17th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF)
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This is a pretty cool festival that is more documentary driven, with a few cool indie pieces. Check out the website: Cinema Saint Louis: SLIFF info. Hope to see ya there.
Here are the movies we are planning to see…
Humboldt County
Darren Grodsky & Danny Jacobs, U.S., 2008, 97 min.
Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m., Tivoli 1
After a drunken one-night stand, tightly wound UCLA med student Peter Hadley (Jeremy Strong) finds himself stranded in picturesque Humboldt County at the family home of free-spirited Bogart (Fairuza Balk). The judgmentally inclined Peter at first resists the eccentric enclave of pot farmers but slowly comes to embrace their easygoing life and ideals. Consciously evoking such ’70s classics as “The Graduate” and “Five Easy Pieces,” “Humboldt County” features an astonishingly deep ensemble that includes rising actor Chris Messina (“Vicki Christina Barcelona”), HBO stars Frances Conroy (“Six Feet Under”) and Brad Dourif (“Deadwood”), and legendary filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich. At the film’s SXSW debut, the Austin Chronicle described the “pitch-perfect directing debut” of former St. Louisans Grodsky and Jacobs as “a smart, moving, and altogether canny glimpse into the heart of a shell-shocked American dream.”
With directors Grodsky & Jacobs.
Sponsored by Mandarin and Jeffrey T. Fort.
Adam Resurrected
Paul Schrader, U.S., 2008, 106 min.
Friday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m., Tivoli 1
In the latest film from celebrated writer-director Schrader (”Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “American Gigolo”), Jeff Goldblum gives an acclaimed performance— described by the Hollywood Reporter as “the role of a career”— as Adam Stein, a charismatic patient at a mental institution for Holocaust survivors in early-’60s Israel. During the war, despite his status as a much-loved circus entertainer, Adam was shipped to a concentration camp, where the commandant (Willem Dafoe) forced him to act the part of a dog to survive. Incarcerated again at the asylum, Adam recognizes another such pitiable creature— a barking young boy raised in a basement on a chain— whom he works to save. An official selection of the Telluride and Toronto film fests, “Adam Resurrected” is adapted from Yoram Kaniuk’s lauded novel and co-stars Derek Jacobi.
With director Schrader, a Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.
Sponsored by Marcia Harris.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Paul Schrader, U.S., 1985, 121 min., Japanese
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2:15 p.m., Tivoli 1
SLIFF presents a new 35mm print of the gorgeously restored “Mishima,” which Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Schrader considers his finest work. Visually stunning and structurally audacious – featuring John Bailey’s ravishing cinematography, Philip Glass’ propulsive score and Eiko Ishioka’s exquisite sets and costumes – the film offers a collage-like portrait of acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio Mishima (Ken Ogata). Taking place on Mishima’s last day, when he famously committed public seppuku (ritual suicide), the film alternates extended flashbacks to the writer’s life and stylized adaptations of his fiction. Reviewing the new Criterion DVD of “Mishima,” critic Nathan Rabin of the Onion A.V. Club writes: “Just as his subject sought to reconcile intellect and action, words and deeds, Schrader finds a perfect union between sound and image, weighty ideas, and giddy sensual rapture.”
With director Schrader. Sponsored by Film and Media Studies Program at Washington University.
The Inferno (L’inferno)
Giuseppe de Liguoro, Italy, 1911 (restored in 2004), 71 min.
Sunday, Nov. 16, 3 p.m., SLAM
The first full-length Italian film ever made, “The Inferno” is a wild re-imagining of Dante’s epic, an extremely loose adaptation that takes inspiration from the illustrations of Gustav Doré to conjure its visions of hell. A three-year production that involved more than 150 people – an astonishing figure at the time – “The Inferno” proved an international hit, taking in more than $2 million in the United States alone. Calling the film “a fascinating relic of pre-First World War signs and wonders,” the Independent’s Nick Hasted marvels that “The Inferno” has “the antique oddness of a magic-lantern show, as carousels of bodies jerkily swivel, rows of legs poke out of a river of filth, and a dragon appears, inexplicably, for a second. Naked bodies twist in suffering, and men in horned devil-suits cackle.”
With live musical accompaniment by the New Music Circle.
Co-presented by the Saint Louis Art Museum.
