The Sundance Film Festival last January showcased a disparate array of movie premieres, as it always does, including the superb family film "The Secret of Roan Inish," the delightful "Picture Bride" and even the goofy local production "Plan 10 From Outer Space," all of which later enjoyed healthy Salt Lake commercial engagements.
But the festival also included a surprising number of films that tried a little too hard to cash in on what became known as the Tarantino Factor, referring to Quentin Tarantino, co-writer/director of the box-office smash "Pulp Fiction" (for which he won a screenwriting Oscar).Tarantino came to public attention when he premiered his first movie, the horrifyingly violent and controversial "Reservoir Dogs," in competition at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Because of his subsequent success, which catapulted him to a kind of stardom never before achieved by an independent filmmaker, many of his young counterparts seemed to be trying to make that same commercial leap . . . if their works on display at the 1995 Sundance festival were any indication.
Not that there's anything wrong with being a commercial filmmaker, of course. But for a festival that is supposedly dedicated to struggling artists whose work reflects what is in their hearts, this latest Sundance fest felt decidedly more "psychotronic" than one might expect. There was a steady stream of vampire flicks, crime thrillers, gangster movies and other R-rated exploitation pictures that seemed to dominate the proceedings.
As I sat through many of them, I began to wonder if a film festival dominated by positive, uplifting
movies instead of those with themes that are downbeat and hopeless could be successful.
Apparently so. Witness the fourth annual Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, Ind., which began Thursday and continues through today.
The festival, organized in 1991, is designed "to recognize and honor filmmakers whose work explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life."
Most Sundance regulars would probably scoff at any film festival that kicks off its opening-night premiere with the Olsen twins' first movie, "It Takes Two." But even Tarantino would probably like to be in on the next night's premiere, Claude Lelouch's adaptation of "Les Miserables," starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Given that most "family" movies are better for their intentions than their execution, the Heartland festival is no doubt a mixed bag. But this year it is also a showcase for a made-in-Utah production from Salt Lake-based Leucadia Films ("Alan & Naomi," "Wind-runner").
Blair Treu's "Just Like Dad" has walked off with one of the festival's Crystal Heart Awards and will share $100,000 in cash prizes. "Just Like Dad" stars veteran character actor Wallace Shawn ("Vanya on 42nd Street," "The Princess Bride") in a comic tale that explores father-son relationships and was selected from 246 international entries.
As a result, Leucadia joins a couple of other Utah movie production companies that have won festival awards in the past couple of years. Majestic Entertainment, Craig Clyde's outfit ("The Legend of Wolf Mountain," "Little Heroes"), and Feature Films for Families, Forest Baker's mail-order video company (the "Buttermilk Gang" movies, "Rigoletto"), have also been honored at different festivals recently. (All three organizations are based in Salt Lake City, and all are prolific producers of family-oriented features that are made in Utah each year.)
Clyde's "Heaven Sent" (for Majestic) won the Gold Award for best small-budget independent theatrical feature at the Houston International Film Festival this past spring, and a year ago, T.C. Christensen's "Seasons of the Heart" (Feature Films) won two awards, the Grand WorldFest Award at the Charleston Film Festival in Charleston, S.C., and Best Western/Adventure at the Santa Clarita Valley (California) International Film Festival.
Not that we'd change Sundance, mind you.
But maybe those grittier, harder-nosed filmmakers who frequent Park City each January could take a lesson from this and return to movies that come from the heart.
Like the kinds of movies sought out by the Heartland Film Festival.
- JUST WHEN YOU thought it was safe to go back to the island. . . .
After months of speculation, the deal is signed and the sequel to "Jurassic Park" will be Steven Spielberg's next movie.
The most popular filmmaker in the world signed on last week to direct "The Lost World," Michael Crichton's book sequel, which is being adapted for the screen by David Koepp (who also wrote the first film's script with Crichton).
What this will do to the proposed fourth Indiana Jones movie is uncertain, especially since the special-effects heavy "Jurassic Park" sequel will certainly be a time-consumer. As of now, "The Lost World" is scheduled to go into production in late summer or early fall of '96, for a summer release the next year.
Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" is, of course, the biggest worldwide moneymaking movie of all time - and it also holds the title as the top-selling live-action video.
And "The Lost World" is selling faster than any other book in the publisher's history, with more than two million hardback copies in print.
It would seem like a match made in box-office heaven.