Well, it's all over but the shouting.
The shouting is in another part of the paper, for most editions - that is, the winners of the documentary and dramatic com-pe-ti-tions at the 1990 Sundance United States Film Festival.But competitions aside, this year's festival was a tremendous success, more than satisfying for film lovers and stargazers alike (not that the two groups are always mutually ex-clu-sive).
On the star side, Clint Eastwood, Danny Glover, Jamie Lee Curtis, Willem Dafoe, Melvin Van Peebles and his son Mario Van Peebles, "Roger & Me" filmmaker Michael Moore and directors Richard Lester and Martin Ritt were festival participants who provided substance.
Meanwhile, such star festivalgoers as Mimi Rogers, John Cusack, Richard "Cheech" Marin, Pamela Reed, Armand Assante and Roger Ebert, along with others, provided glitter, though all tried to blend in with the crowd.
Then there were lesser-known actors who starred in independent films shown during the festival - they were also turning heads in Park City theaters and restaurants.
But those who went to the festival just to see movies weren't disappointed, either. The dramatic competition films seemed much stronger this year, and there were, as always, some very good documentaries.
Among my personal favorites - and please keep in mind that of the more than 70 films playing, I saw only about 25 - were the competition films "Iron & Silk," "The Unbelievable Truth," "Longtime Companion," "Chameleon Street," "To Sleep with Anger," "To Protect Mother Earth," "Hollywood Mavericks," "In the Blood," "The Other Side of the Moon," "Vienna Is Different," "The Plot Against Harry," "Never Leave Nevada" and "How to Be Louise."
Less impressive to me were "Mortal Passions," "Metropolitan," "Water and Power," "The Kill-Off" and "The Natural History of Parking Lots," though I may be in the minority about the latter.
Outside of competition, "Cinema Paradiso" was perhaps my favorite of all the films this year; "Secret Wedding" was also very good; everyone was excited about "Blue Steel"; "Roger & Me" was a hoot; and "Stanley & Iris" turned out to be the very note on which to open the festival.
There were more competition films already picked up for national release than in any festival past - "Mortal Passions" (which opened locally Friday), "The Plot Against Harry," "House Party" and "The Unbelievable Truth." "Longtime Companion" was made for American Playhouse, to be released theatrically, then to show on PBS. And outside of competition, "Roger & Me" and "Blue Steel" were both picked up just before being chosen as festival premiere films.
(By the way, for those who have asked why "Roger & Me" didn't open in Salt Lake theaters Friday, Warner Bros. has pushed it back to Feb. 9.)
And as always, there were memorable side notes, for better or worse.
- A FISTFUL OF CLINT: Clint Eastwood's appearance was memorable on a couple of counts.
He shared his early industry experiences as part of a tribute to the late director Sergio Leone, who gave Eastwood his start in pictures with "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
The imposing superstar was funny and open as he discussed their relationship and even punctured a couple of myths, one about whether Eastwood named his production company Malpaso, which means "bad step," to thumb his nose at those who told him doing those "spaghetti Westerns" was a bad step; and another about whether Leone directed his films after Ennio Morricone wrote the scores so he could direct to the music. Eastwood said they were both nice, romantic stories, but neither was true.
On the downside, the Eastwood press conference started a few minutes before the announced 4 p.m. time and was over by 4:15! Festival program director Tony Safford also announced that questions were to stick to the subject of Leone, which seemed to inhibit the crowd. It might have been better to go a bit longer and perhaps have Safford or someone else field the questions to keep things moving.
But Eastwood more than made up for it as far as his public was concerned when he stuck around for quite awhile signing autographs, mingling with the crowd and succumbing to an "Entertainment Tonight" interview. All this when he probably would rather have gotten back on the slopes for some more skiing.
(And where were Ch. 2 and Ch. 4, by the way? You'd think their news departments would cover a star of his stature visiting the film festival!)
- DUCK, YOU RIPOFF: The festival honored Leone by showing his film "Duck, You Sucker," billed as Leone's own European cut rather than the truncated American version that had been retitled "A Fistful of Dynamite." Unfortunately, the print, scratchy and with washed-out color, turned out to be the latter instead of the former, with a 138-minute running time instead of the promised 150 minutes. (First-time viewers still loved it, however - such is the power of Leone's vision.)
