The laughter! The tears! The pathos! The incomprehensible Czech documentaries! Our critics sat through 89 such festival titles to sort out the picks from the pans. Anything else, anything unsigned, gets a simple summary distilled from the blurbmeisters at SIFF. But we’ll see more, so visit seattleweekly.com throughout the fest for news and new reviews. See you in line.
Abouna
Chad/France, 2002. Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Wed., June 4, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Tues., June 10, 4:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Their father mysteriously gone, their mother depressed and irritable, two Chadian brothers are herded off to a rural Koranic boarding school. Haunted throughout by its ambiguous opening shot of a man dropping out of the frame, Haroun’s follow- up to Bye Bye Africa leavens its archetypal 400 Blows-ish scenario with magic realism dustings, fashioning a rueful meditation on abandonment and rootlessness, both individual and national. Dennis Lim
Alone Against the Sea:
The Dangers of Solo Sailing
U.S.A., 2003. Director: Laszlo Pal
Sun., May 25, 4 p.m., Egyptian
Five solo sailors struggle through the most challenging moments of their careers. A world premiere from local director Pal. Screens with Tribal Journey.
American Splendor
U.S.A., 2002. Directors: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Judah Friedlander, and James Urbaniak
Wed., June 4, 7 p.m., Egyptian
Mon., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
It wasn’t hard for this year’s Sundance jury to agree on the Dramatic Competition’s one unambiguous high point: this supple, superbly acted Harvey Pekar biopic. The co-directors, whose backgrounds lie exclusively in documentaries, fold in interviews with the real-life Pekars, while Harvey himself grumpily narrates. Paul Giamatti’s uncanny impersonation of the Cleveland file clerk, comic-book cult hero, and miserablist chronicler of the everyday dovetails beautifully with Hope Davis balancing astringency and compassion as Joyce Brabner (Mrs. Pekar) and the droll perfection of James Urbaniak’s Robert Crumb. Although the deconstructionist toggling between acted and real gets gimmicky fast (and that live-action/comic-strip trick is at least as old as that a-ha video), the deserving Grand Prize winner by and large upholds the comix-cinema standards of Crumb and Ghost World. Dennis Lim
And Now . . . Ladies & Gentlemen
France/Great Britain, 2002 Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Jeremy Irons
Wed., June 4, 7 p.m., Egyptian
Mon., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
A British jewel thief (Irons) and a burned-out French jazz singer cross paths in this romantic thriller. From the director of 1966’s A Man and a Woman. North American premiere.
Angela
Italy, 2002. Director: Roberta Torre
Wed., June 4, 7 p.m., Egyptian
Mon., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
The credit-sequence inscription “based on a true story” can inspire hope, dread, or just downright boredom. Heyif that true story is cinematic and exciting, great, you’ve got Titanic. If not, then The Story of Louis Pasteur. The tale of an ’80s Sicilian shoe-store owner whose shop serves as a front for drug dealing, Angela falls somewhere between those extremes. It’s richly atmosphericPalermo’s ancient, crooked, claustrophobic alleyways provide perfect cover for Angela’s cat-and-mouse games with the carabinieri. And heroine Donatella Finocchiaro smolders effectively as a sexy, ignored wife and mother who falls for a disposable young thug in her husband’s too-well-mannered gang. (The sex is scanty, only one guy gets offed, and the trial sequences are a snooze.) Perhaps that’s the problem with AngelaI mean, even Scarface was kinda, sorta based on a true story, but it went somewhere, for all its lurid embellishments. Angela doesn’t. It may be true, but that’s no excuse. Brian Miller
The Animatrix
U.S.A./Japan, 2003. Directors: Peter Chung, Andy Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike, Mahiro Maeda, Kouji Morimoto, and Shinichir�tanabe
Sat., May 31, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
They say it took Walt Disney 30 years to recoup his investment in Fantasia. In sheer dollar terms, it may take the Warner Bros. studio nearly as long to justify what it spent on the Wachowski boys’ animated omnibus companion to the Matrix franchise, but the final outcome is not in doubt. The Wachowskis commissioned seven of these nine short films based on Matrix-related themes and characters from four superstar artists of Japanese animethen handed them budgets these usually TV-bound directors previously only dreamed of. Visually and technically, the results are uniformly stunning. As narratives, as drama, the Animatrix episodes have their ups and downs, but even the downs are admirably ambitious. And the best episodesChung’s rendering of a robot’s acid trip; Morimoto’s exploration of the borderland between mundane and magical in a child’s mindare instant masterworks. If this film doesn’t bring anime into the world-cinema mainstream, nothing will. Roger Downey
The Archangel’s Feather
Venezuela, 2002. Director: Luis Manzo
Sun., May 25, 4 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Mon., May 26, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
“Perhaps the best Venezuelan film of the last two decades,” reads a blurb for Feather, and I have no reason to doubt it. But you see the difficulty: Belgian best sellers, great Supertramp albums, top Venezuelan films, etc. Venezuela has a flourishing television industry, which excels at generating the telenovelas so beloved of Hispanophone viewers. Indeed, the director and most of Feather‘s cast are veteran telenovelistas. But feature film and 200-episode soap operas are rather different art forms, and the broad-stroke talents required for small-screen studio-bound serials don’t work as well putting across a wanly fantastic location-shot tale of a (possibly angelic) stranger come to upset the settled ways of a tiny mountain hamlet. The best that can be said is that, despite its hackneyed magic realism and ’30s-melodrama sources, Feather‘s story develops with refreshing unpredictability. And it’s nice and short. R.D.
