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God only knows what will happen between now, the 13th Annual Washington,
D.C., International Film Festival, and next year’s installment. Will the
world say goodnight? If so, you’d be wise to catch many of this year’s
films before it does. But the bigger question is what won’t happen: The
city will not likely see an appreciable surge in its number of movie
screensóat least, not enough to break the overwhelming franchises that
Loews Cineplex and, to a lesser extent, AMC have on the District’s film
market. In any case, you’d better get moving, because many of the finer
offerings in this year’s Filmfest will be otherwise shut out by the sheer
lack of venues that constipates D.C.’s movie economy. And there are a lot
of intriguing arrivals. Among our reviewers’ favorites: Day of the Full
Moon, The Hole, The Book of Life, The Life Jacket Is Under Your Seat, and
The Milky Way.
This year, Filmfest D.C. brings in more than 75 films, 31 of which are
reviewed here by Washington City Paper film critics Arion Berger, Mark
Jenkins, and Joel E. Siegel. The program emphasizes Latin American film,
whose exemplars suggest that religious mysticism (Life Is to Whistle, The
Life Jacket Is Under Your Seat) and magical realism (Call of the Oboe, The
Day Silence Died) retain as firm a hold on storytelling in the region’s
film as they do in its literature.
It’s hard to tell if the other themes Filmfest delineates were decided
before or after the films were selected; given the extremely short lead
time with which the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities releases the
event’s schedule, it’s safe to guess the themes came afterward, but maybe
not. At any rate, the second major rubric this year, “2000 as Seen by…”
attempts to whip up a bit of millennial frenzy with films both small in
scope, such as The Wall (which suddenly divides a Belgian chips shop in
half on the last day of the millennium) and Támas and Juli (wherein work
commitments interfere with a New Year’s Eve date), and a bit more
ambitious, as in The Hole (about urban disaffection in Taipei) and The Book
of Life (in which Jesus and a Mary Magdalene figure do battle with Satan in
Manhattan).
Filmfest D.C. is also playing up themes such as “African and Afro-American
Interest,” “Global Rhythms,” “New French Cinema,” and “Year 2000,” but the
organizers could also have divined a category called “War’s Aftermath”; a
number of films (Courage, Regret to Inform, West Beirut, Dead Letter
Office, Buttoners) dwell on the fallout of particularly nasty political
conflicts.
Several of the titles in this year’s festival are awaiting commercial
releaseówhich is not, again, any assurance you’ll be able to see them here:
Jeanne and the Perfect Guy, My Son the Fanatic, The Acid House, and Late
August, Early September. For an additional few, Filmfest is bringing in the
films’ big-name directors, who do not seem uniformly at the top of their
game: Julio Medem comes off nearly as precious as ever with Lovers of the
Arctic Circle; and Francis VÈber imports his shopworn farce The Dinner
Game.
Three music documentaries stand out among the 10 music-oriented films this
year: Black Tears, a look at a group of Cuban musicians on tour that
outlasts its most compelling material; Bob Marley: Live in Concert, wherein
the quality of the music trumps the marginal quality of filmmaking; and
Duke Ellington on Film: A Tribute, a 40-year survey of the jazz great’s
career, coinciding with his centenary celebration here in his hometown.
Also of local interest this year are City at Peace, a film set in D.C. and
starring local kids whose viewpoints you’ll likely want to take in, and The
Sky Is Falling, a rather inane entry co-produced and shot in Los Angeles by
D.C. native David Parks. (If you must see the latter, you may want to wait
for a time when you won’t have to foot the Filmfest ticket price.) Tickets
to this year’s films are $7 unless otherwise noted; several selections
playing at the National Gallery or the Hirshhorn Museum on the Mall are
free.
23
Friday
The Call of the Oboe
Life comes to a remote, moribund Paraguayan town in the form of Brazilian
oboist Augusto (Paulo Betti), a man who intends to get away from it all but
instead finds himself enlisted by the beautiful Aurora (Leticia Vota) to
perform at the long-shuttered cinema she inherited from her father. Augusto
finds himself accompanying silent films from the theater’s dusty collection
of forgotten classics. The films and his music reinvigorate the town, whose
previous existence as a twilight zone between life and death is symbolized
by the patriarchóevery day, he is declared dead but crawls out of his
casket and returns home before he can be buried. Augusto plays better than
he ever did at home, receiving the admiration of the locals and the passion
of Auroraóa development that rankles her previous lover, the local police
commissioner. Claudio Mac Dowell’s film is gently surrealistic and sweetly
life-affirming in a way that has become routine in Latin American fiction
and cinema; it should charm those who have a taste for magical realism, but
is unlikely to convert those who don’t. (MJ)
At 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Sunday, April 25, at
8:45 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Director Claudio Mac Dowell is
scheduled to introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
Divine
The latest costume drama from Mexican fabulist Arturo Ripstein (recently
saluted by a National Gallery retrospective) is based on the millennial
nonsense of a ’70s Mexican sect.
At 6:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater; $15 includes reception
following screening. Also screens Sunday, April 25, at 4 p.m. at the
National Gallery of Art; free.
Jeanne and the Perfect Guy
The movie musical continues its unlikely revival with this tale of romance
between a young woman (Virginie Ledoyen) and an HIV-positive man. This
film, which has been compared to the work of Jacques Demy (and stars his
son Mathieu), has a commercial distributor.
At 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Saturday, April 24, at
9:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Stowaways
Can you imagine being locked in a cargo container with five other illegal
immigrants on a ship from France to Canada? Well, it’s worse than that, as
writer-directors Denis Chouinard and Nicolas Wadimoff’s cautionary tale
vividly demonstrates. Sweaty, claustrophobic, and ultimately grisly, this
is No Exit with a social-drama chaser: Hell is other people, and that’s
before you encounter immigration officers. The stowaways are a Romanian
mother and her young deaf daughter, an Arab man and woman (not a couple), a
wily Gypsy boy, and a callous Russian, confined tensely together when the
ship’s engine fails midocean and the refugees’ food and water run out.
