amusingly provocative exploration of the thespian lifestyle as seen from an actor’s point of view. U.S. premiere.
FAREWELL TO HARRY
Seattle, 2000. Director: Garrett Bennett
Sun., May 27, 6:30 p.m., Egyptian
Fri., June 15, 5:00 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
SIFF SEZ A last-chance writer meets a boozing ex-hatmaker in this moving, visually inventive film about one man’s struggle to change and another man’s eagerness to believe once again in the dreams he left behind. The men ignite a rich and complex friendship. Preceded by Strange Ships, a brief meditation on uncertainty, anxiety, and busy hallways, directed by Mark O’Connell (U.S.A., 3 minutes). World premieres.
FILM NOIR
Japan, 2000. Director: Masahiro Kobayashi
Wed., June 6, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian
Fri., June 8, 2:30 p.m., Cinerama
SIFF SEZ This lustrous, comically absurd homage to film noir follows Yuhi Hamazaki, a “typical salaried man” living in Japan’s snowy north. After losing his job, Yuhi spends his days at a pachinko parlor to avoid telling his wife what has happened. One day a stranger offers him 5 million yen to kill a man. Using noir master Jean-Pierre Melville’s movies for instruction, Yuhi takes to murder with giddy resolve.
FILMMAKERS FORUM
Is Digital the Death of Cinema?
Sat., May 26, 10 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
SIS: From the Trenches
Mon., June 1, 11:30 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Coded Language: Deconstructing Music Videos
(with a discussion for high school students) Fri., June 1, 5 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
The Black Experience on Film
Sat., June 2, 10 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
What’s a Documentary For?
Sat., June 9, 10 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Dragons on the Doorstep: New Asian Cinema
Sat., June 9, 1 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Whatever Happened to Talking Pictures?
Fri., June 15, 10 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
What’s a Film Critic For?
Fri., June 15, 1 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
FINAL
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Campbell Scott
Cast: Hope Davis, Denis Leary, Guy Davis
Fri., June 8, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 10, 2:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
SIFF SEZ In Final, Bill (Leary) wakes up in a barely furnished hospital room. Believing he is being prepared for his “final injection” by the government (it’s 2399), he refuses to surrender to Ann (Hope Davis), his doctor, as she tries to reassure him and get at the root of his madness. In this psychological game of cat-and-mouse, Bill agonizes over whether Ann means to help him find his sanity or plans to wield the needle that will do him in. Featuring a soundtrack by blues guitarist Guy Davis, who also appears in the film. World premiere.
FINDER’S FEE
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Jeff Probst
Cast: Erik Palladino, James Earl Jones, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard
Sat., June 16, 6:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., June 17, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ How far would you go to get hold of millions? ER’s Erik Palladino plays a struggling artist who finds a wallet and makes arrangements to return it—and then discovers a winning lottery ticket inside. The rightful owner (James Earl Jones) arrives during a poker game attended by a trio of Adam’s friends. Who knows what about the ticket’s whereabouts is complicated when the cops come searching for a fugitive. Funny and revealing, Fee strips character down to the bone and then turns the screw in one final wrenching twist. World premiere.
FLEEING BY NIGHT
Taiwan, 2000. Directors: Li-kung Hsu, Chi Yin
Thurs., June 7, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Mon., June 11, 5:00 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Take a gay love triangle, Chinese opera, and World War II, and you’ve got some drama—right? Well, let’s just say that Farewell My Concubine now looks a lot better by comparison to this uneventful, overlong melodrama. There are actually two love triangles at work in Night‘s ’30s milieu: first the girl, cellist, and opera singer; second, the cellist, opera singer, and the latter’s long-haired opium fiend boyfriend (the handsomest and most interesting character in the picture). For all the homoerotic longing, there’s hardly a glimpse of sex—much less smooching—in the movie; don’t go expecting to be rewarded with any smut after enduring long passages of opera. Somewhere, buried deep within Night, there’s the faint influence of Jules and Jim, since the cellist and girl eventually reach a kind of wistful romantic understanding. “Is life just full of sorrow?” the cellist asks. For Night‘s viewers, the answer will be “Yes.” B.R.M.
*FLY FILMMAKING
Sat, Jun 16, 5:30 p.m., Moore Theatre
Three movies for the price of one! All are shot within a week on a low, low budget by fearless guest artists, then screened with discussion afterward.
THE FOUL KING
South Korea, 2000. Director: Ji-woon Kim
Wed., June 6, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sat., June 9, 11:30 a.m., Cinerama
Maybe the WWF has world culture in a headlock, or maybe professional wrestling enjoys more global, indigenous appeal than suspected. Whichever the case, this whimsical comedy has a timid bank clerk approach a wrasslin’ sensei to teach him a few moves and restore his self-confidence. He’s being bullied by his boss, gets no respect from his father, and can’t even ask a girl on a date. Naturally, then, our meek underdog must undergo some sort of Karate Kid-style transformation, although King surprisingly resists giving him obvious glories or rewards. Instead he learns to be a cheating ring villain (hence “foul king”), making for some amusing sequences on the canvass. Funny intertitles like “The Back Drop of Sadness” introduce King‘s episodes, which certainly don’t build to the expected conclusion. (However, folding metal chairs are deployed in their accustomed manner.) “Life’s a show,” our hero’s told, allowing him to finally accept his role as a comic supporting player. B.R.M.
FUGITIVES
Spain, 2000. Director: Miguel Hermoso
Thurs., June 14, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 17, 6:30 p.m., Egyptian
Following a bank robbery gone haywire, Tonya tough but vulnerable 25-year-old beautyfinds herself on the lam from her former cohorts with 7-year-old Laura in tow. Predictably, the two castoffs sort through their abandonment issues together and learn to love and share and all that good stuff during their road trip adventure. Because this central conceit is so obvious, though, director Hermoso overcompensates in his attempt to make Fugitivas less mundane. The added plot contrivances and surprising brutality, however, only serve to make the film a rather schizophrenic affair: the Afterschool Special meets Thelma and Louise meets Tarantino-style crime flick formula is far from cohesive. The films blemishes are partially obscured by some strong performancesparticularly Laia Marull as Tonyand funny moments. (Jean-Claude Van Damme T-shirts are comedy gold!) Still, its not enough to warrant more than a lukewarm recommendation. P.F.
