The Sundance Film Festival - rightly touted as the premiere showcase for American independent cinema - began with its annual opening-night event in Salt Lake City 10 days ago.
And the proceedings were definitely gussied up. Instead of using the Cineplex Odeon's Crossroads Plaza triplex, as in years past, the festival took over Abravanel Hall for the evening - and it made for a much classier jump-start.For the fourth time in the past five years, the opening-night film was British, a political melodrama titled "Brassed Off." And as he began the press conference that immediately preceded the opening-night screening, festival director Geoffrey Gilmore referred to kicking off with British films as a "tradition."
Well, some traditions should be chucked away.
In fact, this seems like a no-brainer to me. The festival is a celebration of American independent cinema - so it should open with an American movie! Preferably one that has been independently produced.
While it's true the festival has had an international flavor for some time, foreign-language and British and Australian pictures play in separate sidebars - most in the World Cinema, a few in the Premieres section.
There's a reason for doing that, and for keeping an American flavor for the thrust of the festival. (What's next, a foreign independent competition?)
Of course, if it were simply a question of quality - that is, if these British films were all so stunning they couldn't be denied - maybe I'd be less vehement. But, frankly, three of the four British films that have opened the festival haven't been all that compelling.
In fact, from my vantage point, "Brassed Off" is the weakest of the lot, losing its way in the second half and becoming far too cliched, sentimental and preachy. Of the others, "Into the West" was just OK, and "A Midwinter's Tale" was pretty good. Only "Four Weddings and a Funeral," which subsequently became the biggest moneymaking British movie in history, was an obvious choice.
The one non-British entry during the past five years was "Before Sunrise" in 1995, an American film (albeit set in Europe) made by Sundance veteran Richard Linklater (whose "Slacker" was in competition in 1991, and whose "sub-Urbia" was a Premiere this year).
"Before Sunrise" was well-received by the Salt Lake audience, and there was something quite appealing about opening the festival with a mature film by a former Sundance competitor.
That could have been the case this year as well. "Prefontaine," which had its world premiere as a festival event in Provo, was written and directed by Steve James, whose "Hoop Dreams" won Sundance's documentary Audience Award in 1994.
And if not "Prefontaine," perhaps some other American movie could have filled the bill.
But "Brassed Off"? Twaddle and bosh!
- AS ALWAYS, THE festival provided more than its share of zany happenings; here are a few observations gleaned from Sundance '97:
- Instead of a single Sundance trailer - that little "Yeah, It's Sundance!" promo film the festival produces each year and tags onto the front of screenings - there were several, all of them artsy black-and-white pieces featuring celebrities who participated last year. (Among them, Al Pacino, Laura Dern, Stanley Tucci and Lili Taylor.)
But for some reason, the trailers were only sporadically shown, and some filmgoers didn't see them at all.
- Opening more screening venues was a great idea. Showing subtitled movies, such as Hong Kong's "Temptress Moon" and the Iranian "A True Story" in the Yarrow II auditorium, was not.
Since the floors are not sloped, everyone sits on the same level. So, if you sit behind someone - and unless you're in the front row, you will - it's nearly impossible to see the lower section of the screen, where subtitles appear.
- Park City instituted valet parking (at $4 a car) in the lots behind Main Street, albeit only on Friday and Saturday nights. And parking enforcement was so strict this year that tickets were given to cars parked outside of lots, even if the area was not posted as a "no parking" zone.
- Despite signs in screening auditoriums asking that cell phones be turned off, there's always some clown who feels the need to take a call during a movie. No fewer than three phones began ringing during the screening of "Hugo Pool" in the Egyptian Theatre during its Tuesday night world premiere.
Then there was the obnoxious agent sitting behind me in the Thursday "All Over Me" screening in the Prospector Square Theater, trying to land a client - loudly - on her cell phone as the filmmakers were introducing their film!
- The Golden Globe Awards program, televised live from Hollywood on the first Sunday of the festival, played like a Sundance sidebar, thanks to so many independent films winning awards. Especially with Geoffrey Rush winning for "Shine," which had its world premiere at last year's Sundance festival, and "Kolya's" win for best foreign-language film; it's in this year's World Cinema section.