Although this film was shot with amateur performers in a documentary style,
it’s not guileless. The close-quarters format suggests TV drama, and the
impact is heightened by Bill Laswell’s canny worldbeat score. Gripping but
not revelatory, this Swiss-Canadian-French-Belgian co-production plays a
bit like an official government film on how not to emigrate. (MJ)
At 6:45 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Thursday, April 29, at
9 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
The Day Silence Died
The silence dies in the aptly named Bolivian village of Villaserena when a
sinister stranger named Abelardo arrives to set up a radio station. Since
the town has no electricity and Abelardo has no transmitter, what the
newcomer constructs is actually not a radio station but a glorified
public-address system. He puts a speaker in the town square and plays
records through it, offering people a chance to make public dedications and
denunciations at a cost of, respectively, one or two pesos. Soon the
villagers are airing their private grievances to the whole town, and the
formerly placid populace is getting testy. Still, the ensuing chaos has one
potential benefit: It just might liberate young beauty Celeste, who’s been
imprisoned by her father ever since her mother ran away with another man.
Paolo Agazzi’s film takes a while to get going and has rote magical-realist
touches that have turned a bit gamy in Latin American fiction, but it’s a
competent example of the stranger-in-South-American-town (see The Call of
the Oboe) genre. (MJ)
At 8 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Sunday, April 25, at 9
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Paolo Agazzi is scheduled to introduce the
film and answer questions after each screening.
Courage
This docudrama follows the last months in the life of a Peruvian woman who
was killed by Shining Path guerrillas for leading a grass-roots campaign
against its violence.
At 9 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Saturday, April 24, at
6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Director Alberto Durant is scheduled
to introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
Regret to Inform
Cleanly photographed and told without sentiment, this film takes director
Barbara Sonneborn to Vietnam 30 years after her husband was killed in the
war there. Sonneborn is a generous filmmaker who puts her own sadness aside
for most of the movie, although it rises like yeast as she asks other war
widows, both American and Vietnamese, to tell their stories. Interviews
with the poised women contrast with photos and footage of their
husbandsóplayful, proud, and forever young. The stories of the American
womenóblack, white, Native American, and Asian-Americanóare naturally
poignant, and the memories of Vietnamese wives and partisans are tragic;
Sonneborn displays no judgment as they recall their undercover activities
in trying to thwart the American troops, and the devastation of their
families and villages. Regret to Inform has a measured, weary tone
genuinely invested in healing the wounds of the Vietnam War (which the
Vietnamese call the American War). Finally, Sonneborn visits the place
where her husband died, also the hometown of her friend and translator, who
recounts her own horrific tale of prostitution and rebirth. The movie is
padded by much countryside footage and ends, predictably but movingly, at
twin memorials to the war dead. But the women’s memories are horribly fresh
and realó”From then on,” says a Vietnamese woman, “nothing was black or
whiteóit was all gray, like the smoke [from my burning house].” (AB)
At 9 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Saturday,
April 24, at noon at the American Film Institute Theater, followed by a
panel discussion. Director Barbara Sonneborn is scheduled to introduce the
film and answer questions after each screening.
The Book of Life
Like many Hal Hartley films, this one begins with the arrival in New York
of a stranger who will disrupt the other characters’ livesóand the stranger
is played by Martin Donovan. But this droll 63-minute entertainment (part
of a seven-film series, “2000 as Seen by…”) packs a theological kick: The
stranger is Jesus, returned on Dec. 31, 1999, with his sidekick Magdalena
(the limited but compelling P.J. Harvey) to fulfill the prophecies of
Revelation. The Book of Life is now an Apple Powerbook, but despite the
simplicity of opening the Seven SealsóJesus need only double-clickóthe
Messiah is reluctant to activate the apocalypse. He’d rather duel with
Satan (Henry Fool star Thomas Jay Ryan) for the soul of a Manhattan
waitress than follow the bidding of an ominous radio preacher (with the
voice of William Burroughs) or his attorneys at Armageddon, Armageddon and
Joseph. With its swooping, blurry digital-video visuals, chant-rock score,
and eschatological humor, the film is for specialized tastes. Despite
turning a bit sententious at the end, however, it’s one of Hartley’s best.
(MJ)
Screens with Airtime at 9:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Both films
also screen Monday, April 26, at 9:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
How to Be Single in Rio
Beautiful young Brazilians couple, uncouple, and recouple in this drearily
predictable (and sexless) sex comedy set among the middle-class
internationalist young adults of Rio. Schoolteacher Monica is shaken when
her third boyfriend in a row turns out to be gay, while journalist Claudio
is desperate for female companionship. Claudio turns to his friend Ricardo,
a beach bum and lothario who gives Claudio seduction lessons that are
successful enough to lead Ricardo to write a book with the same title as
the movie. Claudio beds Monica but quickly moves on, as Ricardo has
advised. Meanwhile, Ricardo’s girlfriend Julia, a sushi-shop employee who
just happens to be Monica’s roommate, finds Ricardo in bed with another
woman; she decides to get revenge by becoming a lesbian and running for the
city council on an anti-men platform. The only point of all this
mock-polymorphous sexual politicking is, of course, to unite the central
couple in holy matrimony. (MJ)
At 9:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Sunday, April 25, at
6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Director Rosane Svartman is scheduled
to introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
24
Saturday
Filmfest D.C. for Kids, Program I
“The Happy Horse and the Monster” and “The Apartment Cat” are among the
nine animated shorts in this program, recommended for ages 3 to 7.
At 1 p.m. at the Hirshhorn Museum. Also screens at the National Gallery of
Art Monday, April 26, at 10:30 a.m. and noon; Wednesday, April 28, at noon,
and Saturday, May 1, at 10:30 a.m. Free.
Filmfest D.C. for Kids, Program II
An Irish duck who has missed his flight south is befriended by a vole in
one of the six animated and live-action shorts in this program, recommended
for ages 6 to 10.