GAUDI AFTERNOON
U.S.A./Spain, 2000. Director: Susan Seidelman
Cast: Judy Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Lili Taylor, Juliette Lewis
Fri., June 1, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Sat., June 2, 1:45 p.m., Egyptian
Sixteen years after Desperately Seeking Susan, Susan Seidelmans faith in magic, coincidence, and screwball comedy is undiminished. Maybe it should be. Here, Davis frumpy, cynical book translator gets embroiled in a child custody mess in scenic Barcelona. Gaudi works best as a travelogue, with lots of fabulous architecture and color before the lens; the stridently madcap private detective stuff pales by contrast. Its Raymond Chandler meets Heather Has Two Mommies as Davis must sort out gender-bending parents and her own maternal conflicts. Harden vamps madly while Lewis has fun with a rare comic role, but everythings played too broadly, with too much capital-C color. Gaudi stops too frequently for exposition and to baldly tell us what happened in an off-camera scene (instead of showing us, as movies are meant to do). Still, since its impossible to thoroughly dislike any picture with Judy Davis, Gaudi will make an acceptable rental after some big Catalan dinner. B.R.M.
GEN-X COPS
Hong Kong, 2000. Director: Benny Chan
Cast: Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung
Tues., May 29, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Thurs., May 31, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
SIFF SEZ When Japanese crime lord Akatura makes off with a cache of rocket fuel, a maverick Hong Kong detective recruits three police academy students to infiltrate the villain’s gang. The Gen-X cops botch the bust and are mistaken for traitors by the law. Assisted by a comely electronics expert, they use full-body stunts and plenty of humor to stop Akatura and clear their names.
GHOST WORLD
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Terry Zwigoff
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Thora Birch, Scarlet Johansson, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas
Sat., June 16, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Sun., June 17, 1:45 p.m., Egyptian
Comic books that inspire good movies are generally in the mold of Batman or X-Men, full of action, sex, and color. The challenge for Crumb director Zwigoff is to make his first non-documentary feature out of a comic book essentially about the inner lives of cynical, discontented teenage girls. Its a goal imperfectly realized, one that respects its caustic but fragile characters (American Beautys Birch and Johansson) but comes off wan and episodic. Absent a strong narrative, a graphic novel allows readers to dwell over the drawings; here, we chuckle with the teens about the freaks they encounter on L.A.s ugly streetscape without ever feeling engaged with their wanderings. Tacky convenience stores, porn shops, and flea marketswhats the point to ragging on such squalor? No matter how their soulless environment reflects their anomie, the girls dont make us care. Not even Birchs crush on sweetly pathetic Buscemi can save this World. B.R.M.
GINGER SNAPS
Canada, 2000. Director: John Fawcett
Sat., June 2, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Tues., June 5, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
SIFF SEZ Ginger and Brigitte, teenage sisters bored with life in the burbs, are obsessed with death and the macabre. One night, after she has her first period, Ginger is attacked by a mysterious wild animal. As a result, she slowly starts to turn into a bloodthirsty and sexually aggressive werewolf. The film is a mix of horror and wit reminiscent of David Cronenberg’s work and I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
GLAMOUR
Hungary/Germany/Switzerland, 2000. Director: Frigyes G�s
Mon., May 28, 4:00 p.m., Egyptian
Sat., May 26, 6:30 p.m., Egyptian
Got a bottle of Tylenol that you want to get rid of? Glamour juxtaposes half-baked images and confusing timelines with a ho-hum plot, and the result is fiercely messy and befuddling. It’s like what might happen if Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam absconded to Budapest to collaborate on the world’s most maddening homage to Fiddler on the Roof. Underneath the chaos, the story is about a Jewish man in postwar Germany taking a “brave” step toward securing the future of his bloodline. Had that basic tale been given room to tell itself straightforwardly, the film would perhaps be watchable. As it is, so unflatteringly adorned with ambiguous voice-overs, forced metaphors, and unconnected flashes of history, Glamour does little more than summon a headache. Laura Learmonth
GO TIGERS!
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Kenneth A. Carlson
Sat., June 9, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place
Mon., June 11, 2:30 p.m., Pacific Place
“It’s a cult, a religion, a civic enterprise—a pigskin paradise!” So gushes an amusing newsreel included in this Sundance favorite documentary about high school football in Massillon, Ohio. Insane boosters and parents pour money into team facilities that would rival some college programs—despite being a depressed rust-belt town numbering only 33,000 in population. Clearly these people are way too obsessed with football, but Tigers never takes any cheap shots at such innocent devotion. Instead, it mainly profiles three seniors during the course of the Tigers’ remarkable 1999 season. It’s an uncritical film, too uncritical, with only a few dissenting voices heard (particularly when the town’s asked for yet another school levy increase). No Hoop Dreams, this flick won’t make anyone nostalgic for high school. Reiterating its few points over and over doesn’t help matters, but Tigers ably conveys the emotional intensity and paradoxical vulnerability to jock culture. In this town, when losing at halftime, boys do cry. B.R.M.
*HAIKU TUNNEL
U.S.A., 2001. Directors: Jacob Kornbluth, Josh Kornbluth
Sun., June 10, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Tues., June 12, 12:00 p.m., Cinerama
Temps of the world (past, present, and future), this movie is for you. Expanded from his original 1996 monologue, Josh Kornbluths debut feature often betrays its stage origins, but you dont mind the direct-address interruptions or no-frills filmmaking style. Our lumpy, balding, sad-sack hero inspires laughs simply by walking down the halls of the San Fran law firm where hes temping; its like hes got the weight of the world in his pockets. His fellow secretaries and office travails do feel sitcom-familiar at times, but the riffing on lawyers, ballpoint pens, and his ex-girlfriend get you through the thin spots. Anyone whos ever suffered the inanities and indignities of office life will instantly respond to this flick. Kornbluth is no Spalding Gray, yet, since his anxieties and observations arent fully crafted into precise language. Still, after his acclaimed 1992 monologue Red Diaper Baby, the raggedly engaging Haiku confirms hes found his permanent, successful profession. B.R.M.
