Here's a bit of a preview of what is gonna be showing up in Chicago here real soon. Why do I point this out? Well, to tell you to go check it out. If you've never attended a film festival, do. They open the eyes of every proto-film geek. Film Festivals have everything from the worst of film, to the best. Films that you would otherwise never see. Check it out. Drive a few hundred miles, it's a good trip. Me, I'm gonna be at the AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL, a very good fest that'll have everyone from Paul Dini to Sandra Bullock to Stuart Gordon to John Landis to Joel and Ethan Coen to Brian Helgeland to Paul Schrader to Andrew Kevin Walker and on and on. Hope to see ya there.
There are a lot of interesting sounding films being screened at The 34th Chicago International Film Festival this year, but before I give the skinny on them my cynical nature requires me to deflate the little pat on the back the organizers give to themselves on page two of the pile o' press material I received. "Please don't miss the opportunity to see some of the best films in the world," they say, "Some of the films are so rare that this may be your only opportunity to see them!". The unfortunate reality is that many of the past entries, such as previous gala festival opener and T.V. movie-of-the- week style take on homophobia Twilight of the Golds, starring Brendan Fraiser, DIDN'T DESERVE THE ATTENTION! Nevertheless, the fest did introduce a little movie called Halloween twenty years ago, so I guess its existence is justified.
This years opener is Michael Herman's Little Voice and stars Jane Horrocks (Mike Leigh's great Life Is Sweet) as a girl with a gift for vocal impersonations, and uses it to break free from a domineering mother and become a star. Billed as a "dark musical comedy," it co-stars Ewan "Mark Hamill" McGregor and Michael "Jaws-The Revenge" Caine.
Ian McKellan shows up in two features, with Apt Pupil playing out of competition and the very cool sounding competitor Gods And Monsters. In the latter Mckellan plays openly gay Frankenstein and The Invisible Man director James Whale, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 1957. Brendan Frasier co-stars as a "hunky pool boy," something I'm sure we've ALL longed to be.
The British drama The Theory of Flight with Kenneth Branaugh and Helena Bonham Carter, is about a frustrated artist trying to create a flying machine (the press material doesn't say if it is a modern setting) and a the wheelchair bound woman he is assigned to take care of. Noticably, Branaugh and Carter's work together is decidedly low-key after his atrocious version of Frankenstein.
Films that created a buzz at other festivals are Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe, and Todd Solondz's reportedly very morbid and perverse black comedy Happiness. This guy could have done anything he wanted to after the success of Welcome to the Dollhouse, and chose the sick route. Good for him.
Living Out Loud stars Danny DeVito and Holly Hunter as two lonely soles that find each other. This one, directed by Richard LaGravenese, could go either way, as it is from the screenwriter of The Fisher King (cool) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (gasp).
Ingmar Bergman's In The Presence Of A Clown, his first film since 1984, is also on the program. It features the characters Carl Akerblom and Karin Bergman from his past works, and was filmed in digital beta video. Um Hmm.
The soon to be in wide-release Sharon Stone/Keiran Culkin flick The Mighty screens, as does the 1958 Hammer classic Horror Of Dracula. The man himself, Christopher Lee, will speak at the screening.
Of course dozens of films from all over the world that I haven't mentioned will be unveiled between October 8 and 22, but I don't want to Bogart the Cool News with the whole damn schedule. I'll check them out as well, and if anything is earth-shaking I'll report back.
Domo Arigato
Doug in Chicago