Arirang
U.S.A., 2003. Director: Tom Coffman
Fri., May 30, 4 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
A timely documentary on 100 years of Korean immigration to the United States.
L’Auberge Espagnole
France/Spain, 2002. Director: C餲ic Klapisch
Cast: Audrey Tautou
Fri., May 23, 6:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., May 25, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place
Seven students in their early 20s, each from a different European nation, share a flat in Barcelona, serving as a microcosmic allegory for the European Union. See also Klapisch’s When the Cat’s Away; opens commercially May 30.
Autumn Spring
Czech Republic, 2001
Director: Vladimir Michᬥk
Fri., May 23, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sat., May 24, 11:30 a.m., Harvard Exit
“Old men should be rich and respected,” says Fanda (Vlastimil Brodsky) to his best friend Eda (Stanislav Zindulka). These old duffers are neither, so they pretend to be both. Fanda impersonates a moneybags opera conductor, snootily touring vast mansions and scarfing up fine cuisine paid for by eager realtors, while Eda makes a convincingly haughty secretary. They tell pretty girls they’re railway inspectors, demanding kisses in return for not busting the babes for cheating on fares. Meanwhile, Fanda’s wife spends her days planning their funerals. (Fanda would rather have the fun of faking his, like an octogenarian Tom Sawyer.) The jaunty comedy is forced, and beneath it lies infinite grief: Brodsky, a star since 1966’s Closely Watched Trains, killed himself after shooting this film. It’s like Il Postino, whose star was slowly dying in agony while playing a man exultant in love: The hero’s grin is upstaged by the skull beneath the skin. Tim Appelo
Bad Guy
South Korea, 2001. Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Tues., May 27, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Fri., May 30, 4 p.m., Pacific Place
When clean-cut teenager Sun-hwa is forcibly kissed in the street one day by gang leader and pimp Han-Ki, the resulting obsessive fascination leads them both into a downward spiral of degradation.
Belonging
Cambodia/Great Britain, 2002 Director: Tamara Gordon
Sat., May 31, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 15, 11:30 a.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
This documentary follows the search of an adopted Cambodian girl who leaves her middle-class English home to search for the mother she had always believed gave her up to an American. Strong buzz. North American premiere.
The Best of Times
Taiwan/Japan, 2002. Director: Chang Tso-Chi
Fri., June 6, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Fri., June 13, 11:30 a.m., Harvard Exit
Seventeen-year-old Wei has a Bruce Lee obsession, a job as doorman at a hostess bar, and a sister dying of leukemia. Lyrical in tone, the film swept the board at this year’s Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.
Big Girls Don’t Cry
Germany, 2003. Director: Maria Von Heland
Sat., May 31, 4 p.m., Harvard Exit
Tues., June 10, 7 p.m., Pacific Place
Two best friends from contrasting backgrounds deal with the inevitable adolescent identity crisis in wholly different ways. Maria Von Heland’s directorial debut. U.S. premiere.
Bird Man Tale
Indonesia, 2002. Director: Garin Nugroho
Thurs., June 12, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 15, 4 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
A dance instructor and political activist, Bertold is skirting government thugs. Set in Papua New Guinea, this film teems with glorious imagery and a celestial score. North American premiere.
The Blessing Bell
Japan, 2002. Director: Sabu
Sun., June 1, 1:45 p.m., Egyptian
Tues., June 3, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
More a structural conceit than a movie, Bell goes one waythen back. Director Sabu plays an idle factory worker who wanders away from his idled factory on a picaresque series of adventures, never once speaking. Such a deadpan approach might work for Buster Keaton or Jacques Tati, but Sabu has a little too much faith in the power of his stony visage. He watches a yakuza die, goes to jail, proves himself a hero in a fire, sees a ghost, wins the lottery, and falls in a hole. Then the sun rises, and he retraces his steps. It’s both more and less dramatic than it sounds. Sabu’s best vignettes do bring a smile; he’s like a forlorn angel of good karma (Clipped Wings of Desire?) who gets no respect for his efforts. The recent Palestinian film Divine Intervention did this kind of thing much better, but Sabu has a strong eye for empty streetscapes and urban absurdities that almost make his unlikely mishaps seem likely. B.R.M.
Blind Shaft
China/Hong Kong/Germany, 2002. Director: Li Yang
Wed., June 4, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Sat., June 7, 4 p.m., Egyptian
Maybe the best mining-movie title ever. Two men travel the crumbling coal-mining system of China’s hinterland to make their own kind of fortuneusing a violent scheme of misdirection and manipulation.
Blood Brothers
Hong Kong/China, 1973. Director: Zhang Che
Sat., June 7, 11:30 a.m., Harvard Exit
I would’ve gone wild over this old Hong Kong martial-arts movie when I was 9 years old. In the late-19th-century Qing dynasty, two brothers stand around flipping their pigtails and bragging about their big future as bandits. Along rides a warrior bandit fellow. They threaten to kill and rob him. Tall in the saddle, he challenges them to a dual duel. Impressed, the warrior hires the brothers to join his army. Fortunately, he gets rich and powerful, with peacock feathers in his hair. Unfortunately, the one woman who moves the warrior is the wife of the boorish, drunken, womanizing brother. Events play out with zero suspense but high style. Many rousing fight scenes ensue, set atop hills with inspiring vistas. Nine-year-olds are fated to spend days after seeing Brothers grimacing and pretending to die protractedly in battle, rolling down hills and flailing in slow motion. T.A.
