My weekend began with a return to Ebertfest in Champaign, IL, 20 years after moving to that city to launch my IT career. I had attended Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival at the historic Virginia Theatre in both 2004 and 2005, didn't go in 2006 as I had already seen many of the featured movies, and also didn't go last year because I wasn't ready to see Mr. Ebert in his new form (almost two years ago, he began a series of cancer-related surgeries and lost his ability to speak). But this time, I wanted to both show support for this great film festival during its 10th incarnation and celebrate my 20th anniversary, so off to Champaign-Urbana I went. The festival runs Wednesday night through Sunday, and I was there Thursday night through Saturday night to see seven of the festival's 13 films. Unfortunately, Roger himself was unable to make it for the first time ever. Not because of his latest unsuccessful surgery (in January), but because he fell down and fractured his hip just 10 days ago.
So Friday morning began with Shotgun Stories, a small, independently produced suspenseful revenge drama shot on location in rural Arkansas; first time director Jeff Nichols was on hand to tell what it was like filming in his home region with local actors. Josef von Sternberg's classic 1927 film Underworld, the first ever gangster picture, featured live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra; afterward, their members were interviewed by Michael Phillips (the Chicago Tribune film critic who substitutes for Roger Ebert on his TV show) on how they go about creating new scores for silent movies. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is an entertaining documentary about an eccentric organic farmer and his efforts to keep his land in the family; both the subject and the director were on hand for further discussion. Lastly, writer-director Paul Schrader (most famous for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese) was on hand to present his 1985 Japanese historic arthouse drama Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. I was not a big fan of this one, perhaps only because it came at the end of a very long day.
Saturday got off to a mixed start, then got better. The mix involved having to again sit through Hulk, the failed 2003 adaptation of the big green comic book monster hero previously seen on TV in the 1970's. That was the bad part. The good part was enjoying a wonderful, long interview and Q & A session with director Ang Lee, a University of Illinois alumni who has done many much better movies, including The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense & Sensibility, The Ice Storm (my favorite), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Brokeback Mountain. So sitting through that Hulk movie again was worth it, and besides, now I'm better prepared for this summer's new Incredible Hulk movie, which surely can only be better than this first one.
The next selection was The Band's Visit, an Isreali comedy (currently playing in Louisville) that seemed to be the biggest crowd pleaser of the festival. First time director Eran Kolirin was part of a panel afterwards; one interesting topic was about how this very foreign film was disqualified from the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award because slightly more than 50% of the dialogue is in English, although much of the English featured is by characters who don't really know what they're saying. So basically it was disqualified on a technicality.
The last film I saw yesterday was very special one: retired Scottish director Bill Forsyth's 1987 whimsical drama Housekeeping, starring Christine Lahti; both director and star were on hand afterwards to chat about it. This film truly got overlooked upon original release in 1987 (Forsyth joked that its promotional budge was 17 cents), and has yet to appear on DVD. If I could ever get over my shyness about talking to celebrities, maybe I would have asked why that was so... actually, though, what I really wanted to do was to tell Christine Lahti that I loved her in Running on Empty, one of my favorite movies ever, which came out a year later.
So Friday morning began with Shotgun Stories, a small, independently produced suspenseful revenge drama shot on location in rural Arkansas; first time director Jeff Nichols was on hand to tell what it was like filming in his home region with local actors. Josef von Sternberg's classic 1927 film Underworld, the first ever gangster picture, featured live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra; afterward, their members were interviewed by Michael Phillips (the Chicago Tribune film critic who substitutes for Roger Ebert on his TV show) on how they go about creating new scores for silent movies. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is an entertaining documentary about an eccentric organic farmer and his efforts to keep his land in the family; both the subject and the director were on hand for further discussion. Lastly, writer-director Paul Schrader (most famous for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese) was on hand to present his 1985 Japanese historic arthouse drama Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. I was not a big fan of this one, perhaps only because it came at the end of a very long day.
Saturday got off to a mixed start, then got better. The mix involved having to again sit through Hulk, the failed 2003 adaptation of the big green comic book monster hero previously seen on TV in the 1970's. That was the bad part. The good part was enjoying a wonderful, long interview and Q & A session with director Ang Lee, a University of Illinois alumni who has done many much better movies, including The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense & Sensibility, The Ice Storm (my favorite), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Brokeback Mountain. So sitting through that Hulk movie again was worth it, and besides, now I'm better prepared for this summer's new Incredible Hulk movie, which surely can only be better than this first one.
The next selection was The Band's Visit, an Isreali comedy (currently playing in Louisville) that seemed to be the biggest crowd pleaser of the festival. First time director Eran Kolirin was part of a panel afterwards; one interesting topic was about how this very foreign film was disqualified from the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award because slightly more than 50% of the dialogue is in English, although much of the English featured is by characters who don't really know what they're saying. So basically it was disqualified on a technicality.
The last film I saw yesterday was very special one: retired Scottish director Bill Forsyth's 1987 whimsical drama Housekeeping, starring Christine Lahti; both director and star were on hand afterwards to chat about it. This film truly got overlooked upon original release in 1987 (Forsyth joked that its promotional budge was 17 cents), and has yet to appear on DVD. If I could ever get over my shyness about talking to celebrities, maybe I would have asked why that was so... actually, though, what I really wanted to do was to tell Christine Lahti that I loved her in Running on Empty, one of my favorite movies ever, which came out a year later.
-------------------------
The main reason I don't automatically go to Ebertfest every year is because it falls on the same weekend as the wonderful Cherokee Triangle Art Fair. So when I do go, then drive overnight Saturday all the way back home from Illinois, I get by with very little sleep and drag myself to my old neighborhood and hope that it's worth it... and it always is. April is the most beautiful time of year in Louisville, this year's late April made even more pleasing because spring sprung a little later than usual. So this afternoon I parked a few blocks away, admired the trees and historic houses as I walked to the thing, did my quick-tour making sure to at least glance at all the booths, got my Kizito cookies (the Cookie Lady wasn't there, but her minions were), and got mad at myself for ever moving away...
-------------------------
On the other hand, this weekend was the first time I really noticed that Champaign-Urbana is beautiful at springtime, too. I never noticed before that it has nice, historic areas, and also has all those pretty purple-blooming redbud trees that I somehow ignorantly thought were only abundant in Louisville... I guess I just never really paid any attention before this stage of my life.
Driving home from Champaign early this morning, I thought, okay, I've been to Ebertfest three times now, got in a quick 20th anniversary tour of the twin cities, but now I really miss being away from my family even for only two days, so maybe this will be my last Ebertfest ever, especially if I can never really be sure that Roger will be there anymore. However, a little while ago, I read the latest entry in Mr. Ebert's new blog, and instantly changed my mind. Now what in the world could Mr. Ebert say that would make me think I have to return to Ebertfest at least one more time?
Because he wants to show Joe vs. the Volcano one of these years! I'm so there....
No comments:
Post a Comment