Ah-ah! Savior of the Universe!
Well, no. If the Seattle International Film Festival was the savior of the universe, we'd be fucked. Let's face it, compared to other festivals, SIFF is pretty lame. Very rarely does anything interesting debut here; most of the films are usually last year's Cannes and Toronto, with local stuff thrown into the mix. One day, I'd like to go to a real film festival; for now, I have SIFF.
But with that said, there's some cool stuff this year. The biggest event for me is the one-time showing of Jacque Tati's Playtime, in 70mm, at the Cinerama, no less. I have the DVD, seen it twice, but anyone familiar with the movie knows that a TV, no matter how big, aint gonna get the job done. I'm gonna have to watch the DVD two more times and read the Rosenbaum essays again just to get in shape.
Also, we're getting the premiere of Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut. Now, I wasn't terribly impressed with Darko the first time I saw it, but lots of people, people I respect, are nutty about it, so I was looking forward to giving it another shot, especially with extra footage, and especially on the big screen. Unfortunately, they're making a big event out of it, with a reception afterward (so you can tell Jake Gyllenhaal, "Hey, sorry about Spider-Man 2") and the tickets are $12, which prices me out of the game.
Then there's the Secret Festival. For $30, you get to see four movies, one each Sunday, with the caveat that YOU CAN'T EVER TELL ANYONE WHAT YOU SAW. Occasionally, one or more of the films are shown really do need to be kept secret; I've heard rumors that, several years ago, they showed a rather infamous film starring Barbie dolls. I've done the Secret Fest three times, and, unfortunately, it's rarely like that. Now, I've seen at least one absolutely amazing film that I wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. And I've seen some crap. I've even been part of a test-audience for a lame horror film. So you never know what you're gonna get. My wish list for this year is The Brown Bunny, The Hour of the Wolf, and my Susan Lucci of Secret Fest films, Pulse. Now that I've said it, it won't happen.
My schedule isn't cemented just yet, but right now, it can be divided up into a couple different categories: The Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!s (Playtime, The Saddest Music in the World, Cowards Bend The Knee, Primer, and Hero), the Super Troupers (Doppelganger, Bright Future, Goodbye Dragon Inn, In Your Hands) and the Take A Chance On Mes (Minor Mishaps, The Best of Youth, Parts 1 & 2 [3 hours apiece!], Slim Susie, Take My Eyes, and Torremolinos 73 [which I'm interested in primarily because it sounds similar to a script I wrote a couple years ago.])
More info as it happens.
Where we saw it: film | We deign to rate it: outta 100The grass is always greener, bud. You could be in New Orleans, stuck with our truly lame film festival, which usually screens movies that have been out in LA & NYC for half a year already.
Posted by: Scott at May 8, 2004 05:36 PMSo if you do tell someone what you saw at the super-secret screenings, do the Festival Fairies find out somehow and send shock troops to your house to maim and torture you for breaking the silence?
Posted by: Steve at May 9, 2004 11:12 AMIt's true about the grass. Do MD'A's Cannes and Toronto reports make you jealous, like they do me? And of course, it looks like he'd give it up in a heartbeat for a shot at the biz.
(Not that I'd willingly trade places with him, though; not until I've given it my shot as well. But man, I do get jealous sometimes.)
Posted by: Kza at May 9, 2004 03:56 PMSecret Fest: the whole thing is weird in a typical Seattle kind of way. I know that one of the writers for The Stranger was, in fact, banned a few years ago for letting one of the titles slip when writing for the paper (I think it was Andy Spletzer). He was only banned for that year, though.
But the process for buying the tickets...sheesh. If you buy a series pass or even a week pass, you get your picture taken for the pass and it's put on your badge. Not so for the Secret Fest. Yet, they have you sign a little slip of paper, the "Oath of Silence", saying you won't reveal the names and etc. YET, you can buy two passes at once, and sign your friend's name on the pass and on the log-book and on the Oath. And since there are no photos, if someone can't make it to a screening, they can give their pass to someone else, someone who didn't take the Oath. One year, a friend from out of town got to see an adaptation of a famous children's book as performed by members of a famous comedy troupe because of this little loophole.
So, no Secret Fest Fairies. But like I said, the whole thing is kinda weird.
Now, if we're really lucky, Mary will stop by and post about her least favorite Secret Fest experience, seeing's how she lives in the UK and just don't give a fuck.
Posted by: Kza at May 9, 2004 04:09 PM