At 2 p.m. at the Hirshhorn Museum. Also screens at the National Gallery of
Art Tuesday, April 27, at 10:30 a.m. and noon; Wednesday, April 28, at
10:30 a.m.; and Saturday, May 1, at 11:30 a.m. Free.
Filmfest D.C. for Kids, Program III
Videos by young filmmakers and a short documentary about Rosa Parks are
included in this program, recommended for ages 8 and up.
At 3 p.m. at the Hirshhorn Museum. Also screens at the National Gallery of
Art Thursday, April 29, at 10:30 a.m. and noon; and Friday, April 30, at
10:30 a.m. and noon. Free.
Peter Pan
Herbert Brenon’s 1924 silent film (based on the play by James M. Barrie)
has been restored and retouched with “authentic color tints.”
At 3 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art. Free.
Rosebud Film and Video Awards: 1999 Winners Showcase
Includes Family, by Aaron Skillman and Andy Marchal; Rocky IV, by Rachel
Max; Puberty: Benji’s Special Time, by Luke Fannin; The Pitch, by Rob
Lyall, Alex LaGory, and Joe Talbott; and the Best of Show winner, Without
Remorse, by Gregg Watt.
At 3 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. A “Meet the Filmmakers”
panel discussion follows.
Short Stuff I
In “The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun,” a crippled but unbowed Dakar girl
takes on her persecutors; while “Story of the Red Rose” is a Cuban love
story inspired by Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales. Program includes three other
shorts.
At 5 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
The Lighthouse
Sensitive acting and intense, observant direction make this affecting
family tale come to lifeóEduardo Mignogna captures with tender precision
the bruised resilience of sisterly love. Aneta and Carmela (called Meme),
survivors of a car crash that has left them orphans, make their own way in
the world, bolstered by only Meme’s brash impulsiveness and Aneta’s quiet
smarts. They move from the house of their strange aunts, haunted by a
future vision of themselves also living alone together and neurotically
interdependent, to Montevideo and other more accommodating shores. Even as
Meme’s gamine spontaneity turns to self-destructiveness and Aneta matures
into a self-possessed young woman, the sisters’ connection to one another
and the things they loveóforgiving bar owner Fernando, the seaside cabin in
which he harbored them, their family photo album and private jokesóremains
strong. Moving, challenging, and never less than honest, The Lighthouse
draws a partial but strongly etched family portrait. (AB)
At 7 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Monday, April 26, at 9
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
My Son the Fanatic
Scripted by Hanif Kureishi from his own story, this is the account of a
Westernized Anglo-Pakistani man who’s upset when his son rebels by
unearthing his ethnic and religious roots. It’s been picked up by Miramax,
so it must be pretty mainstream.
At 7 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Saturday, May 1, at 7:30
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Dancing North
Smirking, greasy-haired Franco is burnt out with the business of Italian
rock stardom and the stress of European life, so he makes for chillier
climesóthe frozen reaches of Inuit Canadaóto clear his head. Paolo
Quaregna’s by-the-numbers plot follows Franco as he undergoes a familiar
cultural exchange with the Inuit: He teaches them to appreciate their
traditional music; their slow-moving world offers him inner peace and
warrior skills. The villagers and their challenges are interesting on their
own meritsówithout Franco’s interference or intrusive European viewpoint.
But even if we must experience their world through his cynical eyes,
Quaregna stays away from the noble-savage school of non-European
appreciation, making this gently humorous but unoriginal film an
interesting keyhole into the Inuits’ world. (AB)
At 7:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Monday, April 26, at 7
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Duke Ellington: A Tribute on Film
This collection of celluloid highlights marks the centenary of Ellington’s
birth.
At 7:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Sunday,
April 25, at 4:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
The Acid House
This adaptation of three stories by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh has
been hailed as the first movie that truly evokes Welsh’s drug-crazed
Scottish demimonde. It has a commercial distributor.
At 9 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Sunday, April 25, at 7
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Little Thieves, Big Thieves
In this suspense-comedy, four ordinary Venezuelans decide to rob the bank
they think has been abusing them, only to find that someone else has gotten
there first.
At 9:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Sunday,
April 25, at 8:45 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Director
Alejandro Saderman is scheduled to introduce the film and answer questions
after each screening.
Winter Land
The ghosts of B. Traven and Samuel Beckett haunt this static but smoothly
crafted absurdist allegory directed and co-scripted by Gregorio Cramer.
Valdivia (Ricardo Bartis), a simian, alcoholic layabout, drifts through the
arid badlands and deserted seaside towns of Patagonia, halfheartedly
searching for a golden sheep. In his wanderings, he loves and loses a
sluttish swimming instructress and shares his derelict car with an elderly
con man whom he encounters in jail. Starkly photographed and evocatively
scored, Winter Land is art cinema with a capital A, often punishing but
occasionally enlivened by flashes of dour wit. However, the unexpectedly
upbeat denouement may leave viewers wondering whether Cramer’s otherwise
nihilistic odyssey was worth enduring. (JES)
At 9:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Monday, April 26, at 7
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
25
Sunday
Black Filmmaking in the New Millennium
This panel discussion, focusing on the African-American film movement,
follows screenings of D.C. filmmaker Lucy Gebre-Egziabher’s Weti’s Poem and
Alison Swan’s Mixing Nia. Panelists include Gebre-Egziabher and Swan along
with filmmaker Patrick Charles; Kay Shaw, founder of Amber Images; and
Stacy Spikes, founder of the Urbanworld Film Festival.
From noon to 3 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
Directors’ Roundtable
Several directors with films showing at Filmfest D.C. talk about their
work. Moderated by Variety film critic Eddie Cockrell.
At 3 p.m. at Borders Books and Music, 1800 L St. NW.