HAMLET
U.S.A., 2000. Directors: Campbell Scott,
Eric Simonson
Cast: Campbell Scott, Jamey Sheridan, Blair Brown, Roscoe Lee Browne, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Sam Robards, Michael Imperioli, Byron Jennings
Sun., June 10, 11:00 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Fri., June 8, 10:00 a.m., Egyptian
Every young actor dreams of playing Hamlet. Not all young actors should. Campbell Scott, son of George C., got his shot before he was 30, in a 1990 staging at San Diego’s Old Globe. He should not have pushed his luck. Last year he repeated the role in Boston and got Hallmark to film the result and let him co-direct it. It is not a success. Scott plays the Dane as a rebellious but sensitive teen, and makes sure co-stars Blair Brown (Gertrude), Roscoe Lee Browne (Polonius), and Jamey Sheridan (Claudius) stay out of his way. Unfortunately, he cast veteran Shakespearean Byron Jennings to double as Ghost and Player King, and Jennings can’t help making the boss look amateurish—amateurish, too, as filmmaker. The turn-of-the-century Long Island mansion setting is attractive, but beyond that, a couple of groovy slasher-flick special effects aren’t enough to energize 178 long minutes. Roger Downey
*HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
U.S.A., 2001. Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Cast: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Michael Pitt, Andrea Martin
Sat., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Cinerama
Mon., June 11, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
The danger of bringing a successful musical to the big screen is that its onstage magic won’t transfer to celluloid. Not to worry with Hedwig, which under the tutelage of writer/director/star John Cameron Mitchell and composer/lyricist Stephen Trask has not only made the jump, but done so with ravenous style, sass, and the perfect amount of camp. Mitchell is utterly appealing as Hedwig, a German boy whose botched sex-change surgery left him with an “angry inch of flesh”—plus a burning desire to set the world on fire with rock ‘n’ roll! His band’s U.S. tour of pseudo-Long John Silver restaurants is the backdrop for Hedwig’s preening, primping, and narrating his story of unrequited love for goth-rock superstar Tommy Gnosis (once his youthful charge and lover). Sprinkled lushly throughout are Trask’s epic songs, allowing Hedwig and band to rock their collective asses off. A double prize-winner at Sundance. Andrew Strickman
HOTOKE
Japan, 2001. Director: Tsuji Jinsei
Thurs., June 7, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
Thurs., June 14, 12:00 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ Director and cult author Tsuji Jinsei portrays two brothers trying to stay alive (spiritually and economically) in an ugly harbor town. Gentle Rai (nicknamed Hotoke, meaning Buddha) collects scrap metal to create a monstrous idol of Buddha, while brutal Shiba runs a gang of vicious criminals. The brothers’ lives converge in their love for the blind Yuma, who hides a dark secret. This visually striking piece evokes spaces and faces marred by the urban diseases of amorality and despair. U.S. premiere.
*HYBRID
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Monteith McCollum
Sun., May 27, 11:30 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Mon., May 28, 4:00 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
It’s David Lynch goes to Iowa—but it’s more the spirit of The Straight Story than Blue Velvet that informs this admittedly derivative but undeniably affecting portrait of director McCollum’s nonagenarian grandfather, Milford Beeghly. With a cantankerous voice like William S. Burroughs’, the old geezer recalls his career as a corn agronomist while his adult children remember a cold, distant father. Everything’s shot in black-and-white, including several Walker Evans-like rural montages and corn animation sequences (!) indebted to the Brothers Quay. McCollum himself supplies the score, lending to Hybrid‘s hybrid home-movie quality. “It looks almost like a sea,” says Milford of the strong, improved corn stalks he developed during the ’30s. And darned if you don’t also begin to appreciate the plant’s odd beauty during the course of this over-aestheticized documentary. “I like to see growing things,” Milford declares, his long strange life reminding us how growth can continue even past one’s ninth decade. B.R.M.
*IF . . .
Great Britain, 1968. Director: Lindsay Anderson
Tues., May 29, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
To appreciate Lindsay Anderson’s 1968 allegory set in a stifling British boarding school, forget what you know today. This is deliciously vintage ’60s rage, in which Malcolm McDowell chafes at repression by his elders and nurses a fetish for war. The gothic halls where boys train to uphold the empire symbolize England’s corrupt class system; there, the elite “whips” enforce conformity with beatings and compare the erotic beauty of their younger schoolmates. Anderson builds his case for revolution with rising bizarreness and brutality to a cathartic, violent climax. Ignore the cuts to black-and-white; Anderson ran out of money. Forget McDowell’s post-Clockwork Orange descent into sitcoms; slurp up the lizard charm of his youth. Forget, too, that the revolution would come—but from Margaret Thatcher. Toughest of all, forget the stranger-than-fiction events in Jonestown and Columbine that unfairly, retrospectively taint the ending to this renegade film. G.T.
IF I COULD
U.S.A., 200. Director: Patti Obrow White
Fri., June 15, 5 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ If I Could tells the story of a courageous young woman who confronts her troubled past to keep her son from falling prey to the same demons that nearly destroyed her. Covering a 20-year time span, the film introduces us to 14-year-old Tracy, who was the focus of a CBS documentary when she was in an alternative program for troubled kids. Now 35, Tracy is a single mother struggling to help her own family. She calls upon the same man who she credits for helping her as a teen to help her save her 12-year-old son. Clips from the original 1979 CBS film are interwoven with new footage of their battle to triumph over intergenerational cycles of abuse, abandonment, drugs, and rage. Narrated by Sally Field. World premiere.
IGNORANT FAIRIES
Italy/France, 2001. Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Sun., May 27, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Mon., May 28, 4:00 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ A serious comedy about “those people we meet who change our lives forever without our even realizing it.” After her husband’s death in a car accident, Antonia (Margherita Buy) discovers a number of shocking realities about his secret life that propel her into an exotic world where she finds a brand-new identity and values. Moving from upper-class Rome into a less luxe district where affections transcend sexual, economic, and physical liabilities, Fairies celebrates the politics of eccentricity. U.S. premiere.
I LOVE BEIJING
China, 2001. Director: Ning Ying
Sat., June 16, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 17, 9:30 p.m. Broadway Perf. Hall
SIFF SEZ The final chapter in Ning Ying’s trilogy about the positive and negative effects of fast-breaking cultural changes in her hometown: In this loosely structured narrative, we cruise Beijing streets with a taxi driver searching for love, drifting from woman to woman against the backdrop of a city in flux. A sequence in a park, for example, shows how brash entrepreneurs and their junk have replaced the traditional activities of tai chi and massage. Long, seductive sequences reminiscent of Chantal Ackerman’s style create a mesmerizing urban meditation, pointedly backed by Western-influenced music. U.S. premiere.