Blue Moon
Austria, 2002. Director: Andrea Maria Dusl
Tues., May 27, 7 p.m., Harvard Exit
Thurs., May 29, 4:45 p.m., Harvard Exit
Any film with twins should not be described in detail. And having said that, I’ve probably said too much. But, even if Moon‘s Eastern European road-movie spirit peters out in its final kilometers, it’s still a journey worth taking. A schlumpy Austrian guy gets tangled up with a Ukrainian hooker in Slovakia; then there’s a moocher from the former East Germany who leeches on to the Austrian; then the Austrian goes looking for the hooker again. Though Moon is basically a romantic comedy, it is pervaded with a morose sense that everyone in the former Soviet bloc has been made into whores and thieves. “Nobody comes here. There’s nothing here,” says a suspiciously familiar-looking Ukrainian woman who helps the Austrian on his quest. With some cool techno music in its score, Moon‘s like a cynical, seedier updating of a Hope-and-Crosby road movie. One guy even uses a doll’s head to steal a carI call that free enterprise. B.R.M.
The Blues
U.S.A., 2002. Directors: Charles Burnett, Mike Figgis, Marc Levin, Richard Pearce, and Wim Wenders
Fri., May 23, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Mon., May 26, 4 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
What Ken Burns did for jazz, Paul Allen now tries to do for the blues: He put up the money for this seven-film series, which will air on PBS in September, in which seven directors, including Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) and Wim Wenders, were invited to “riff” on various aspects of blues culture and history. Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese also participated, but their segments won’t be ready for SIFF. Instead we previewed “Godfathers and Sons” by Marc Levin (Slam), which does not raise high hopes. It’s a lame mishmash, mostly given over to a “behind the scenes” promotional video for a Chess recording session that featured Chuck D. with some old blues players. (The musical result provides a rather strong counterargument to the platitudes being mouthed about deep links between rap and the blues.) Brief footage of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters playing together apparently has never been seen before. Mark D. Fefer
Bollywood/Hollywood
Canada, 2002. Director: Deepa Mehta
Thurs., May 29, 4:45 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., June 1, 6:30 p.m., Pacific Place
A cross-cultural comedy from the director of Earth, this faux-Bollywood romantic musical employs all the conventions of the genre. Possibly even better than The Guru, since it lacks Heather Graham.
El Bonaerense
Argentina, 2002. Director: Pablo Trapero
Wed., June 4, 7 p.m., Pacific Place
Tues., June 10, 1 p.m., Pacific Place
Zapa gets himself into trouble in his hometown. His uncle gets him into “el Bonaerense,” the infamous Buenos Aires police force. From the director of Crane World (SIFF ’00).
The Bookshop
Tunisia/France, 2002. Director: Nawfel Saheb-Ettaba
Sun., May 25, 4 p.m., Harvard Exit
Wed., May 28, 7 p.m., Harvard Exit
On a street corner in Tunis, where past and present, poor and well-off, Arab and French heritages meet, stands the shabby-genteel building that lends its name to ad-and- documentary director Saheb-Ettaba’s first feature. It’s an auspicious debut. Don’t be put off by the title: The bookshop in question merely existslike a sitcom kitchen or a soap’s staff dayroomto bring diverse characters into plausible propinquity. They include: Martine Gafsi as a loveless widow; Yadh Beji as her Europeanized (i.e., old-fashioned) son; Hend Sabri as the young wife stifled among stacks of musty books; and Ahmed el Haffiene as the drifter bringing a whiff of change. All their seemingly preprogrammed encounters evolve in fascinating and unexpected directions. All the performances are moving and memorable, but Sabri’s is something special: tough, funny, and powerfully sexy. If there’s any justice in film heaven, we’ll see much more of her. Roger Downey
Brats
Czech Republic, 2002. Director: Zdenek Tyc
Tues., June 3, 7 p.m., Harvard Exit
Wed., June 4, 2 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Required viewing for parents and future parents (especially if you plan to adopt), Brats immerses itself in the humdrum yet heroic business of childrearing. A Prague yuppie couple moves to the countryside to shield their two adopted Gypsy (Romany) boys from racist taunting and to relieve the asthma of their natural-born son (the youngest). The air is better, of course, but the villagers are a different matter. Eight-year-old middle son Frantasek is accused of vandalism by a cranky old racist, but the subsequent confrontations don’t lead where you expect. Brats is more interested in the unhurried daily patterns of family lifesome of them, be warned, are downright boringand boys-will-be-boys misbehavior. Still wanna have kids? There’s a great bedtime moment when the two older boys start a “Shut up! No, you shut up!” contest that you think could go on for the rest of the movie. I’ll bet some parents have seen that scene plenty of times before. B.R.M.
Broadway: The Golden Age,
by the Legends Who Were There
U.S.A., 2003. Director: Rick Mckay
Cast: Bea Arthur, Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Alan Cumming, Jeremy Irons, Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine, Rick McKay, Jerry Orbach, Chita Rivera, Eva Marie Saint, Elaine Stritch, and Tommy Tune
Fri., May 30, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 1, 4 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
The golden age of the Great White Way is brought to the screen in a documentary featuring interviews with more than 100 Broadway stars, composers, writers, and notables.
Brothers . . . on Holy Ground
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Mike Lennon
Tues., May 27, 7 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Shortly after noon on Sept. 11, 2001, independent filmmaker Lennon arrived at the site of the World Trade Center. After two weeks of digging, he began interviewing firefighters and their families.