West Beirut
Wildly funny, tender, and raucous, West Beirut finds Lebanese filmmaker
Ziad Doueiri hardly able to keep up with his teenage fictional
protagonists, intelligent tearaway Tarek and pint-sized would-be toughie
Omar, as they careen through the streets of half their city during the 1975
civil war. With school closed and all bets off, Beirut in a state of siege
is like a holiday paradise at first for Tarek, whose panicked lawyer mother
wants to leave, and Omar, whose family responds to the crisis by deepening
its piety. Tarek and Omar’s mission is to have some rolls of mildly
salacious Super 8 film developed, a project that can only be accomplished
in what is now called East Beirut, which is unpassable to Christians and
Muslims alike. Joined by sultry Christian May, the footloose teens scam
falafel off the local vendor, fast-talk the dauntingly armed militia, and
ride their bikes through sniper fire, never quite understanding the depth
of the danger. Doueiri’s film is charming and high-spirited, the actors are
blazingly fresh and real, and the whole exercise resonates with low tones
of grief and fear that become audible only at the end. (AB)
At 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Monday, April 26, at
8:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Director Ziad Doueiri is scheduled to
introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
Black Tears
Sonia Herman Dolz documents the music and personal stories of the members
of La Vieja Trova Santiaguera, a Cuban quintet of singer-instrumentalists
ranging in age from 62 to 84. Footage of the group’s 1997 international
tour is intercut with interviews about their life experiences and glimpses
of backstage camaraderie. Sustained by love of music and homeland before
and after the revolution, these lively geezers (especially a cheerfully
unrepentant womanizer) make engaging camera subjects and share a touching
moment of reverence at Karl Marx’s graveside. But the repetitiveness of
their otherwise appealing music and the rather arbitrary structure of
Dolz’s film suggest that Black Tears (the title derives from one of the
ensemble’s rueful love songs) would make a stronger impact as a shorter
documentary rather than in its present feature-length form. (JES)
Screens with The Spitball Story at 9:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Both films also screen Monday, April 26, at 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon
Foundry.
26
Monday
Autumn Tale
For fans of Eric Rohmer’s chatty, love-struck comedies, the third in his
series of seasonal fables is a sure bet. This account of two longtime
friends’ experiments in matchmaking has a commercial distributor.
At 6:30 p.m. at AMC Union Station 9. Also screens Tuesday, April 27, at
6:30 p.m. at AMC Union Station 9.
Twice Upon a Yesterday
Director María Ripoll’s refreshing comic-romantic fantasy enlivens this
year’s typically somber Filmfest fare. Struggling London actor Victor
(Douglas Henshall) is dumped by his longtime live-in psychologist
girlfriend, Sylvia (Lena Headey), after confessing to an affair with an
actress. Drunk and despondent, he encounters two enigmatic Spanish
trashmen, who magically empower him to relive the past year of his life.
This time around, Victor withstands the temptations that previously led him
astray, but the wisdom of hindsight isn’t sufficient to repair his
relationship with Sylvia, who also turns out to have a roving eye.
Vibrantly photographed, brightly acted by an ensemble of attractive young
performers, and filled with unpredictable narrative twists, Ripoll’s effort
puts recent, leaden Hollywood romantic comedies to shame. She incorporates
colorful footage of London’s annual Notting Hill carnival and sly allusions
to Cervantes to support her thesis that fulfillment cannot be attained
retrospectively. (JES)
At 6:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Tuesday,
April 27, at 8:45 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
Dead Letter Office
Still missing the father who disappeared when she was a little girl, Alice
(Miranda Otto, almost as bewildered but plucky as in Love Serenade) decides
to get a job at the place that always sent back her missives to Daddy: the
dead letter office in a sleepy, surfside Australian city. “Information is
not always enough,” warns Alice’s new boss, Frank (George DelHoyo), a
Chilean exile with family traumas of his own. Director John Ruane’s
pleasant, predictable film is another one of those more-sweet-than-bitter
Australian tragicomedies about lovable misfits (and their pet pigeons);
despite references to the atrocities committed by Pinochet’s regime, this
film is not likely to ruffle any feathers. Alice’s obsession, Frank’s
tragedy, and the very status of the dead letter office itself are all
subject to change, but change can be good. Loss may be this film’s theme,
but its emphasis is on the reassuring possibility of finding a new life.
(MJ)
At 6:45 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Tuesday, April 27, at
7:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. George DelHoyo is scheduled to
introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
The Sky Is Falling
Director Florrie Laurence calls in favorsófrom Teri Garr, Howard Hesseman,
Dedee Pfeiffer, Laura Leighton, and othersófor this foolish, incoherent
comedy about a struggling writer at a crossroads of sorts. Because the film
is set in the screenwriters’ Los Angeles Neverland, Emily Hall’s life isn’t
too terribleówhat temp could afford her beautiful house? But it is supposed
to be tragicomic that the same day her boyfriend walks out and her mother
(Garr) announces that her real father (Hesseman) is alive and living
nearby, Emily (Pfeiffer) attends a lunch where each of three friends
announces, with ninnyish squeals of delight, some great achievement: a
pregnancy, a marriage proposal, “They made me editor in chief!” The Sky Is
Falling is a dingbat of a movie, smushing together an announcement of a
high school reunion, recurring news of a Chinese space satellite about to
crash into Earth, silly intertitles setting up sequences in which Emily
images killing herself, and a tidy arrangement of dad substitutes and
family catharses. There isn’t an original moment in sight, from the cranky
old man redeemed by a big friendly dog to the zany montages of Emily
swamped by the demands of temp work. (AB)
At 7:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Tenley. Co-producer David Parks is scheduled
to introduce the film and answer questions afterward.