INNOCENCE
Australia, 2000. Director: Paul Cox
Fri., June 8, 7:15 p.m., Pacific Place
Mon., June 11, 5:00 p.m., Egyptian
Andreas and Claire are the quintessential young lovers; they kiss beside bridges, bicycle into the woods, then throw their clothes off and entangle themselves with abandon. But that was long ago, in post-WWII Belgium, when strict families prevented people from simply following their hearts, and the two went their separate ways. Until Andreas, a widower for 30 years, realizes that Claire lives nearby in Melbourne, Australia. He writes to her, they meet, and Claire—whose marriage is as much of a ho-hum habit as putting on socks—reaches out for the love she felt decades before. It’s romantic, and almost comic—two older people sneaking around, having extramarital sex, arranging secret trysts. But Charles Tingwell and Julia Blake bring honesty and humility to their roles—plus a sweetness and youthful exuberance that makes you wonder if Viagra had anything to do with such rediscovered ardor. E.B.R.
INUGAMI
Japan, 2000. Director: Masato Harada
Fri., June 15, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., June 17, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
SIFF SEZ In a remote mountain village on the island of Shikoku, the Bonomiya women are duty-bound to watch over the Inugami (wild dog) gods. When Miki Bonomiya, a lonely woman in her 40s, falls for a young stranger, the village is soon cloaked in an eerie fog, suspicions arise, and strange events disturb the community, awakening the spirits. This dark drama comes from the creator of Spellbound (SIFF 2000). U.S. premiere.
INVESTIGATING SEX
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Alan Rudolph
Cast: Neve Campbell, Jeremy Davies, Julie Delpy, Terrence Dashon Howard, Dermot Mulroney, Nick Nolte, Robin Tunney, Tuesday Weld
Sun., June 17, 6:30 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ SIFF favorite Alan Rudolph (The Moderns, Choose Me, Afterglow) returns triumphantly to the festival with this wry comic delight set in the libertine bohemian circles of New England at the end of the 1920s. As the film opens, wealthy mentor Faldo (Nolte) assembles a circle of young men intent upon a curious goal: Purely academically, they intend to discuss sex, openly and without taboos. Two young stenographers, Alice (Campbell) and Zoe (Tunney), are enlisted to record these frank and sexually charged discussions, but as the sessions progress and the group decides to allow other women into their tightly knit circle, the lines between professional and personal interests soon blur. What ensues is a series of amusing romantic entanglements far beyond the scope of the original group’s intentions. Writer/director Rudolph, always at his best when traversing the battle lines and boudoirs of his characters’ romantic dilemmas, has enlisted a dream cast to flesh out the wit and irony inherent in this deliciously wicked endeavor. World premiere.
IP5
France, 1992. Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix
Cast: Yves Montand, Olivier Martinez, Sekkou Sall
Fri., May 25, 5 p.m., Harvard Exit
SIFF SEZ This haunting, enigmatic story of three outcasts who come together in a lush forest of fantasies is perhaps Beineix’s most misunderstood film, though filmgoers at SIFF 1992 liked it so well they voted it Best Film. IP5 opens by introducing us to two unlikely soulmates: one, a young, world-weary graffiti artist who roams the streets of Paris creating exquisite temporal artworks on decaying urban buildings; the other an antisocial black teenager who tags along with the young artist. Each of these lost souls is an outcast, though on one foray the young artist encounters a beautiful young woman in whom he senses the possibility of love. This budding romance is abruptly interrupted by a gang of street thugs who steal a photo album of the artist’s works, leading him and his delinquent young friend to pursue them into the deep forest and to an encounter with an aging eccentric (the magnificent Montand, in his final screen role) who seems to possess magical powers. Gloriously idiosyncratic, IP5 finds Beineix exploring the clash between urban chaos and the ordered world of nature. Free!
I PREFER THE SOUND OF THE SEA
Italy/France, 2000. Director: Mimmo Calopresti
Sat., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Wed., June 13, 12:00 p.m., Cinerama
SIFF SEZ The relationship between two teenage boys from vastly different backgrounds is explored with understated sensitivity in this subtle coming-of-age drama. Calabrian Rosario is a self-reliant product of mob life; northerner Matteo comes from a world of wealth. Matteo’s father, a businessman who lives in the north but has deep roots in the south, faces unforeseen moral consequences when he takes in bad boy Rosario, who becomes fast friends with his disaffected son.
IRON LADIES
Thailand, 2000. Director: Yongyooth Thongkongtoon
Thurs., June 7, 7:15 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., June 10, 4:00 p.m., Egyptian
SIFF SEZ Based on a true story, this warm-hearted comedy follows a “Khatuey” (ladyboys) team to the 1996 Thai male national volleyball championships. When a lovelorn transvestite and a raucous drag queen make the team in open tryouts, all the team members resign. Friends are recruited and the one teammate who stays on, resolutely straight Chai, learns tolerance, while the new “ladyboy” members learn to sacrifice vanity for team spirit.
JACK THE DOG
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Bobby Roth
Cast: Peter Coyote, Thomas Gibson, Anthony LaPaglia, Jrgen Prochnow
Sat., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Mon., June 11, 12:00 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ In the ’80s, Roth directed the superb Heartbreakers, a sexy, uncompromising look at men fleeing and searching for commitment. Continuing that exploration, Jack the Dog depicts a womanizer’s struggle to grow up emotionally, adeptly avoiding the cliche of celebrating or condemning Jack’s Peter Pan charm. In painfully honest terms, Roth follows his artist hero through the arc of easy sex, first marriage, fatherhood, and divorce, to finally arrive at the surprising catalyst for Jack’s hard-won maturity.
JACKPOT
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Michael Polish
Cast: Jon Gries, Daryl Hannah, Garrett Morris, Kool Moe Dee, Peggy Lipton
Sat., June 16, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 17, 11:30 a.m., Harvard Exit
Bomb. Whatever the virtues of their 99 Twin Falls Idaho, the Polish Brothers here deliver a sheer dud of an aimless, purposeless road movie. Dim-witted, no-talent singer Sunny (The Pretenders Gries) hits the low-rent karaoke contest circuit with his ineffectual manager (SNL Whatever happened to? trivia question Morris). Jackpot relishes the ambiance of tacky diner and truck-stop kitsch along the way, but completely fails to develop a story to support all the rhinestones and sequins. Theres a laugh or two as Sunny is forced to belt out Eyes Without a Face (in place of his beloved George Jones perennial Grand Tour), then the sickening realization sets in that this flick is taking up 92 minutes of your life that can never be reclaimed. Its like a PG-13-rated David Lynch movie where the fun, sick, and twisted stuff never arrives. Lipton, Edwards, and Hannah merely lend curiosity value to this future dust-gatherer at Blockbuster. World premiere. B.R.M.