Bubba Ho-Tep
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Don Coscarelli
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis
Sat., May 24, midnight, Egyptian
The story of what really became of Elvis Presley. Now living in a Texas rest home, Elvis teams up with Jack, a fellow resident who thinks he is John F. Kennedy. Antics ensue.
Buffalo Soldiers
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Gregor Jordon
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, and Anna Paquin
Sat., June 7, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Sun., June 8, 4 p.m., Egyptian
This cynical rendering of life on a U.S. Army base in Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall has provoked controversy. Based on the novel by Robert O’Connor.
Bukowski: Born Into This
U.S.A., 2002. Director: John Dullaghan
Wed., May 28, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Fri., June 6, 4 p.m., Egyptian
An overview of the life of the literary bad boy, with rare footage of his public readings and interviews.
Burning in the Wind
Italy/Switzerland, 2001. Director: Silvio Soldini
Fri., May 23, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sat., May 24, 1:45 p.m., Harvard Exit
Factory drone Tobias searches for fantasy girls. When he actually meets one and falls in love, it turns out there’s a family connection. North American premiere.
The Butterfly
France, 2002. Director: Philippe Muyl
Sat., June 7, 11:30 a.m., Pacific Place
An ornery, retired Parisian sets off on an expedition to find a rare mountain butterfly. A huge hit in France, of course. U.S. premiere.
Cabin Fever
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Eli Roth
Sat., May 31, midnight, Egyptian
Tues., June 10, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
College kids wonder, “Dude, who brought the flesh-eating zombie virus to our kegger?”
Caesar
U.S.A./Germany/Italy/Netherlands, 2002
Director: Uli Edel
Cast: Christopher Walken, Chris Noth, Valerio Golino, and Richard Harris
Thurs., June 12, 6:30 p.m., Egyptian
This historical epic enlists a cast of thousands to recount the rise and fall of Rome’s golden warrior. Harris fills a supporting role filmed shortly before his death. U.S. premiere.
CAMP
6:30 p.m. Fri., May 23 at Egyptian 4 p.m. Sat., May 24 at Egyptian
A bunch of young outcasts (i.e., gay boys and plump girls who worship Stephen Sondheim) get to commiserate in their otherness at a summer theater camp for kids. Writer/debut director Todd Graff and his drowsy editor Myron Kerstein muck up what is intended to be a socko openingjuxtaposing the performance of a soaring spiritual from The Gospel at Colonus with a young drag queen’s beating at the hands of his high-school peersand it’s all downhill from there. Graf gets a few happy, hearty laughs out of these kids’ fearless earnestness (i.e., an ambitious teenage girl with a middle-aged wig belting out Sondheim’s boozy, bitter “The Ladies Who Lunch”), but the film’s tone is so inconsistent that you don’t know whether he knows why it’s funnyis this camp or camp? At any given time, the movie ineptly reaches to be Meatballs, Bring It On, and/or a particularly treacly TV After School Special. It’s a waste of what could’ve been a breezy summer vacation. STEVE WIECKING
Capturing the Friedmans
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Andrew Jarecki
Sat., May 24, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Tues., May 27, 4:45 p.m., Egyptian
From left field, another genius documentary that’s sure to pop up on critics’ 10-best lists this yearmine probably among them. If you were an N.Y.C. resident and tabloid reader, as I was, in the ’80s, this tale sounds superficially familiar: A Long Island teacher and his family are accused of horrific, some might say implausible, child-sex-abuse crimes. Hysteria ensues; TV trucks swarm the cul-de-sac; convictions are inevitable. But step back a decade, as director Jarecki has methodically done, and the case begins to look very different. The Friedmans provide him with a literal archive of home movies, photos, and audio tapes (life was not worth living unless documented, it seems). Family members, cops, and journalists are interviewed anew. What emerges, again, is another McMartin Little Rascals Day Care Center-type scenario. Again, as the U-Dub’s Elizabeth Loftus has shown with so-called “recovered memories,” such witch hunts collapse like a house of cardstragically too late, however, for those who live inside. B.R.M.
The Cement Ball of Earth, Heaven, and Hell
U.S.A./Cambodia, 2002. Director: Trent Harris
Mon., June 9, 7 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
A startling illustration of the human toll of war, this documentary profiles Aki Ra, forced to join Pol Pot’s murderous army at the age of 9. Screens with The Flute Player. U.S. premiere.
Le Cercle Rouge
France, 1970. Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Cast: Alain Delon, Yves Montand, and Gian Maria Volont鼯I> Sun., June 8, 4 p.m., Harvard Exit
High priest of tough-guy mysticism, inventor of the attitudinous thriller associated with Godard, Tarantino, and Wong Kar-wai, the late Jean-Pierre Melville returns with the complete 140-minute version of his 1970 buddy-manhunt-caper cum crypto-Western, presented in a restored color print. Rouge is a work of leisurely development and tragic inevitabilityso formalized it seems natural for the criminals to wear jacket and tie as they waft through a posh, nocturnal Paris. The principal ballerinas in this dance of the professionals are the ex-con Corey (Delon), the alcoholic ex-cop Jansen (Montand), and the escaped prisoner Vogel (Volont马 loners all. The heist at the movie’s center is choreographed like a commando raid or a bullfight, with the dapper, self- possessed Delon a grim matador in white gloves and full face mask. Afterward, Jansen is willing to forgo his share of the lootto participate in taking the Place Vend�jewelry store is reward enough. J. Hoberman
Chaos
France, 2002. Director: Coline Serreau
Tues., June 10, 1 p.m., Cinerama
Sun., June 15, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
The director of the 1985 hit Three Men and a Cradle is back with this surprising tale of feminist consciousness-raising in the guise of a fast-paced thriller. Need we say more? I think we needn’t.