Nothing
Rarely have content and form been as ill-matched as in Polish
writer-director Dorota Kedzierzawska’s Nothing, a film that lives down to
its unpromising title. Hela (rabbity Anita Borkowska-Kuskowska), a
feminist’s nightmare, lives in a squalid tenement with an abusive husband
(whom she blindly adores), three small, rowdy children, and, unbeknownst to
her mate, another baby on the way. Too impoverished to afford a private
abortionóa doctor refuses to accept her wedding ring as paymentóand
rejected by a state medical system in the grip of right-to-lifers, she is
forced to resolve the problem herself. Whatever empathy the movie attempts
to engender for its dim, hapless victim-protagonist is canceled out by
Kedzierzawska’s insufferably pretentious visual style. Virtually every
image is fussily backlit, bathed in an amber glow, and shot through
textured scrims. Not even the most ardent advocates of reproductive rights
are likely to regard Nothing as contributing much to their cause or to the
art of cinema. (JES)
At 8:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Friday,
April 30, at 7 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
Buttoners
This Czech absurdist black comedy mixes real and fictional events,
imagining a world that’s literally haunted by the bombing of Hiroshima.
At 9 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Saturday, May 1, at 6:30
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Life Is to Whistle
The lives of three Cubans intersect on the Day of Santa Barbara, who is
also the destiny-controlling Santería god Chango.
At 9 p.m at AMC Union Station 9. Luis Alberto Garcia is scheduled to
introduce the film and answer questions afterward.
27
Tuesday
Dance Me to My Song
Australian director Rolf de Heer’s account of an affection-starved woman
with cerebral palsy is more persuasive than its recent English counterpart,
The Theory of Flight, although not without some improbably serendipitous
plot turns. Julia (co-writer Heather Rose) lives alone with the assistance
of Madelaine (Joey Kennedy), who is none too nice. One day, when she’s been
abandoned yet again by Madelaine, Julia wheels herself outside, where she
enlists the help of a passer-by, Eddie (John Brumpton). The agreeable but
mysterious Eddie becomes Julia’s regular gentleman caller, eliciting
jealousy from Madelaine, whose own search for love keeps turning up
rough-edged losers. It’s a classic triangle, albeit one in which Julia is
physically dependent on her callous rival. Dance Me to My Song is typical
of the new breed of film about severe physical handicaps: It’s
discomfortingly messy in places, but the resolution is tidy. (MJ)
At 6:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Thursday,
April 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
Sweety Barrett
If you’re familiar with the goodhearted simpleton who blows into a mythical
Irish town and finds himself mixed up with thugs, corrupt cops, and the
mother of a young boy, you get the idea of Stephen Bradley’s derivative
shaggy-dog comedy. Brendan Gleeson stars as the slow-witted former
fire-eater who lands in smuggler-ridden Dockery only to unintentionally
redeem everyone around him with his sweetness and plodding good nature.
Along the way, he inspires dreams of circus magic in a small child, charms
a hardworking mother, and earns the respect of the raffish underground by
imbibing numerous glasses of hideous liquids. The film is a pale, poorly
paced distant cousin of more vigorous but similarly cheeky-deadpan U.K.
efforts like I Went Down (in which Gleeson also starred) and Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels. (AB)
At 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Thursday, April 29, at
7:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
The Dinner Game
Dinner theater without the dinner. Yet another pre-Hollywood tryout from
playwright-screenwriter-director Francis VÈber, France’s Neil Simon, whose
scripts regularly inspire American remakesósome amusing (Quick Change, The
Birdcage), but most painfully mirthless (Buddy, The Toy, Father’s Day). In
this tepid farce, painstakingly crafted not to disturb the tired
businessman’s slumber, supercilious publisher Pierre (Thierry Lhermitte)
searches for a guest to bring to a dinner party thrown by his rich, cynical
pals competing to invite the evening’s dumbest bore. He chooses FranÁois
(Jacques Villeret), a government accountant who builds reproductions of
famous monuments with matchsticks. To his chagrin, Pierre injures his back
before departing for the party, leaving himself stuck at home with obtuse
but kindhearted FranÁois. During a long, eventful evening, FranÁois
attempts to help his host resolve a series of crises with his wife,
mistress, and tax auditor, with the predictable consequence of making each
situation worse. Apart from several opening location sequences, VÈber does
nothing to disguise the one-set theatrical origins of his movie; even the
Eiffel Tower glimpsed from Pierre’s apartment window is plainly constructed
of pasteboard. A mechanical mÈlange of meanness and synthetic pathos, The
Dinner Game is too formulaic to merit inclusion in a film festival whose
selections presumably aspire to some degree of artistic merit. If you must
see it, wait for the inevitable Robin Williams-Adam Sandler remake
unencumbered by subtitles. (JES)
At 7 p.m. at the Embassy of France, followed by a reception; $15; director
Francis VÈber is scheduled to introduce the film and answer questions
afterward. Also screens Thursday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon
Tenley; $7.
The Life Jacket Is Under Your Seat
Glittery, trashy, full of manic counterculture energy, Leonardo Ricagni’s
rock ‘n’ roll fable spins off wild-style images like a lawn sprinkler. This
Uruguayan entry features a funk-band Jesus figure named Tuleque, who looks
like Frank Zappa and loves a hard-faced Mary Magdelene evocatively called
Angela. Gravelly, deadpan narration (in English) tracks Tuleque’s
involvement in Montevideo’s pulsating underground and spiritual life as he
vows to lead his funk band to victory in a battle of the bands that will
save the Great Holy Water Sanctuary from the drug lords and pimps who
oppress the People. If the premise sounds dated and idealistic, it is, but
Life Jacket’s scrappy charm lies in its optimistic presumptionóit dares to
cast its colorful underdog story as a modern Christian revolution,
graffiti-scarred and gleaming with a chromelike silver-blue surface. And if
the sight of Zappa quoting Ecclesiastes in an Uruguayan town square is as
ridiculous as it is heartfelt, well, who said faithóin pleasure, rock ‘n’
roll, and faith itselfóhad to make sense? (AB)
At 7 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Wednesday, April 28, at 7
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Director Leonardo Ricagni is scheduled to
introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
City at Peace
Susan Koch films an interracial group of 60 young people in D.C. who
volunteered to write and perform a theater project over the course of a
year. The resulting show, also called City at Peace, is nothing newóthe
sort of heartfelt, scrappy blend of fictionalized violence and despair
interspersed with optimistic, pro-self-esteem songs that has been touring
schools since the late ’60s. The performance is just a small protesting
drop in D.C.’s ocean of racism and divisiveness, but the real
transformation takes places in the kids’ own minds. Transcending their
suspicion and distrust, they form a bond much more genuine and passionate
than those called for by platitude-spouting civic leaders. Koch assumes
good intentions and high spirits among the program’s directors and mostly
leaves them alone, instead keeping the camera where it belongsóon the kids
and their inspiring ability to love and trust in the face of ghastly odds.