*JALLA! JALLA!
Sweden, 2000. Director: Josef Fares
Sat., June 16, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 17, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Though this movie—a huge hit in its native country—is certainly not without flaws, its still remarkable that a work of such sweet, silly humor and sympathy was made by a 23-year-old. Fares here explores the twisty, bramble-covered roads of romantic love, family loyalty, and the clash of cultures—throwing in plenty of naughty sex bits for good measure—told primarily through the eyes of his scrappy hero Roro (played by Fares own brother) and his friend Mans. Roro is a 20-year-old Lebanese immigrant madly in love with his blond Swedish girlfriend; his family, however, has other, more traditional romantic plans in mind for him. Aryan giant Mans, meanwhile, has his own problems of the, ahem, personal plumbing variety. The two plot lines soon intertwine with occasionally hilarious, sometimes ridiculous, but consistently engaging results. U.S. premiere. L.G.
JIN-ROH: THE WOLF BRIGADE
Japan, 1999. Director: Hiroyuki Okiura
Tues., May 29, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian
Sun., June 3, 4:00 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
“He does have emotional problems. But in shooting, stalking, hand-to-hand combat, and other fighting techniques, he has remarkable abilities.” So is our traumatized hero described in this anime feature. The setting of a retro-futuristic police state—where else?—guarantees an atmosphere of paranoia, suspicion, and betrayal, particularly after poor cop Fuse witnesses a terrorist girl blow herself up. Naturally he falls for her dead-ringer sister (also fond of red riding hoods), while falling under observation himself as a potential member of the Wolf Brigade, a right-wing faction within the federal police force. Fairy-tale subtexts aside, Jin-Roh does feature some very cool animation—cityscapes, rain, smoke, gunfire, blood-spewing corpses—without ever rising to the Miyazaki-level anime. It’s like Chinatown meets Speed Racer, equally doom-laden and silly, short on action, with a byzantine political plot that will confound younger viewers. B.R.M.
*JOINT SECURITY AREA
South Korea, 2000. Director: Park Chan-Wook
Fri., June 15, 7:15 p.m., Pacific Place
Sat., June 16, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place
One can glean a bit of Cold War nostalgia from Park Chan-Wook’s hoked-up but heartfelt thriller, a cleverly constructed political melodrama that’s the highest-grossing Korean movie ever. For those who liked Shiri at SIFF Y2K, this slick, commercial, military-themed whodunit features an attractive investigator (Major Sophie Jung) whose sleuthing leads to international intrigue. (The movie’s set, which represents the Korean DMZ, has since become a popular tourist attraction.) U.S. premiere. J.H.
JUMP TOMORROW
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Joel Hopkins
Sat., June 9, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Mon., June 11, 5:00 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ Pegged by Filmmaker magazine as one of the 25 new faces in indie film, Joel Hopkins brings us his first feature-length effort, a romantic, cross-cultural road trip. George, a Nigerian-born New Yorker, is days away from an arranged marriage when he’s sideswiped by a beautiful Latina, her British boyfriend, and a match-making Frenchman who takes them all for a ride (in more ways than one!) in his vintage Citro뮮
THE KING IS ALIVE
Denmark, 2000. Director: Kristian Levring
Cast: Bruce Davison, Brion James, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Janet McTeer
Fri., June 8, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian
Sat., June 9, 1:45 p.m., Cinerama
The fourth of the iconoclastic Dogma ’95 pictures is Kristian Levring’s misanthropic English-language drama (handsomely shot on digital video). Set in the Namibian desert, it follows a group of stranded tourists who create a production of King Lear as a desperate survival tactic. An expected exercise in handheld camera, real locations, and improvised acting, King feels secondhand, but is a must for pure Dogmatists. Howard Feinstein
*THE KING IS DANCING
France/Germany/Belgium, 2000. Director: G鲡rd Corbiau
Cast: BenoMagimel, Boris Terral, Tch髹 Karyo
Sat., June 2, 6:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., June 3, 4:00 p.m., Pacific Place
You think the French got to be such cultural titans by chance? No way, Ren鮠The guy who set the artistic ball rolling was the Sun King, Louis XIV, who dedicated the first part of his rule to advancing theater, music, and dance. This film from the Oscar-nominated director of The Music Teacher and Farinelli centers not on Louis but on Italian composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (Terral), who engaged and encouraged his friend the King in his love of dancing. Lully’s in a wheelchair with a gangrenous leg as he recounts the sometimes sordid tale—he’s just one of several bisexual figures—that encompasses the young monarch’s rise to power and a colorful, if at times overbearing, series of tense encounters (including some with Moli貥). The costumes, setting, and—of course—fanciful wigs threaten to overshadow the action and plot, but its mix of steaminess, intrigue, and history make Dancing worthwhile. R.A.M.
KISSES FOR EVERYONE
Spain, 2000. Director: Jaime Chavarri
Mon., June 11, 7:15 p.m., Cinerama
Wed., June 13, 5:00 p.m., Cinerama
Girls, girls, girls! It’s the swinging mid-’60s in the Spanish beachside town of Cᤩz, and three horny young med students are sharing a house—unescorted!–courtesy of their rich parents. Dude! Let’s get it on! Well—they do, sort of, since the girls are actually whores, and since sheltered Ram�ust naturally lose his cherry with Vicky. (She’s the one—you guessed it—with a heart of gold.) Various subplots concern student radicalism, a knocked-up local girl, and the hookers’ bullyingly perverse madam, but Kisses has precious few surprises. “We have to grow up,” one of the kids admits. Occasional bits of period color raise a smile, as when Ram� beloved “Stand by Me” comes on the radio—in Spanish. So far as coming-of-age stories are concerned, the blandly nostalgic Kisses doesn’t exactly land on the lips. (But, recast with those American Pie kids, there could be a saucy remake!) U.S. premiere. B.R.M.