Chicago (Sing-a-Long)
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Rob Marshall
Cast: Ren饠Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly
Sat., May 24, 1:45 p.m., Egyptian
It’s one thing to watch Ren饬 Catherine, and Richard strut their Oscar-winning stuff on the big screen. It’s quite another to try harmonizing with them (and a theater full of other tonally challenged Chicago fans).
A Chinese Odyssey 2002
Hong Kong, 2002. Director: Jeff Lau
Mon., June 9, 7 p.m., Egyptian
Fri., June 13, 11:30 a.m., Cinerama
A young emperor and his sister sneak out of the palace to experience life in the real world. Trouble ensues. This film reunites Tony Leung and Faye Wong for the first time since Chungking Express. (That’s Tony Leung Chiu-wai, also in Infernal Affairs.)
Chow Yun-Fat Boy Meets Brownie Girl
South Korea, 2002. Director: Nam Ki-Woong
Sat., June 14, midnight, Egyptian
By the director of SIFF ’02 hit Teenage Hooker, this film is based on a Korean folktale about a pond snail that turns into a young beauty and marries a hero. No, really.
The Cinerama Adventure
U.S.A., 2000. Director: David Strohmaier
Thurs., May 29, 7 p.m., Egyptian
A nostalgic collection of historical footage and film clips from the only seven movies ever made in the three-projector Cinerama format. And, yes, it’s being shown at the Egyptian, not the Cinerama. Go figure.
Come Drink With Me
Hong Kong/China, 1966. Director: King Hu
Sat., May 24, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Mon., May 26, 11:30 a.m., Harvard Exit
Golden Swallow confronts Jade-Faced Tiger and his gang. Swordplay and martial arts are part of the package, which is impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the names of the two protagonists.
Crude
Turkey, 2003. Director: Paxton Winters
Fri., June 13, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 15, 4 p.m., Egyptian
Two American guys travel to Turkey and concoct a scheme to interview a terrorist. Thankfully, they meet Ali, who saves them from themselves. All tourists should be so lucky. World premiere.
Cry Woman
China/Canada/South Korea, 2002 Director: Liu Bingjian
Wed., May 28, 7 p.m., Pacific Place
Sat., May 31, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place
Everything goes wrong for Guixiang when her husband gouges out the eye of his mah-jongg opponent and is arrested. And you thought mah-jong was a quiet little parlor game? You were so wrong.
The Cuckoo
Russia, 2002. Director: Alexander Rogozhkin
Sun., June 8, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Thurs., June 12, 1 p.m., Cinerama
An odd little movie in the best sense of both words, Rogozhkin’s self-scripted shaggy-dog parable contrives a way to bring together a young Finnish intellectual, a grizzled Russian soldier, and a Lapp shamaness in the same rickety wooden hut in the waning days of WWII. The contrivance doesn’t stop there: None of the three speaks more than three words of the other languages, and you wouldn’t believe the number of amusing misunderstandings this entails. Well, maybe you would. But if you’re willing to go with the premise, it’s likely you’ll be won over by the sheer charm of the performanceschubby, bullet-headed Ville Haapalo is a find as the Finn fed up with combat, and character actor Viktor Bychkov does a memorable and touching turn as the quintessential Russian everyman. Most winning of all is the glorious desolation of a dark northern landscape under a late-summer polar-blue sky, vividly captured in Andrei Zhegalov’s cinematography. R.D.
The Dance of Men
Uzbekistan, 2002. Director: Yusup Razykov
Wed., June 11, 4:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 15, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
As the small boy Sanam runs through a labyrinth of carpets and traditions, we learn about the observances of maturing boys in Islamic Uzbekistan. North American premiere.
The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well
South Korea, 1996. Director: Hong Sang-Soo
Sat., May 31, 4 p.m., Egyptian
There is not a pig in sight in this black, black tale of self-loathing. Those expecting pigs and/or wells will be sorely disappointed. The debut feature from one of SIFF’s “Emerging Masters.”
The Day I Will Never Forget
Great Britain, 2002. Director: Kim Longinotto
Sat., May 31, 1:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
“It just looks so beautiful when it’s not there,” says a Somali woman as she attempts to explain why clitorodectomies are still the norm in her country. Though the cruel and disfiguring operation is now banned in Kenya, young Somali girls succumb to the surgery as a matter of course. No, this isn’t an ideal date flick, nor is it a very comfortable one, either. In one particularly disquieting scene, an elderly circumciser gives an extremely detailed blow-by-blow of the procedure. Equally uncomfortable are the scenes where modern Western influences are blaringly apparent alongside ancient East African customs. We’d all probably like to believe that female circumcision doesn’t happen any more, but Day won’t allow that. Yet despite its grim subject matter, the documentary is often quite beautiful. The colors captured in the African village streets are stunning. The faces of these proud but disfigured women are vibrant, beautiful, and often incredibly powerful. Laura Cassidy
The Day My God Died
U.S.A./Nepal/India, 2002 Director: Andrew Levine
Mon., May 26, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Fri., May 30, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Of course this documentary is about a worthy and disturbing cause (Nepalese and Indian girls kidnapped into sex slavery), and you can send money to the Web sites listed at the end. But . . . it has Winona Ryder simpering as “the voice of the children,” apparently part of her unsuccessful pretrial public-relations effort, making it an instant classic of the drop-your-jaw-in-horror variety. Thrill to Winona as she moans, “I am a free spirit, under a free sky. The sky is my family. The stars are my friends.” Giggle as she bubbles that she’s “a fresh, energetic mountain spring.” Weep as she trembles, “I was blamed for what was done to me. We are all prisoners of the same system.” Then laugh in astonishment as she laments, “Today, I have no family, no friends, no social identity or position.” In other words, just like her own real life. B.R.M.
