With January behind us, it's possible now to look back and compare the two U.S. film festivals that dominate the month: the Palm Springs International Film Festival in Southern California and Utah's own Sundance Film Festival in Park City.
Both are 10-day festivals, Palm Springs dominating the first half of the month and Sundance dominating the latter half. The settings, however, couldn't be more different.Palm Springs, with its palm-lined boulevards, luxuriantly green golf courses and people wearing tank tops and shorts, is set in the middle of a sunny, date-growing desert (1 1/2 hours out of L.A.); the restored mining town of Park City, with its rambling Victorian houses sprinkled throughout the snow-covered pines and its Wild-West styled, hilly Main Street, is set high among the ski slopes of the Wasatch mountains.
Planning to go to both of these essentially back-to-back festivals, I looked forward to the same sunny 75-degree weather I'd been blessed with at Palm Springs a year ago and steeled myself for the occasionally gray skies and blizzards that fall upon Park City.
Surprise: It rained practically nonstop in Palm Springs for all 10 days and many of the main roads were closed due to flooding. On the other hand, Park City - despite fairly cold weather and unusually high snowbanks all around - boasted blue skies and snow-free streets almost the whole time.
And the film festivals themselves? Both were fine enough, even if neither one will stand out, years from now, as exceptionally memorable.
The differences are these: the Palm Springs International Film Festival, only in its fourth year, screened close to 90 films this year, two-thirds of which were foreign (with about 26 countries represented). The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, now in its 15th year and known as the foremost showcase for new American independent films, showed 80 full-length films, a third of which were foreign (16 countries represented).
The major difference, however, is that the Sundance Film Festival is competitive - with 16 films by new independent American filmmakers competing in the dramatic division and approximately the same amount also running in the documentary category. The Palm Springs fest, being noncompetitive, features the best films from various festivals around the world. Both, however, do offer "Audience Awards," allowing the filmgoers themselves to honor the films they like best.
Palm Springs divides this into two categories - and Australia's immensely popular but slightly kitschy spoof on dance competition, "Strictly Ballroom," won the best-loved film award, while "Best European Film" went to "Sofie," Sweden's "Masterpiece Theater" quality production by first-time director and well-known actress Liv Ullman.
In Park City, the audience awards went to the charming documentary on teaching music to children in the South Bronx and the extremely low-budget (around $7,000) but amazingly competent action film, "El Mariachi," shot during a two-week school break with a hand-held 16mm-camera by young writer/director/editor Robert Rodriguez - sure to be this year's "wonderchild" in movies.
The screenings in both festivals take place at several venues - five in Palm Springs and six in Park City (with additional showings in Salt Lake City and at the Sundance Resort itself), and both boasted record-breaking crowds this year with many screenings completely sold out. The theaters tend to be larger and more comfortable at Palm Springs, but whereas each film is surprisingly only offered twice, almost all films at Park City seem to have four showings. The general price at each festival was $6 (with Sundance charging $10 for certain gala screenings and Palm Springs offering $4 admissions for senior citizens).
Available at both festivals were excellent catalogs providing pictures, synopses and background on the films being shown. And both schedules included U.S. and world premieres but also showcased certain countries. Park City, this year, featured a series of recent films from Hong Kong, Latin America and "European Independents," while Palm Springs focused on a selection of new films from Italy and three series called "The Best of Europe," "Contemporary World Cinema" and "New Directors Showcase."
Both festivals also highlighted the work of certain actors or directors. Whereas Park City paid tribute to the work of directors Philip Kaufman and Christian Blackwood and actor Denzel Washington, Palm Springs paid tribute to the film careers of actors Frank Sinatra and Italy's Marcello Mastroianni. Seminars in screen-writing, distribution, film criticism, etc., are a part of both festivals, and many of the films' stars, directors and producers are on hand for the screenings.
Only a handful of films were at both festivals, three of them important achievements in contemporary world cinema: Zhang Yimou's "Story of Qui Ju" may not have the stunning visual power of his earlier films, but this always excellent director of "Raise the Red Lantern," "Ju-dou" and "Red Sorghum" here has provided an increasingly fascinating study of the justice system - and one woman's relentless obsession - in the peasant villages of contemporary China. Likewise, if Argentina's Eliseo Subiela's new "Dark Side of the Heart" seems lighter and more comic that his fascinating "Man Facing Southeast" and "Last Images of the Shipwreck," it is equally provocative and perhaps even more stylistically creative and full of surprises.
The most outrageous film at both festivals was the incredibly shocking "Man Bites Dog" from Belgium. A stunning exploration of "voyeurism" (on the part of the audience as well as the media), it is a psuedo-documentary filmed in gritty black and white in which three young filmmakers follow a serial-killer as he, one by one, attacks a number of victims. Hard to take from the very first moment, it becomes almost unbearable when the filmmakers begin to get involved in the actual murders - and burial of the victims - themselves. Arguably the most devastating film ever made, it is definitely not for everybody but will be a landmark film for buffs and filmmakers with strong stomachs.
For me, the other "standouts" at Park City this year were the remarkable "Lovers on the Bridge" from France; the very original Japanese production of Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex"; Great Britain's fine productions of Kafka's "The Trial" and Virginia Woolf's "Orlando," and, one of the most likable films in years, this year's festival opener, "Into the West" - with Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin, two wonderful children, an assortment of terrific character actors, a fabulous white horse and the beauty of Ireland itself. It's a winner.
At Palm Springs, besides Liv Ullman's very accomplished and beautiful "Sofie," the other major highlights this year were the soon-to-be released highly atmospheric production of Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome" from the U.S.; the intriguing "Fencing Master' from Spain; the charming "Tango Argentino" from Yugoslavia; the startling "Oliver, Oliver" from France (by Agnieska Holland, the director of "Europa, Europa"); and perhaps best of all, the wonderful and unique tale of a Russian worker befriended by a family of sheepherders in Mongolia, "Close to Eden," from Russia.
Once you've been, both festivals will tempt you back. For Palm Springs festival information, phone (619) 778-8979; for the Sundance festival in Park City, 328-3456.