KM. 0
Spain, 2001. Directors: Yolanda Garcia Serrano, Juan Luis Iborra
Sun., June 10, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Tues., June 12, 2:30 p.m., Cinerama
Not getting enough satisfaction from the billowy Mexican telenovelas on cable? Try Km. 0. Set in central Madrid (hence the weird title), this dizzying film banks on the viewer liking the cavalcade of characters enough to follow seven or eight stories. The flamboyant bunch features a gigolo (always a good sign—ahem), a bored housewife, a would-be director, a starving actress, a dancer who’s gay (natch), a hooker, and so on. Some of their lives intersect smoothly, some do not, and everybody is on the make. The rapid pace and rampant dialogue are tough to follow for anyone who’s never sipped Rioja while snacking on tapas, and the few themes that emerge are standard Euro-film plot devices. (Surprise incest, anyone?) A handful of colorful performances and a professionally penned script don’t bring Km. 0 close enough to make the trip worthwhile. Richard A. Martin
L’AMOUR, L’ARGENT, L’AMOUR
Germany, 2000. Director: Philip Gr�g
Wed., June 6, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., June 10, 4:00 p.m., Pacific Place
SIFF SEZ Just fired from his job, a young man encounters a street-tough hooker. He’s an innocent living with his mother; old beyond her years, the hooker lives alone. Seeking warmth and escape from their sordid winter worlds, they hit the road together. Using a structure and editing technique that fragments the narrative voice, Gr�g transforms a traditional fairy tale into poetic odyssey.
LALEE’S KIN: THE LEGACY OF COTTON
U.S.A., 2001. Directors: Susan Fr�, Deborah Dickson
Mon., May 28, 1:45 p.m., Egyptian
SIFF SEZ Cotton is still king in Tallahatchie County, Miss., where the matriarch of a large family and an embattled school superintendent struggle to triumph over wrenching poverty and illiteracy. Superbly shot by Albert Maysles (recipient of Sundance’s 2001 award for best documentary cinematography) and scored by Delta blues guitarist Gary Lucas, LaLee’s Kin is a searing portrait of a community left behind in a country of wealth and opportunity.
THE LEFT SIDE OF THE FRIDGE
Canada, 2000. Director: Philippe Falardeau
Thurs., June 7, 5:00 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 3, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
In this clever if overly lo-fi mock-documentary, out-of-work Christophe and his filmmaker roommate St鰨ane set out to make a movie about the former’s pitiful efforts to snag a decent job. The resulting film is supposed to critique society’s cruel treatment of the working man and underscore the *le we’re all in: When you have a job, life sucks; but when you don’t have a job, life sucks, too. Their plan works perfectly, as a Canadian film institute offers to help with funding and crew. But the pressures of the job search and the growing film production begin to strain the friends’ relations and threaten the whole endeavor. Fridge isn’t as hilarious or thought-provoking as intended, and it owes a helluva lot to Roger & Me (St鰨ane is a rambunctious sort who corners execs after Christophe’s job interviews), but young director Falardeau and his cast have almost pulled off a comic gem here. U.S. premiere. R.A.M.
LIAM
Great Britain, 2000. Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Anthony Borrows, Ian Hart, Claire Hackett
Sat., June 2, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Mon., June 4, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
The Grifters and My Beautiful Laundrette director Stephen Frears returns to his Brit-TV roots, with a script by Jimmy McGovern (Priest) about growing up poor in late ’30s Liverpool—plus the additional burdens of nascent Catholic guilt and a budding-fascist father. Sentimental, serviceable BBC miserablism, capped by a cheap dose of tragic irony, it pales next to the indelible dreamy/grim childhood perspectives of recent films like The Butcher Boy and Ratcatcher. Playing tender young Liam’s dad, look for Backbeat‘s Ian Hart (also represented at SIFF in Strictly Sinatra and Born Romantic). Fine child actors round out the cast. U.S. premiere. D.L.
LIFT
U.S.A., 2001. Directors: DeMane Davis, Khari Streeter
Cast: Kerry Washington, Lonette McKee, Eugene Byrd
Fri., May 25, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sat., May 26, 4:00 p.m., Pacific Place
This Boston-shot indie debut feature arrives with a lot of verve and sass, Portishead on the soundtrack, and fashion on its mind. Entrepreneurial shopgirl Niecy boosts designer clothes for profit (selling to her pals), status (looking good herself), and approval (Lonette McKees ice-queen mother). Shes sweet on a guy, but looking to pull one big score by joining with a more serious crew of thievesdespite good reviews at her day job. “Im only in it for the discount,” Niecy smirks of her department-store gig, and Lift conveys her giddy larceny with some fun camera effects. That it then devolves into simple melodrama and dysfunctional familydom is disappointing; sticking to crime and its consequences wouldve made for a more focused film. Though poorly fitted together, some individual scenes are quite strong (e.g. an out-of-the-blue shooting), indicating a promising career for its first-time co-directors. B.R.M.
LITTLE CRUMB
Netherlands, 1999. Director: Maria Peters
Sat., June 9, 11:30 a.m., Pacific Place
In this family-friendly flick based on author Chris van Abkoude’s Dutch children’s classic, the orphaned Crumb (a.k.a. Harry Volker) struggles to stay warm in an often cold-hearted 1920s Amsterdam. The spiritual child of Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp character (footage from The Kid appears throughout the film), Crumb’s a tiny troublemaker with a huge heart. Repeatedly forced out of foster home and onto the streets, he commits misdemeanors—breaking windows, stealing newspapers, freeing dogs from the pound—hoping to gain the affection of loved ones, not the attention of cops. Essentially optimistic, fast-paced, and chock-full of adventure, Crumb will keep young kids content in their seats without undue squirming. D.M.