A Decade Under the Influence
U.S.A., 2003. Directors: Richard Lagravenesse and Ted Demme
Mon., June 2, 7 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Mon., June 9, 1 p.m., Cinerama
It’s always good to hear from Dennis Hopper about the lost cinematic glory of the ’70s, but the problem with this documentaryto be expanded on IFC this Augustis that you’ve heard him relate the same polished anecdotes too many times before. The same goes for Altman, Mazursky, Coppola, Scorsese, and all the other ex-Young Turks well into midlife and career decline. Yes, they made some terrific films in their youth, but their nostalgia begins to look self-serving and bitter. I mean, who’s to blame for Gangs of New Yorkthe nefarious studios or Marty himself? Peter Biskind’s book (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls) makes all the same points, and you can flip through the dull sections. Here, apart from a luminous Julie Christie (give that woman a TV talk show!), it’s just a tedious bitch-fest. Peter Bogdanovich sneers that Jaws and Star Wars amounted to “bread and circuses” that killed the ’70s. R.I.P. B.R.M.
Demonlover
France, 2002. Director: Oliver Assayas
Cast: Connie Nielsen, Chlo렓evigny, and Gina Gershon
Tues., June 10, 7 p.m., Cinerama
This conspiracy thriller from the director of Irma Vep centers on a young woman who works for a company negotiating to buy TokyoAnime, producer of a digital 3-D pornographic video game.
Devdas
India, 2002. Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Wed., June 11, 1 p.m., Cinerama
Budgeted at $12 million, Devdas is the most expensive film ever produced in India. Now that Moulin Rouge and Chicago have rekindled our passion for movie musicals, the time seems right for Bollywood to take hold here. Problem is, this three-hour-plus retelling of the 1917 novelpreviously adapted nine timesis about as subtle as a tap-dancing elephant. The story is a tragic variation on the old Bollywood standby: Boy meets girl; boy and girl fall in love; boy’s mother offends girl’s mother; parents forbid marriage and arrange for the girl to marry another boy. Boy then grows up to become a bitter, lovelorn alcoholic (overacted by superstar Shahrukh Khan) forever pining for his lost love, Paro (Aishwarya Rai). If you want subtlety, there’s heaps of that elsewhere at SIFF. Devdas is both wonderful and awful at the same time: It’s over over-the-top. Visually, it’s opulent. Plotwise, it’s cheesy. Yet there’s something elegant and operatic about the whole spectacle. Andrew Engelson
Direct Order
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Scott Miller
Mon., June 2, 7 p.m., Egyptian
As the first Gulf War raged, our government forced soldiers to be vaccinated against anthrax. Since then, many vets have suffered from strange and debilitating symptoms. Michael Douglas narrates. Screens with Unprecedented.
Dirt
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Nancy Savoca
Fri., May 30, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Tues., June 3, 4:45 p.m., Egyptian
Dirt takes a low-key look at the invisible underclass of (mostly illegal) immigrants who clean our offices and homes. It’s a cable TV drama that suffers from a certain ennobling “up-with-Latina-maids” pedantry, but it never gets too screechy about it. Instead, Salvadoran native Delores (Julieta Ortiz) quietly undergoes the daily hardships and humiliations of schlepping from outer-borough N.Y.C. to Fifth Avenue, where she grimly mops the floors, swabs the toilets, and picks up the dog hair. (When she relaxes for lunch, however, she sets an elegant place for herself at a giant dining table, then turns up the classical music on the stereo.) She and her husband and their surly, Americanized teenage son lack immigration papers, meaning one lost client for Delores could upend their finances and lead to disaster. Director Savoca’s filmmaking is routine, but Dirt at least has the virtue of showing Delores’ routine in a non-sensationalistic manner. The rich are caricatures, but the poor are just like you and me. B.R.M.
Dirty Pretty Things
Great Britain, 2003. Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Audrey Tautou
Mon., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Fri., June 13, 11:30 a.m., Egyptian
What a welcome, bracing return to form in Frears’ up-and-down career. Like his ’80s two-pack My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Things burrows into London’s trampled underclass of minorities, down-and-outs, and illegal aliens. But, like The Grifters, it’s also a nifty little crime flick. Working as a hotel deskman, a Nigerian doctor (Chiwetel Eliofor) shares a flatbut not a bedwith a Turkish woman (Am鬩e‘s Tautou, with credible Turkish-accented English), who works as a maid at the same posh hotel. In its posh rooms, however, something very nasty is taking place, orchestrated by the manager (wonderful Sergi Lopez of With a Friend Like Harry, the man we love to hate). You could call the movie immigrant noir, with the authorities circling to deport every sympathetic character. Frears does permit one little political speech at the end (“We are the people you never see”), but by then he’s earned it. Well done, mate. B.R.M.