(AB)
At 7:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Tenley. Director Susan Koch and music
director Rickey Payton Sr. are scheduled to introduce the film and answer
questions afterward.
Black Cat, White Cat
Emir Kusturica, director of the controversial Yugoslavian-cataclysm epic
Underground, returns to the milieu of his Time of the Gypsies with a tale
of feuding families. This film has a commercial distributor.
At 8 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Wednesday, April 28, at
8:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
The Polish Bride
Karim TraÔdia’s film opens with a scene of thumping panic: A bloodied woman
runs down a street and into the countryside to the accompaniment of a
percussion score. It’s gradually revealed that the woman is Anna, a Pole
who has been forced to labor in an Amsterdam brothel. She finds refuge with
Henk, a taciturn Dutch farmer who lives alone on an overmortgaged spread.
Because they don’t speak each other’s language, Anna and Henkóand the
audienceóare slow to learn each other’s stories. Still, Anna is not shy
about taking over Henk’s domestic life, tidying him up, making him Polish
meals, and insisting that he pray with her before dinner. Largely
untempered by conversation, their growing romance has an adolescent
flirtatiousness. Eventually, the bad guys find Anna, precipitating a few
scenes you may vaguely remember from Witness. Despite the violence, this
story is meant to be heartwarming, although Anna and Henk’s alliance seems
less ardent than simply convenient. (MJ)
At 8:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
The Lovers of the Arctic Circle
Those who find Spanish director Julio Medem’s films wildly poetic will know
what to expect from this one. So will those who find them overblown and
pointlessly contrived. Ana and Ottoótwo Madrid kids with palindromic names,
which is supposed to signify somethingómeet at age 8. Otto instantly falls
in love with Ana, although her fascination with him initially stems from
her belief that her recently deceased father is speaking through him. (Yes,
really.) Later, her mother and his father move in together, so Ana and Otto
become live-in lovers at 14. (Good deal if you can arrange it.) He’s
obsessed with airplanes; she’s obsessed with the Arctic Circle. (No, this
isn’t Map of the Human Heart.) Ultimately, the fated couple’s destiny
involves both flying and northern Finland. It’s all lushly romantic,
unapologetically self-conscious, and rather sillyóalthough this certainly
isn’t Medem’s silliest work. (MJ)
At 8:45 p.m. at AMC Union Station 9. Also screens Wednesday, April 28, at
6:30 p.m. at AMC Union Station 9. Director Julio Medem is scheduled to
introduce the film and answer questions afterward.
28
Wednesday
Day of the Full Moon
Slacker, Citizen Kane, BuÒuel’s autumnal sketch films, and the Monty Python
troupe are just a few of the more obvious inspirations for Russian director
Karen Shakhnazarov’s extraordinary Day of the Full Moon. Challenging our
assumptions about linear screen narrative, Shakhnazarov assembles a chain
of provocative, enigmatic vignettes, any one of which could have provided
the substance of a more conventional movie. Transitions from character to
character (military men, prostitutes, jazz musicians, assassins, even
Pushkin) are ingeniously effected by manipulating myriad modes of
transportation (buses, cars, trains, planes) and communication media
(radio, television, music, books, photographs). At one point, we even enter
the mind of an old dog as he recalls his youthful hunting days. The poetic
nexus of these seemingly random snippets zigzagging freely through time and
space is a beautiful, aloof woman in a violet dress who appears in three
sequences and returns for the haunting final shot. With exquisite
photography and an endlessly inventive and audacious structure,
Shakhnazarov teases the mind and the senses. It’s the kind of movie that
justifies the existence of film festivals. (JES)
At 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Thursday, April 29, at
9 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
The Soup to Nuts of Independent Film
This panel discussion, moderated by writer-director Morgan J. Freeman, will
focus on the process of creating an independent film. Participants include
Andre Hereford, director of development for 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks;
Amanda Klein, director of acquisitions and production at October Films;
Mary Jane Skalski, vice president of creative affairs at Good Machine; and
Three Seasons producer Joana Vicente.
From 6 to 8 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
The Milky Way
In 1964, 16 years after the war that killed some of its inhabitants and
permanently scarred others, a Palestinian town is still under brutal
Israeli military rule. The Israelis are a minor, if malevolent, presence in
director and co-writer Ali Nassar’s film, which is more concerned with how
the members of a small, impoverished village turn on each other. The action
flows from two events: The Israelis discover that someone in the town has
forged work permits, and the chief local elder decides that the quickest
way to end the controversy is to accuse an innocent man; meanwhile, a
paragon of the local community competes with the magistrate’s corrupt,
impious son to marry a local woman. Ultimately, these two problems
intertwine too conveniently, but in the process this remarkable film
presents a rich, vivid, and occasionally humorous portrait of the village
and its inhabitants. The source of the film’s title is the Palestinian
parable that “disasters come from the Milky Way,” but Nassar’s nuanced
chronicle of everyday occupied-zone disasters is impeccably human. (MJ)
At 6:45 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Saturday, May 1, at
9:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Wind With the Gone
Yet another movie about a tiny but magical cinema in a remote Latin
American town. This time the theater is in Argentinian Patagonia, where the
old reels have become jumbled and the movies’ discontinuity inspires local
eccentricity.
At 7:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Tenley. Also screens Friday, April 30, at 7
p.m. at the National Geographic Society.
Am I Beautiful?
The latest from German director Doris Dörrie, who reached American
art-house screens with Men, presents a skein of overlapping stories.