LITTLE OTIK
Czech Republic/Great Britain, 2000. Director: Jan Svankmajer
Tues., June 12, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian
Wed., June 13, 5:00 p.m., Harvard Exit
In this mostly live-action rumble, an anxious bourgeois makes a substitute baby out of a tree root for his child-craving wife, only to have the kid mutate into a carnivorous, Audrey II-like monster. (Svankmajer is best known for his surrealist animation—which he reserves for the ravenous little tyke.) Otik feels flabby at 125 minutes, but it brims with splendid Svankmajer requisites (orifices real and imagined; revolting close-ups of swampy food) and dark assumptions about the egotism of breeding—sketched here as a grotesque form of consumer acquisition. Jessica Winter
*LITTLE SENEGAL
Algeria, 2000. Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Wed., May 30, 7:15 p.m., Pacific Place
Fri., June 1, 5:00 p.m., Egyptian
Aged, scholarly Alloune travels from his museum on the coast of Senegal to distant America. He’s researching his family tree (one violently severed by the slave trade), eventually tracking down a relative in N.Y.C., where a more recent immigrant cousin also resides. What Alloune discovers is the cultural rift between African-Americans long settled in the U.S. and Africans who just arrived free. “We’re too black for them,” his cynical cousin warns, but Alloune’s perseverance eventually wins over his distant relative Ida. Yet he also finds how stable, traditional African immigrant families contrast with dysfunctional African-American clans. Although too tidy in its oppositions and too predictable in its dramatic developments, Senegal slowly—slowly—wins you over. Granted, Alloune is so sage, noble, and dignified as to seem a stereotype, but so, perhaps, are all heroes. (Look for several nods to another family quest film, John Ford’s The Searchers.) B.R.M.
*LIVE BLOOD
Italy, 2000. Director: Edoardo Winspeare
Sun., June 3, 6:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Tues., June 5, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
You have to grant it time, and accept some of its confusing incidentals, but Edoardo Winspeare’s tough little melodrama about a culture’s loss of values grabs you by its climactic cry. In a town in southeastern Italy, Pino tries to hold his family together after the accidental death of its patriarch by smuggling cigarettes and dreaming of a music career celebrating the pizzica, a feverish dance accompanied by tambourine. The rhythm is a vital release for the citizens who give themselves over to it. For those who reject it (like Pino’s listless, drug-addled brother Donato), however, it’s a painful reminder of better times. As Pino, living by an “outdated” personal code of ethics, struggles to save his brother from the violent grip of the local mafia, the film develops a powerful sense of how a society may enrich the possibilities of the future by honoring its past. S.W.
LOST AND DELIRIOUS
Canada, 2001. Director: L顠Pool
Cast: Piper Perabo, Jessica Par鬠Graham Greene
Fri., June 1, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian
Sun., June 3, 4:00 p.m., Harvard Exit
Teenage lesbians in love at a uniformed girls boarding school would seem to offer an erotic charge, but Set Me Free director Pool only succeeds in creating a dull, predictable adaptation out of Susan Swans 1993 novel The Wives of Bath. Far too reliant on voice-over narration and far too protracted in repeating its basic conflicts, Lost has Coyote Uglys Perabo fall hard for a roommate, then descend into Fatal Attraction territory after being spurned. Problem is, it takes too long to get to her breakdown which, like the rest of Lost, feels weirdly dated and familiar. (The source novel is set in 1963; here, the girls dance to the Violent Femmes but also have PCs on their deskswhen are we?) Perabo delivers some fairly brave, naked acting, but its not enough to lift the film to the level of The Virgin Suicides or even The Childrens Hour. B.R.M.
*LOVE INVENTORY
Israel, 2000. Director: David Fisher (Reshimat Ahara)
Tues., June 12, 7:15 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Wed., June 13, 5:00 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
The death of one’s parents often makes a person more curious about family secrets—precisely when no one’s left to provide answers about them. So discovers documentary maker David Fisher, who suspects an older sister was stolen from his mother and given up for adoption in 1952. Enlisting his four reluctant siblings in the search through archives and cemeteries, he uses the film—as they correctly note—as “a gimmick” to document them as well. David’s skeptical journalist brother warns of the project, “It’s loaded with potential for sorrow, sadness, and pain.” True, but Inventory is also loaded with all the fractious, flawed love that any family member of any nationality will immediately recognize. Given all the fake documentary-like pseudo-family studies on TV (The Real World, Big Brother, etc.), the warmth and conflict here is both alarming and engrossing. Despite some tedium, if you commit to getting to know the Fisher family, you’ll be better for the acquaintance. U.S. premiere. B.R.M.
MACARTHUR PARK
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Billy Wirth
Sat., June 2, 1:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 3, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
It’s a wonder that this movie ever progressed past its Hollywood pitch: An ensemble drama about crack addicts. The idea’s inherently problematic—maybe because the seriousness of the drug would seem to require realism. Or maybe because crackheads engaging in meaningful dialogue is so unlikely. This flick has other flaws. Centered around Cody, an old ex-jazz cat who coexists with numerous other drug users in the eponymous L.A. park, MacArthur concerns so many characters that it’s hard to empathize with any one of them. Likewise, the film raises myriad social woes—addiction, racism, classism, dysfunctional families—without ever addressing their source. Adding to the distractions, various celebs make surreal cameo appearances to wrap their lips around the pipe, including SNL‘s Ellen Cleghorne, French fox Julie Delpy, and Tank Girl‘s Lori Petty. One redeeming element, which doesn’t arrive until movie’s end: Macy Gray’s gorgeous cover of “MacArthur Park.” The song almost makes the weirdness worthwhile. D.M.
MAESSE
France, 1976. Director: Barbet Schroeder
Sat., May 26, 12:00 a.m., Egyptian
This bedroom power struggle stars a very young G鲡rd Depardieu as a petty thief and Bulle Ogier (Venus Beauty Institute, from SIFF ’00) as a dominatrix making a go at a “normal” relationship despite their special circumstances. Oliver (Depardieu) breaks into the S&M chamber of Adrienne (Ogier) while business is open. She cajoles him into participating in one of her appointments; he immediately moves in with her, but jealousy soon drives a stake between them. His angry outbursts culminate in a graphic horse-slaughtering scene—animals were definitely harmed in the making of this picture—while the doings inside Adrienne’s chamber are as explicit as a mid-’70s French film can get (about level with a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit). Taking extreme measures to play out the nuances of romantic entanglements, Maesse is ultimately about the perversities of attraction between two people who, despite their occupations, long and love just like everyone else. Shannon Gee
MANHOOD AND OTHER MODERN DILEMMAS
France, 2000
Director: Ronan Girre
Thurs., June 14, 7:15 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Fri., June 15, 2:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
This is either a provocative commentary on the continuing struggle of males to find their place in a feminist world or a French update of Reality Bites with a B-movie/Ed Wood twist. The former seems to be the goal, but the listless plot and shaky performances turn Manhood into a mediocre horror film. The victim is a 30-year-old slacker who falls in love with—and falls prey to—a she-devil in a power suit. This business-minded Beelzebub tries to set her man straight, and he’d be willing if she’d just stop turning their sexual encounters into fiery ordeals complete with Mephistophelean visions. The ending ties up the loose ends and recasts the previous hour’s developments into the realm of wry social criticism, but by then you’re wishing all the characters would burn in Hell. U.S. premiere. R.A.M.