Distant Lights
Germany, 2003. Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Sat., June 7, 6:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Sun., June 8, 11:30 a.m., Pacific Place
A modern frontier drama set on the River Oder, where Ukrainian refugees bargain with cigarettes, their bodies, or anything they have to offer for entry to the “golden West.” U.S. premiere.
Doing Time
Japan, 2002. Director: Sai Yoichi
Mon., May 26, 6:30 p.m., Egyptian
Tues., May 27, 4:45 p.m., Harvard Exit
Prison movies mean jailbreaks, sadistic guards, and Steve McQueen endlessly bouncing a ball against a wall in solitary, right? Wrong. In this true-life-inspired tale of a harmless middle-aged war-gamer who goes to the stir for three years on minor weapons charges, there’s nary a riot or a tin cup rattled against the bars. No one is dragged screaming to the electric chair. There’s no “failure to communicate.” Paul Newman doesn’t eat any eggs. Instead, Hanawa (Tampopo‘s Tsutomo Yamazaki) and his four cellmates spend lots of time folding, cleaning, and asking for permission to pee. Lots of time. Everyone is absurdly, fastidiously polite and well-mannered; it’s like Mr. Hulot Goes to Jail, as Hanawa laconically recalls his confinement in voice-over. He and his buddies obsess over food, play baseball poorly but enjoyably, and pay closer attention to their minutely regimented lives than we do to our free ones. It’s Zen in the pen. B.R.M.
Dominoes
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Cole Drumb
Sun., May 25, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Fri., June 13, 1:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Ten Seattleites spiral in and out of sex, love, and relationships (sound familiar?) as they try to find meaning in all of the usual (and some unusual) places. The world premiere of a local film.
Double Vision
Taiwan/Hong Kong/U.S.A., 2002 Director: Chen Kuo-Fu
Sat., June 7, midnight, Egyptian
Tues., June 10, 9:30 p.m., Cinerama
What with SARS and the lingering Asian fear of Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo cult, the specter of a high-biotech, death-worshipping, live-forever Buddhist gang of paranormal serial killers ought to be a lot more frightening. Vision clearly has Seven on its mind (or fed into its Final Draft screenwriting software template), but David Morse is no substitute for Morgan Freeman, nor Tony Leung Kar-fai for Brad Pitt (though he is handsome and similarly scuzzed-up). Morse plays the FBI man brought to Taiwan to assist in the murder investigation of Leung’s guilt-wracked cop (bad marriage, traumatized kid, yadda yadda yadda). My favorite line? “Your so-called scientific methods are only useful when dealing with mortals like ourselves,” Leung tells Morse. Other supernatural mumbo-jumbo is interspersed with too-convenient clues (plus only one big, bloody martial-arts showdownnot big or bloody enough). It would’ve helped if they’d also added Buffy to the CSI and X-Files modules in the software. B.R.M.
Dream Cuisine
China/Japan, 2003. Director: Li Ying
Sun., June 1, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Sun., June 8, 4 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Seventy-eight-year-old Sato Hatsue mastered Shandong cuisine (no sugar, no lard, no MSG) during her girlhood in Shandong province, China. Married to a Japanese husband, she hopes to return home one last time.
Dummy
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Greg Pritikin
Cast: Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Illeana Douglas, and Jared Harris
Fri., June 6, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Tues., June 10, 4:45 p.m., Cinerama
In the suburbs of New York, a young ventriloquist (the Oscar-winning Brody) struggles to express his feelings through his dummy. Who has not been in this young ventriloquist’s shoes?
Edi
Poland, 2002. Director: Piotr Trzaskalski
Mon., May 26, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place
Tues., May 27, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
In the unutterably sentimental official Polish entry for last year’s foreign-language Oscar, Edi (Henryk Golebiewski) is a scrap-metal collectorthe male equivalent of a bag lady. He and his dim pal Jureczek load busted stuff onto their cart to trade for a pittance or a drink at the prole bar. One day, two thug brothers kill a prole named Puny. Then they notice that Edi’s always readinghis unplugged fridge is full of books fished from the garbage. So they hire him to tutor their sexy, surly teen sister. He’s ugly (Golebiewski, an ex-child star, has the homeliest nose in the biz), so they know her virtue is safe. When she gets pregnant, however, violent complications ensue, but nothing fazes Edi’s saintly, passive goodwill (reinforced by much Christ symbolism). His balls are in heaven. If you can stomach the trudgy pace and sticky sweetness, Edi has a certain scruffy charm. T.A.
The Education of Gore Vidal
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Deborah Dickson
Sat., May 24, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Mon., May 26, 1:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
When the Dixie Chicks are enduring record-burnings for a relatively minor dig against Dubya, you have to admire author/ raconteur Vidal’s half-century of razor-sharp, unapologetic liberalism. He was, to paraphrase another country act, anti-American when anti-American wasn’t cool. Vidal’s growth as an outspoken critic of the nation he loves is well charted in this PBS documentaryworth your time, but just as easily digested on the small screen. The film has all the earmarks of its network, with talking heads (Arthur Schlesinger Jr., George Plimpton) and elegant literary readings (by Joanne Woodward and others). It’s a bit posh, perhaps (Vidal pontificates from his Italian villa), but Education engagingly conveys the man’s enduring relevance in a time of hush-mouthed cultural passivity. Clips of “the first enfant terrible” of mid-century American letters (as Plimpton calls him) capture Vidal in top form, calmly dissecting what he brands “a nation of shoplifters.” Steve Wiecking
800 Bullets
Spain, 2002. Director: lex de la Iglesia
Fri., June 13, 1:45 p.m., Cinerama
Sat., June 14, 9:30 p.m., Cinerama
A nasty 12-year-old boy sneaks off to find the Spanish setting of a number of Hollywood Westernsand perhaps his grandfather, a former stuntman, too.