At 8:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Saturday,
May 1, at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
Tangos Are for Two
In ’30s Buenos Aires, a small-time tango singer’s beautiful new lover
convinces him to remake himself in the image of tango superstar Carlos
Gardel. Director Jaime Chávarri will introduce the film.
At 8:30 p.m. at AMC Union Station 9. Also screens Thursday, April 29, at
6:45 p.m. at AMC Union Station 9. Director Jaime Chávarri is scheduled to
introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
CineCafe: The Lovers of the Arctic Circle
Immediately follows Arctic Circle screening at AMC Union Station 9.
At 8:45 p.m. at B. Smith’s restaurant at Union Station; free.
The May Lady
An Iranian woman dares to date again after her divorce in this movie from
female Iranian director Rakshan Bani-Etemad, whose competent but
conventional Nargess showed in last year’s Filmfest.
At 9 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Thursday, April 29, at
9:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Following
Director Christopher Nolan’s London-based caper flick has been compared to
The Usual Suspectsówhich explains why it has a commercial distributor.
At 9:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Friday, April 30, at
9:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
29
Thursday
I.D.
Mani Kongo, King of Bakongo, returns to Brussels to seek his daughter,
encountering a cast of dozens of Belgians and Europeanized Africans who
have no idea what to make of a genuine fetish-wearing king. Mweze
Ngangura’s gentle comedy of manners collapses racial barriers to talk about
the true social plague of classismóMani Kongo receives less-than-kingly
treatment as a black man while discovering a culture that worships money
and power only in forms it recognizes. Along the way, there are a nightclub
holdup artist disguised in African ceremonial wear; a snotty private club
for expats, the “Africa House”; spiritualistic neo-black Renaissance youth
who speak reverently of their ancestryóthe very ancestry Kongo wears in the
form of an elaborate headdress; and a sweet biracial taxi driver who tells
the king he doesn’t know his daughter. “Well, it figures,” harrumphs the
king. “You’re hardly from the same class.” But everyone finds what he’s
looking foróeach person’s trademark identityówhether it’s love, family, or
contentment. (AB)
At 6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Friday, April 30, at
6:45 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Director Mweze Ngangura is scheduled
to introduce the film and answer questions after each screening.
The Hole
In his wry contribution to Filmfest D.C.’s “2000 as Seen by…” series,
Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang returns to his familiar theme: the
overlapping but disconnected lives of alienated Taipei residents. In fact,
this account of two apartment dwellers (Tsai veterans Lee Kang-sheng and
Yang Kuei-mei) who are tormented by unfixable leaks recasts one of the
stories in his previous film The River. Playfully, though, this time the
director and co-writer adds apocalyptic and musical flourishes. As the year
2000 approaches, a plague sweeps the city, turning its victims into human
cockroaches. If that’s a little too Kafkaesque, Tsai leavens the
allegorical cataclysm with some Busby Berkeley: The couple’s sublimated
romance is interrupted by five musical numbers, staged in the bleak
confines of their poured-concrete apartment block but illuminated by
candy-colored lights and lip-synched to the bouncy show tunes of ’50s Hong
Kong pop chanteuse Grace Chang. Tsai’s style remains deadpan and minimalist
(think Antonioni and, especially, Akerman), but the underlying humor of his
existential contemplation of Taipei’s scurrying, insectlike residents has
never been more evident. (MJ)
At 7 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Friday, April 30, at 7:30
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
Bob Marley: Live in Concert
The music is a lot more impressive than the filmmaking in Stefan Paul’s
documentary, which consists mostly of material shot at a German concert in
1980, less than a year before Marley’s death. The vastly influential
singer-songwriter and his band perform such classics as “No Woman No Cry,”
“War,” “Get Up Stand Up,” and “Lively Up Yourself” in the film, which
includes a few songs from a 1979 Jamaican performance. Interspersed are
footage from Marley’s funeral, tracking shots of a Jamaican shantytown, and
one split-screen sequence, all of which make this look like a concert film
that wanted to grow up to be a documentary, but then ran out of nerveóor
money. (MJ)
At 9 p.m. at AMC Union Station 9.
Late August, Early September
The latest from Olivier (Irma Vep) Assayas is a tale of post-breakup
adjustment that has been described as a change of pace for the first-rate
French director. This film has a commercial distributor.
At 9:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Friday, April 30, at
6:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
30
Friday.
Stormy Weather
Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, and Fats Waller star in this tribute to legendary
dancer and actor Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who also has a lead role.
At 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater; free.
Buena Vista Social Club
Director Wim Wenders (with a camera crew) tags along when his frequent
collaborator, guitarist Ry Cooder, travels to Cuba to make an album with
veteran Cuban jazz players. Scheduled to open commercially this spring.
At 9 p.m. at the National Geographic Society.
Divine Trash
This documentary about Washington’s strangest cinematic neighbor, director
John Waters, includes behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Pink
Flamingos.
At 9 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Also screens Saturday,
May 1, at 9:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater. Director Steve
Yeager is scheduled to introduce the film and answer questions after each
screening.
Full Moon
On a single Friday morning, 12 Swiss children disappear, seemingly off the
face of the planet, and it’s up to weary gumshoe Anatol Wasser to put
together the pieces of this baffling mystery. The singular motives of
childhood, the solipsistic insecurity of adults, and the metaphysics of
fate are the real issues here, and director Fredi M. Murer pulls no punches
in following the course of this story’s destiny to its cruel, austere end.