- Critics have long complained that merchandising is taking over the movie business, but we've always thought of that in terms of Disney cartoons and such epics as "Star Wars" and "Independence Day."
But independent filmmakers are also jumping on the bandwagon. In the festival's mailboxes for press representatives this year were hats for "The Full Monty" (a British film in the World Cinema sidebar) and "subUrbia" (the Park City Opening Night Film).
- During the past couple of years, the Sundance press office mailboxes have been stuffed with releases touting the festival's archrival Slamdance. But this year, a couple of volunteers stood guard over the mailboxes to prevent such subversive tactics. As a result, no Slamdance releases slipped through, although a press release from Slumdance - a new anti-Sundance contender - did manage to get into press mailboxes.
- Sundance screenings never start on time, but it was amusing this year to see festival workers stand at microphones in the various theaters some 15 minutes after the scheduled showtime and announce that if the audience would be seated the film would start on time.
- Out-of-state members of the audience must have wondered what was so funny when, during screenings of "Eye of God," loud laughter broke out in pockets of the audience as a character made a reference to Mormons.
- Neil LaBute quickly lost audience favor with an ill-advised joke after the first screening of his controversial film "In the Company of Men." Part of the story has a male chauvinist pig making tasteless remarks about a hearing-impaired woman he is dating. And when LaBute, a Brigham Young University graduate, was asked after the screening what inspired the film, he said, "I've just always thought deaf people were funny."
- Lots of filmmakers were in Park City to promote their movies during the week - including quite a few who were not participants in the festival. Posters, postcards, flyers and other promotional materials were being handed out all over town. But perhaps most innovative was the filmmaker who used a hand-held mini-videoplayer to show a preview of his movie to people lined up at the Egyptian.
- As you might expect, the Piper-Heidsieck award ceremony honoring Tim Robbins sold out early. And on the night of the event, as $10 ticket-holders waited outside the Egyptian, a man went up and down the line offering $20 for a ticket. Then he returned offering $40 for a ticket. There were no takers.
A moment later, however, a Park City man in line decided to give up his ticket and loudly announced he would sell it for $100. A woman near him leaped at the opportunity, pulling out five $20 bills.
- Robbins was in rare form at the ceremony, by the way, offering up a hilarious monologue supposedly from the diary of Griffin Mill (his character in the Hollywood spoof "The Player") about mounting an independent film.
In introducing him, however, festival director Geoffrey Gilmore repeatedly referred to Robbins' character in his breakthrough picture "Bull Durham" as "Nick" LaLoosh. The correct name was "Nuke" LaLoosh, as the audience was reminded when a clip from the movie was shown.
- Thursday night, filmmaker David Lynch ("Blue Velvet," "Twin Peaks") introduced "Lost Highway" - which is an indescribable and indecipherably surreal film noir - and noted that Dolby Stereo had been installed in the Egyptian for the screening. (The movie relied heavily on amplified sound and a wild musical score.)
Lynch, with his wild, distinctive hair, is looking more and more like the title character in his first movie, "Eraserhead." (Or perhaps a demented Lyle Lovett.)
And when the film was over and the lights went up, the theater manager told the audience, "In keeping with the enigmatic nature of this film, there will be no Q and A."
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Robert Redford, president of Sundance:
"This is fairly harsh, but if you scratch the surface of the independent film movement, you'll find that a great percentage of these filmmakers really want to be in the mainstream. They use the mantel of independent film as a cover, to be unique or what have you. If they were given a chance, they would go toward the mainstream. Not as many as you might think remain independent."
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK II: Geoffrey Gilmore, director of the Sundance Film Festival:
"This argument about us no longer being responsive to the smaller filmmakers, that's simply not true. And I don't know how else to state it except to say, look at the catalog, look at the films. I'll show you the budgets and I'll show you the films. People say where are the small films? There's a $25,000 film here, there's a $40,000 film here, there's another $40,000 film here - now are you saying that you actually expect more?"