- EGYPTIAN GHOSTS: At the Egyptian Theatre there were ghosts on the screen. Whenever words were superimposed on the film you could see a faint reflection of them a few inches higher. They weren't noticeable during most films, but during the Tuesday showing of "Vienna Is Different," which is subtitled, it was a decided distraction.
- SUBMERGED TITLES: On the other hand, unless you remember more high school Spanish than I do, "ghosts" were probably preferable to nothing at all. Three of the films in the Colombian program - "Blue Lobster," "Law of the Jungle" and "Rodrigo D." - arrived without subtitles.
- BOTTLED HUMOR: Another distraction at the "Vienna Is Different" screening was the bottle someone accidentally knocked over. It rolled slowly down to the front of the theater, clinking with each chair it hit along the way. What made it even funnier was to see the embarrassed perpetrator sink lower in her chair with each clink it made.
- FREE "CRISIS": Melvin Van Peebles held a special free screening of his new film "Identity Crisis," which stars his son Mario Van Peebles (who also wrote the script). The comedy was already scheduled for two showings later in the week, but Van Peebles organized an early screening and then opened the doors to anyone who wanted to come.
- REGRETS, I'VE HAD A FEW: Films I missed but heard great things about included "The Horseplayer," "Last Images of the Shipwreck" and the Aviva Slesin collection of short films, "The Three," "James Bald-win" and "H-2 Worker."
- APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE: University of Utah student filmmakers Donnell Corelle and Sam Dunn each had short films preceding documentary competition features and each earned well-deserved high marks from filmgoers. Corelle's film, "Interview with Anne Frank," is a hypothetical interview with the title character as if she had survived the Holocaust, and Dunn's "Son of Jonah" is a visual interpretation of a Charles Bukowski poem.
- SING-ALONG-WITH-TONY: Tony Safford led the audience at the special screening of "A Hard Day's Night" in singing a spontaneous "Happy Birthday to You" to the film's director Richard Lester, who, dressed to the nines, had apparently not been told about the festival's no-shave/jeans/boots dress code.
- BYE-BYE, TONY: Safford, by the way, will be leaving after this, his sixth, festival. His influence in making the film selections varied, daring and exciting will be missed.
- HELLO, ALBERTO: Newcomer Alberto Garcia, programmer of the documentary and dramatic competition films did a splendid job, however, with strong choices in both categories.
- BIAS THE WAY: Garcia did, however, let his integrity slip when he introduced the Tuesday evening showing of the dramatic competition film, "The Natural History of Parking Lots," and said, "The festival means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but with this film you're going to see what it means to me." How do you suppose competing filmmakers in the audience felt about that?
- BEST SIGHT GAG: Was it just me, or did anyone else think it was kind of amusing to see Roger Ebert and Michael Moore going up the stairs of the Salt Lake Art Center side by side at the opening night reception, with Moore wearing a button that bore the title of his film - "Roger & Me"?
- BEST STORY: Richard Lester's remembrance of directing Groucho Marx in a commercial. Lester said Marx refused to rehearse, and, naturally, everything that could go wrong went wrong. After a disastrous first take, Marx loped over to Lester and said, "Now I suppose you want to mess with perfection."
- BEST QUOTE: Veteran director Martin Ritt, who is now 75, when asked what his next project will be: "My next project is to take my wife on a vacation."
- THE TIMES THEY ARE . . .: The name of the festival has undergone various changes over the years. If you've been around long enough, you may recall that in the early '80s it was the United States Film and Video Festival. Then, after several years as the United States Film Festival, this year it became the Sundance United States Film Festival.
And for the 1991 edition, it will become simply the Sundance Film Festival.
When I was told about this I think media director Saundra Saperstein expected me to complain. My reputation as a conservative curmudgeon must precede me.
But in fact the name change is quite logical. Especially when you consider that, aside from the competition films, the festival hasn't been strictly a "United States" film festival for some years. The international sidebars not only add a distinctive flavor but occasionally provide the festival's best films - as with the Italian "Cinema Paradiso" this year.
The Sundance Film Festival has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Just as long as people remember it doesn't take place at Sundance. Hmmm. Maybe they should consider the Sundance Film Festival in Park City. Or the Park City Sundance Film Festival. Or . . . .
Just kidding, Saundra.