Unaware that he himself is the link in the children’s disappearance, Wasser
travels about Switzerland interviewing the parentsórich or poor, artistic,
intellectual, conservative or achingly “green,” each household is united in
its resistance to understanding the children’s motives and desires. Murer
strings his detective along at a leisurely pace, involving him in the
personal life of one divorced mother, as mysterious dreams, identical
letters, and Ouija-board clues are visited upon the tormented but selfish
parents. Full Moon is frightening and cool, rigorously true to its theme of
the inevitability of despair. (AB)
At 9 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Saturday, May 1, at 8:45
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
The Ice Rink
The French love to make movies about moviemaking, among them Contempt, Day
for Night, and Irma Vep. Writer-director Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s The Ice
Rink is the latest and by far the least of these, a slapstick comedy
chronicling the production of Dolores, a romantic drama set in a hockey
arena. The company, headed by a pretentious director (Tom Novembre) given
to quoting Bresson’s Notes on Cinematography, includes an aggressive
producer (Marie-France Pisier) rushing to complete the film in time for the
Venice Film Festival, an American leading man (Bruce Campbell) distracted
by an affair with his leading lady (DolorËs Chaplin), a boisterous
Lithuanian hockey team, a camera crew whose lights melt the ice, and
intrusive television reporters shooting a documentary about Dolores’
genesis. Most of the humor, such as it is, derives from a single, numbingly
repetitious gagónobody connected with the movie, apart from the
Lithuanians, can skateóand the crudely telegraphed capper, involving the
ailing festival director’s audition of Dolores’ workprint, sends this
breezy but piddling effort crashing through its own thin ice. (JES)
At 9:15 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry. Also screens Saturday, May 1, at 7
p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
1
Saturday.
Life on Earth
A director returns to Mali to visit his mother and capture his hometown on
celluloid in this film, deemed “luminous” by the Village Voice. This is one
of five free screenings of entries in the “2000 as Seen by…” series.
At 2 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art; free.
The Wall
Erected to separate the French- and Flemish-speaking parts of Brussels, a
new wall runs right through the center of a chips shop. This is one of five
free screenings of entries in the “2000 as Seen by…” series.
At 3 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art; free.
My First Night
In Spain, misunderstandings and mishaps mar a couple’s attempt to have a
quiet dinner on New Year’s Eve 1999. This is one of five free screenings of
entries in the “2000 as Seen by…” series.
At 4:15 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art; free.
Short Stuff II
Two local filmmakers’ quick jab at Hollywood, “The Pitch,” is one of seven
shorts in this program, which also includes films set in an all-night diner
and a peep show featuring male dancers and female viewers.
At 5 p.m. at the American Film Institute Theater.
The Swindle
Writer-director Claude Chabrol’s 50th feature film finds the old master in
an unusually antic mood. Michel Serrault and Isabelle Huppert star as
Victor and Betty, a pair of petty scam artists whose relationshipófather
and daughter? generation-gap lovers?óis never clarified. After the duo rips
off a married conventioneer in France, Betty vacations in the Swiss Alps
with Maurice (Fran&ecedil;ois Cluzet), a businessman planning to abscond
with 5 million Swiss francs he’s been charged to launder for international
mobsters. Betty’s plan to double-cross Maurice becomes complicated by
Victor’s arrival, and the tricky trio take off for Guadeloupe for a violent
confrontation with Maurice’s bosses. Chabrol’s comic heist screenplay
allows him to explore some of his favorite themesófood, greed, and
stupidity. Serrault gives a sly, polished performance as the veteran
grifter, and even Huppert, the great stone face of French cinema, is
uncharacteristically vivacious, as mercurial as her character’s frequent
changes of identities and colorful wigs. Although considerably less
ambitious than Les Bonnes Femmes, Le Boucher, and other Chabrol
masterpieces, The Swindle is nonetheless a sleek, amusing divertissement.
(JES)
At 7 p.m. at the National Geographic Society.
From the Heart
The maker of previous Filmfest highlights Bombay and The Duo, director Mani
Ratnam combines the delirious style of the Bollywood movie musical with
India’s equally elaborate political intrigues, all to dazzling effect. This
will very likely be the only chance for Washingtonians to see this film.
At 9 p.m. at the National Geographic Society.
A Hard Day’s Night
The movie that invented the Beatlesóand post-Elvis rock musicóon film makes
its 35th-anniversary comeback, complete with a previously unseen
performance of “You Can’t Do That.” Scheduled for commercial release this
spring.
At 9:30 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Foundry.
2
Sunday.
Besieged
Thirty years ago, the appearance of a Bernardo Bertolucci movie (The
Spider’s Stratagem, The Conformist) guaranteed a bracing cinematic
experience. Nowadays, alas, his signature prepares us for stylish but
hollow misfires (The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha). Like his last effort,
Stealing Beauty, Besieged features an undernourished screenplay by the
director and his wife, Clare Peploe, partially redeemed by a bewitching
actress and an evocative settling. Thandie Newton stars as Shandurai, a
young woman who leaves her home in Africa (where her teacher-husband is a
political prisoner) to study medicine in Rome. She supports herself by
working as a live-in domestic for Kinsky (David Thewlis), an eccentric
classical pianist who has inherited an ancient house overlooking the
Spanish Steps. Besotted by her, Kinsky proves his love by attempting to
liberate her husbandóa selfless gesture that draws Shandurai closer to him.
The striking, sensitive Newton illuminates the screen with the magical
radiance that Audrey Hepburn brought to Rome in her first starring role,
but flounder-faced Thewlis, so effective in working-class parts, is
laughably miscast as an upper-class aesthete. Bertolucci’s reliance on
passÈ editing gimmicksóslow and fast motion, jump cuttingóand his
gratuitous replication of the masturbation scene from Jean Vigo’s
L’Atalante indicate that his creative batteries badly need recharging, if
not replacement. (JES)
At 4 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre, followed by a party at the Reeves
Municipal Center; $20.
Támas and Juli
In Hungarian director Ildiko (My 20th Century) Enyedi’s film, mineworker
T¥mas can’t reach schoolteacher Juli to tell her that their New Year’s 1999
date is off. This is one of five free screenings of entries in the “2000 as
Seen by…” series.
The “Sanguinaires”
A group of Parisians flees to Corsica for New Year’s 1999, but the leader
disappears at midnight. This is one of five free screenings of entries in
the “2000 as Seen by…” series.
T¥mas and Juli and The “Sanguinaires” screen together at 4 p.m. at the
National Gallery of Art; free. CP
Copyright ©1999 Washington Free Weekly Inc.