The Fish Fall in Love (Mahiha Ashegh Mishavand)
Ali Raffi, Iran, 2006, 96 min., Farsi
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 12:30 p.m., Frontenac
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7:15 p.m., Frontenac
Atieh’s singular passion is food, and her small but popular restaurant on the sleepy Caspian coast is her pride and joy. But when Aziz, her former fiancé, appears after a 20-year absence, Atieh fears that he intends to close the restaurant. In a desperate effort to convince him otherwise, Atieh prepares his favorite dishes, one after the other. Loosely based on the Persian fable of “A Thousand and One Nights,” the film uses the language of food to paint a richly textured portrait of life and love on the northern coast of Iran.
Remarkable Power!
Brandon Beckner, U.S., 2008, 91 min.
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 5 p.m., Tivoli 3
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 9:15 p.m., Tivoli 3
With the plug about to be pulled on his talk show and his wife engaged in a steamy affair, Jack West (Kevin Nealon of “SNL” and “Weeds”) is desperate to restore his fading celebrity. He concocts a wild media stunt, and the elaborate scheme ultimately entangles an eclectic collection of colorful characters, including a plump private eye (Tom Arnold), a macabre Web mistress, a glassy-eyed stoner (Evan Peters), a phony get-rich-quick guru (Christopher Titus), two narcissistic actors (Kip Pardue and Dulé Hill), a peculiar special-effects makeup team, porn stars, a Jewish drug lord and Russian mobsters.
The Pope’s Toilet (El Baño del Papa)
César Charlone, Uruguay, 2007, 90 min., Spanish
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m., Tivoli 1
It’s 1988, and Melo, a Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, awaits the visit of Pope John Paul II. More than 50,000 people are expected to attend, and the locals believe that selling food and drink to the gathered multitudes will make them rich. But petty smuggler Beto thinks he has the best idea of all: He decides he will build a public toilet in front of his house and charge for its use. His efforts bring about unexpected consequences, and the final results will surprise everyone. An official selection of both the Cannes and Toronto film festivals, “The Pope’s Toilet” gleefully mixes the sacred and the profane, with the Village Voice calling the film an “alternately heartbreaking and hilarious satire” that “bawdily conveys the complex Latin-American relationship to God – and the means by which authoritarian institutions take a dump on the lives of the impoverished.”
Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
Eric Bricker, U.S., 2008, 83 min.
Saturday, Nov. 22, 6:15 p.m., Tivoli 1
“Visual Acoustics” – narrated by Dustin Hoffman – explores the monumental career of 97-year-old architectural photographer Julius Shulman. Populating his photos with human models and striking landscapes, Shulman combined the organic with the synthetic, melding nature with revolutionary urban design. The resulting images helped to shape the careers of some of the greatest architects of the 20th century, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and Rudolf Schindler. Through the exploration of both Shulman’s art and uniquely individualistic life, the film offers an unforgettable portrait of modernism’s most eloquent ambassador. Variety writes: “Something of a missionary statement for a missionary, this is nirvana for lovers of mid-century modern and fine-art photography.” With director Bricker.
Sponsored by Art House.
The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky, U.S., 2008, 105 min.
Sunday, Nov. 23, 6:30 p.m., Tivoli 1
Back in the ’80s, professional wrester Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was at the top of his game, but 25 years later he’s reduced to fighting in grueling, untelevised matches in front of crowds screaming for carnage. Outside the ring, all Randy has to show for his life is a painful relationship with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) and a tentative romance with stripper Cassidy (Marisa Tomei). Winner of the Golden Lion for best film at Venice, “The Wrestler” – the closing-night film at the New York Film Festival – marks a major return to form for director Aronofsky (“Pi,” “Requiem for a Dream”) and especially actor Rourke. “Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances,” writes Variety’s Todd McCarthy. “An elemental story simply and brilliantly told, Darren Aronofsky’s fourth feature is a winner from every possible angle.”
Sponsored by Sight and Sound Production Services
Categories: A Life in Four Chapters, Adam Resurrected, Adam Stein, Annual, Art, Cultural Festivals, Description, Documentary, Events, Fesitival, Film, Frontenac, holocaust survivors, Humboldt County, Independent, Innovation, International, Jeff Goldblum, Mishima, Movie, News, Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdanovich, Philip Glass, Remarkable Power, Saint Louis, SLAM, St. Louis, The Fish Fall in Love, The Inferno, The Modernism of Julius Shulman, The Pope’s Toilet, The Wrestler, Tivoli, Visual Acoustics, William Dafoe, Yukio MishimaRelated Posts
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