11’09″01
France, 2002. Directors: Youssef Chahine, Amos Gitai, Alejandro Gonzᬥz I�itu, Shohei Imamura, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mira Nair, Idrissa Ouedrogo, Sean Penn, and Danis Tanovic
Sun., June 8, 11:30 a.m., Egyptian
Eleven big-name directors were invited to commemorate Sept. 11, 2001, last fall with the gimmicky timing of 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and one frame per each short film. My top pick: Loach’s astringent historical reminder that Sept. 11 is also the date of Chile’s 1973 CIA-backed coup. Tanovic (No Man’s Land) similarly links the date to the Srebrenica massacre. In Gitai’s staging of the aftermath of a Tel Aviv car bombing, an aggressive TV correspondent is told her reporting won’t go out because something “really, really important” has happened in New York. “Are you crazy?” she explodes, “Who gives a shit about New York?” Makhmalbaf’s effort is humanistic, Penn’s embarrassingly squirm-inducing. Gonzᬥz I�itu’s attempt to turn the event into an art piece (using actual sounds and retina-blinding flashes of falling bodies) seems pretentious and self-important. That this uneven omnibus still has no distributor should surprise no one, given America’s nanosecond memory span. Whatever its flaws, it’s worth a look. Sheila Benson
Elina
Sweden/Finland, 2002. Director: Klaus Haro
Tues., June 10, 4:45 p.m., Harvard Exit
Thurs., June 12, 7 p.m., Pacific Place
Ingmar Bergman’s great discovery, Bibi Andersson (Persona), is just the actress to play a formidable schoolmistress in this period piece about rural Sweden in the ’50s. Andersson’s blond looks are still striking, and she radiates an indomitable moralistic will. Her character is on a hard-ass crusade to impose her language and culture on the stubborn Finns living in Sweden’s remote north. Little Elina (Natalie Minnevik), back in school after a long illness, won’t knuckle under to the martinet teacher, who’s convinced she can break Elina’s will. Silly Bibi! Nobody’s more stubborn than a Swede Finn, not even a proper Swede. (Being one, I know we are God’s Frozen People.) Elina communes with her dead father in the bogs, drawing uncanny strength to combat the teacher’s regime. The acting is good, the scenery picturesque, the atmosphere rich; but the plot is thin, and the philosophy gloppyyou sink into it up to your ankles. U.S. premiere. T.A.
The Embalmer
Italy, 2002. Director: Matteo Garrone
Tues., June 10, 7 p.m., Egyptian
Sun., June 15, 9:30 p.m., Pacific Place
Meet Peppino (Ernesto Mahieux), suave gay dwarf taxidermist and sugar daddy to his hunky young assistants. Enter Valerio (Valerio Foglia Manzillo), whom Peppino picks up while trolling the zoo, and trollop Deborah, who seeks to woo Valerio away from his Iago-like, mob-connected keeper. Fireworks! Ripped from the Italian headlines, this true-life love triangle is actually played for little sensationalism by director Garrone, who patiently observes Peppino’s bubbling sexual anxiety. The result is a low-key thriller, oddly nuanced and creepy. Mark Peranson
The Event
Canada, 2002. Director: Thom Fitzgerald
Cast: Parker Posey, Olympia Dukakis, and Sarah Polley
Sat., June 14, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 15, 1:45 p.m., Harvard Exit
Assisted suicide: pro or con? A sterling cast enriches this dramatic portrayal of friends confronting the issue. From the director of The Hanging Garden (also featuring Polley).
Ever Since the World Ended
U.S.A., 2002. Directors: Calum Grant and Joshua Atosh Litle
Wed., May 28, 2 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Thurs., May 29, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Twelve years after the Kotto plague reduces the population of the Bay Area to 186, two local filmmakers interview as many survivors as possible. Not a documentary!
Everyday God Kisses Us
on the Mouth
Romania, 2001. Director: Sinisa Dragin
Thurs., June 5, 4:45 p.m., Harvard Exit
Sun., June 8, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Wow, this is a weird, intense, somewhat uncategorizable film that might’ve entered Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer territory, but which more nearly follows Woyzeck‘s path instead. Dan Condurache delivers an absolutely riveting yet always human performance as a killer released from jail who swiftly goes back to his old village and murderous ways. The guy’s an enigmalike there’s an invisible on/off switch between psychopath and gentle drunk (he wins a goose in a card game and keeps the bird as a pet, kissing it on the beak). It’s De Niro-level acting; nobody can get a read on Dumitrunot the hapless characters he encounters, not even the audience. Is he just a thug or some kind of holy fool on a holy fool’s errand? The movie combines savagery (all off-camera or in long shot) with moments of magic realism; Dumitru is haunted by visions on his bloody picaresque through an almost medieval Romanian wasteland. “I know what’s right and wrong,” says the killer, a frightening thought indeed. B.R.M.
The Eye
Thailand/Hong Kong, 2002 Directors: Danny and Oxide Pang
Mon., June 2, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Fri., June 6, 4 p.m., Harvard Exit
Blind since the age of 2, Mun has her sight restored by a groundbreaking medical operation, only something’s not right. Vaguely reminiscent of the 1994 Madeleine Stowe vehicle Blink, but certain to be way cooler. From the sibling directors of Bangkok Dangerous (SIFF ’01).
