Day 4

So much to write about from Day 4. William Kunstler (terrific documentary by two of his daughters); a fun Italian film, "The Friends at the Margherita Cafe" - "My Favorite Year" comes to Italy; but I can't stop thinking about "Touching Home".

Wow.

A remarkable first film by twin brothers Logan and Noah Miller, featuring Ed Harris, Brad Dourif and Robert Forster. But what may be more remarkable is the story of how this film was made. I'm still shaking my head. It is an improbable story. It should never have happened, but it did.

It speaks to the truism in the picture business, that you can be good and you can be lucky but the great common denominator of success is usually always grit, determination and perseverance. Oh, yeah and luck does help, but as Michael Landon once told me, "you make your own breaks". The Miller Brothers fit all of the above criteria.

I know I haven't said much about the movie except to say that it is terrific and to date one of the two best films I have seen at the festival.

This film WILL get released and when it does, don't miss it.

Oh, and the improbable story? These guys have written a book about the process of how this got done. I am not even going to begin to explain, get the book, I am going to.

The book is "Either You're in or your in the Way".

Their website: http://www.inorintheway.com/

You'll be shaking your head as well.

Denver Film Festival Day 3

Hal Holbrook. What a wonderful actor. He received the 2009 Excellence in Acting Award for a lifetime of wonderful performances. This accompanied the screening of his newest film, "That Evening Sun". I was interested to hear him talk about acting (as I always am when actors talk about acting). I was intrigued to hear him say (at the age of 84) that his director taught him something about acting; a director who cannot be even half Holbrook's age. He said that the director, Scott Teems, taught him 'not to protect the character.' Think about that, particularly if you are an actor, it is great advice.

It is clear that Mr. Holbrook has great reverence for acting (he talked about making certain that you have respect for the audience) and a great love of his wife, Dixie Carter. She is in the film but was not in attendance at the screening.

Seeing him and then her on screen reminded me of when I met her. It was in the middle 80s sometime, in Los Angeles. We had lunch, I think, but then I was also shooting pictures of a play she was in. My friend Steve and I were shooting publicity and production stills for a play titled "Fathers and Sons" with Richard Chamberlain as Wild Bill Hickock and Dixie Carter as Calamity Jane. It was at the Solari Playhouse in Beverly Hills and the lunch and discussion with her at some place around the corner from the Solari was one of those great get-togethers I remember. I was quite taken with her (as is easy to be) - and she was terrific as Calamity Jane.

Terry and I also saw an interesting documentary (we always try to see a lot of documentaries) titled "So Right, So Smart". It is the best 'sales job' for business and industry to implement green practices I have ever seen - a capitalist case for instituting sustainable practices.

Slumdog Millionaire and other Untold Consequences

Untold Consequences is a collection of terrific short films - the longest being 22 minutes. One of the great joys of the Denver Film Festival is the ability to see short films. Often some of those shorts stay in your memory longer than long-form films (last year's The Job is an example). This year, there are some definite possibilities, some I saw yesterday in Untold Consequences. Spider, August 15 and Triple Concerto in D Minor to name just three.

The title of the collection Untold Consequences is very understandable when you see any or all of the shorts. You will have to see them for yourself and you will know what I mean.

Untold Consequences could have included a long-form film, if that film is Slumdog Millionaire.

What a terrific film!

Slumdog was the Big Night film on Saturday. And has been the case in the past, the film deserves to be called a Big Night film. I don't remember being disappointed in Big Night films in the past and this year is certainly no exception.

Did I say Terrific Film!?

See it. It will get a commercial release and probably a big one given how good it is and the buzz that is now accompanying it.

So see it, even though when your friend says, I want to go see this film about impoverished kids in the slums of India who seek salvation through a life of crime and winning a game show.

I'll say it again, what a terrific film.

No Subtitles Necessary

Last night was the second night of the Denver International Film Festival. I saw two documentaries. DIFF is notable for the number of documentaries it shows as part of the festival and I always try to see as many as I can. Firstly Documentaries rarely get shown anywhere else, and certainly not in conventional, commercial movie houses. Unless it is Michael Moore, don't look for them at anyplace other than an art movie house and even then rarely. They do show up on niche cable TV channels and on Public Television stations, but still the vast number of documentaries made are almost impossible to see, thus my desire to see them at the film festival.

The two I saw dealt with 'entertainment figures'. Entertainment figures who were/are giants in their respective venues.

"Count Basie: Then as Now, Count's the King" and "No Subtitles Necessary, Laslo & Vilmos."

The Basie documentary left me wanting something more. I thought it could have done so much more with a subject such as the great Count Basie. The film consisted of the usual archival footage and photographs and then former band members sitting around a table at Elaine's in New York, reminiscing about their days with the band.

The stories were fun and it was enjoyable to hear them, but as I said, it left me wanting more. I really didn't come away with a sense of who Basie was; no real sense of the person. And for those too young to know about Basie or experience his music, the film really didn't establish his huge impact on music and popular culture; and why 'the Count's still the King.'

"No Subtitles", however is a different story. This look at two of greatest cinematographers of the last half of the twentieth century was wonderful. It not only described their impact on film-making and their influence on the visual - 'the picture' and its style and quality as the story-teller - but who these two men really were and their friendship that was extraordinary.

A superb documentary. Among other things, it made me want to re-see many of the films they each made. As clips from their respective films (i.e. Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Paper Moon, The Deer Hunter, MaCabe and Mrs. Miller) were shown as part of the documentary, I found myself thinking about each one, 'oh wow, I love that film! I'd like to see it again!"

And of "No Subtitles", I'd like to see it again.