MANIC
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Jordan Melamed
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Cheadle, Zooey Deschanel
Sun., June 10, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Tues., June 12, 5:00 p.m., Harvard Exit
SIFF SEZ Breaking free of his Third Rock from the Sun cute-kid role, Gordon-Levitt is brilliant as an enraged teenager committed to a juvenile psych ward. Resident psychiatrist (Don Cheadle) watches his charges help one another by uniting first against the institution and then against their own feelings of alienation. The year he spent interviewing child psychologists and former teen patients clearly gave director Melamed remarkable insight into teen angst and those who work so bravely to guide these troubled kids.
MARSHAL TITO’S SPIRIT
Croatia, 2000. Director: Vinko Bresan
Fri., May 25, 7:15 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sat., May 26, 12:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
On a remote island off the coast of Croatia, circa 1998, a small village is still trying to come to terms with the fact that Lenin’s dead, Tito’s dead, and so is communism. In the drab town’s cemetery, a group of old party members holds a red-flag ceremony to honor one of their departed comrades. Their reverence is interrupted by . . . a ghost? Soon townsfolk are reporting Tito sightings all over, and the ragtag police force is set to work by the mayor, who wants to attract tourists to his town not frighten them off. He hatches a plan, though, transforming the town into a Bolshevik theme park. (Meanwhile, desperate to keep the communist dream alive in the face of capitalism, the old partisans resist the mayor’s corrupt scheme.) When Mulderic and Skuleric show up (as in Mulder and Scully), things really go haywire. Sweet, funny, and amateurish, this is a small-town tale with a few scattered yuks. E.B.R.
A MATTER OF TASTE
France, 2000. Director: Bernard Rapp
Cast: Bernard Giraudeau, Jean-Pierre Lorit, Florence Thomassin, Jean-Pierre L页d
Fri., May 25, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Tues., May 29, 5:00 p.m., Harvard Exit
SIFF SEZ In this delicious dark comedy featuring mouthwatering food, Nicolas is a waiter living with an impoverished bohemian crowd in Lyon. One night he serves tycoon Fr餩ric, who offers him a well-paid job as a taster. It soon becomes clear that Fr餩ric wants a clone of himself, mirroring all of his tastes, and the master-servant relationship that ensues turns Nicolas’ previously simple life upside down. (Some will recall Giraudeau from Water Drops on Burning Rocks, SIFF 2000.)
MECHANISM
Yugoslavia, 2000. Director: Djordje Milosavljevic
Tues., May 29, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Thurs., May 31, 5:00 p.m., Harvard Exit
SIFF SEZ In this deadpan tale by a Yugoslavian Tarantino, two young people, Janko, a wounded veteran-cum-taxi driver who picks up lovely Snezana, bound for her first teaching job, find their hopes for the future shattered when they cross paths with Mak, a professional hit man whose philosophy of nihilism threatens to destroy all three travelers.
THE MELANCHOLY CHICKEN
Czech Republic, 2000. Director: Jaroslav Brabec
Mon., June 4, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sat., June 9, 11:30 a.m., Harvard Exit
If your personal theology revolves around the concept that Hell is not a condition of the afterlife, but instead represents our time spent on Earth, Chicken offers sweet succor. The tale begins with a love-at-first-sight union, then immediately jumps ahead, skipping four years of apparently unmitigated familial bliss. When a freak accident exterminates the angelic wife, though, her husband and young son are run through a wrenching gauntlet of indignity. Having also witnessed the demise of a goat, several chickens, and his unborn step-sister, the boy finds some solace in his relationship with a similarly abandoned chick. (The bond is ostensibly the film’s centerpiece.) Yet while the chicken’s acting is impeccable (no pun intended), this and other subplots never fully develop. Still, despite some flawed storytelling, Chicken does provide an unflinchingly intense study on death and dying that might even jar Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. U.S. premiere. P.F.
MEMENTO MORI
South Korea, 2000. Directors: Min Kyu-Dong, Kim Tae-Yong
Wed., May 30, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 3, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place
Hot high school lesbian action! What more do you need to know? Well—how about suicides, ghosts, and telepathy? Still not convinced? What about sex between teachers and students? (That’s a well-known subject in our part of the world.) Something like The Virgin Suicides, Memento Mori depicts a hothouse world of not-so-latent adolescent eros. It’s a fever dream of pubescence, with obsessive secret diaries and protestations of eternal friendship. At a girls’ boarding school, one younger teen swipes the diary of two love-besotted 17-year-olds, then laments, “At first it was fun, but now it’s creepy knowing all their secrets.” Yet the creepiness never rises to the graphic standard of Carrie. Instead, this stylish picture’s more a study of mood, fraught with intrigue and yearning. It escalates gradually to an incoherent shrieking finale, but afterwards you remember the Gothic tone tailored for the Britney Spears generation. B.R.M.
*MIDDLE PASSAGE
Martinique/France, 2000. Director: Guy Deslauriers
Thurs., May 31, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
Mon., June 4, 5:00 p.m., Pacific Place
This is a tough film to sit through, as you’d expect from its subject: the slave trade, in all its heartless brutality. The surprise is how meditative and somber is the telling, how matter-of-fact and non-sensationalistic. Slaves taken from disparate West African tribes leave Senegal aboard a French sailing ship (during the 18th century, we’re left to guess), but remain mute the entire arduous 120-day voyage. Nor do we hear from their mercenary white tormenters. Instead, in extended first-person voice-over, one nameless, timeless soul speaks to both the particular horrors and broad historical facts of this chapter in capitalism. Half the 600 men, women, and children die en route; rapes are committed and rebellions brutally suppressed. Corpses are constantly dumped over the railings; many choose suicide over the pestilence and filth below decks. Yet the philosophical narrator places blame on both the white slavers and the African kings who often sold their people into bondage. B.R.M.
*
