October 2009: Filmfest Oldenburg

by John Gallagher

FILMFEST OLDENBURG: I participated in the first Internationales Filmfest Oldenburg (located in a small college town between Hamburg and Amsterdam) in 1994 with my feature MEN LIE; since then I’ve been a regular guest, visiting the festival a dozen times, screening six of my features, six shorts, and curating the first retrospective in Deutschland of the work of William Wellman. Under the expert guidance of festival director Torsten Neumann, IFFO has grown to become what the trades have dubbed “the German Sundance,” with tens of thousands of visitors and an international roster of filmmakers. In addition to screening a range of indies from around the world, the festival has honored such filmmakers as Ken Russell, Ben Gazzara, Alex Cox, Frank Oz, Seymour Cassel, Philippe de Broca, James Toback, among others, with career tributes. This year’s edition (the 16th) was one of the best; the special guests were Bruno Barretto and the directing team of David Siegel and Scott McGehee, screening their newest works as well as past pictures. Judi Krant took home the German Independence Award for Best International Film for directing the hilarious comedy MADE IN CHINA, while actor-producer Ken Duken’s subtle serial killer study DISTANZ won the award for Best German Feature. This year’s jury was headed by producer Patrick Cassaveti (BRAZIL, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS), and included director Buddy Giovinazzo (LIFE IS HOT IN CRACKTOWN, COMBAT SHOCK), Emmy-winning producer-director Sylvia Caminer (TANZANIA: A FRIENDHIP JOURNEY, BLUE MOON, THE DELI), and indie icon/savant filmmaker/author Chris Gore, founder of influential magazine Film Threat, and popular host of IFC Channel and G4 movie shows. Nine world premieres, 22 German premieres, five international premieres and eight European premieres were presented in Oldenburg, with a total of 76 films screened over the span of the five day fest.

One of the great things about the Oldenburg Film Fest is the warm creative environment set by Neumann, assisted by his incredibly gracious and professional staff. The parties and receptions are plentiful and varied, with screening venues ranging from a state of the art Cineplex to intimate lounges, and even the local prison! Many Oldenburg veterans were present this year, including directors R. P. Kahl and Douglas Buck, and actors Peter Lohmeyer and Seymour Cassel, as well as James DeMonaco (writer of THE NEGOTIATOR and Coppola’s JACK, presenting his brilliant directorial debut STATEN ISLAND starring Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio and Seymour Cassel); director-producer Andrew Van Houten and writer Jack Ketchum with their outstanding new horror film OFFSPRING (edited by Doug Buck); producer Michael Riley with his fascinating documentary about harvesting white jade, CHINA’S WILD WEST; actress Debbie Rochon, the star of Ivan Zuccon’s stylish and frightening Italian-made H. P. Lovecraft adaptation COLOUR OUT OF THE DARK; and three exceptional young actresses in their starring debuts -- Sarah O’Sullivan with Matthew Harrison’s impressionistic LE DERNIER PAON ALBINO (starring the always stellar Kevin Corrigan), and Lauren Schacher and Nicole Helen with my film BEAUTIFUL.

www.filmfest-oldenburg.de

SILVERDOCS: Under the direction of Sky Sitney, the annual Silverdocs festival has become our most important documentary showcase. Sylvia Caminer reports:

“Documentary lovers should reserve one week every June to attend the AFI SilverDocs Film Festival in Silver Springs, Maryland -- I promise you won’t be disappointed!  Co-sponsored by AFI and The Discovery Channel, SilverDocs is touted as one of the top doc festivals on the planet and with good reason. Start with the variety of quality screening venues, engaging Q & A discussions with filmmakers, fascinating panels, small group discussions with access to top level execs and intimate parties, add in a strong sense of community and passion for film, and one might think they were strolling the frozen streets of Park City in January.

2009 was my fourth year in attendance and the lineup of films was as impressive as ever, with such noteworthy, powerful world premieres as DANCING WITH THE DEVIL, GOOD FORTUNE, MRS. GOUNDO'S DAUGHTER and THE NINE LIVES OF MARION BARRY. Watching the politically charged Barry film in a packed house one could feel the sense of excitement and anticipation, over the next two hours, we the audience set aside our political ideology and enjoyed powerful filmmaking and were then engaged in a very lively post discussion attended by Barry himself.

MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN was the revelation of the festival, a film that eloquently portrays the strife of a family literally fighting for survival in Zimbabwe. The audience sat glued to their seats barely able to breathe through much of the film, basking in the sheer power of cinema. I believe we all walked out that evening with a new sense of commitment and devotion to the power of documentaries. What more can you ask for from a movie?

When planning your trip to SilverDocs be sure to include the five day conference, a must for anyone who is considering a career in documentaries or non-fiction television, or is already working in the field. This is an accelerated course in how to pitch a project to a distributor and offers you ample opportunity to get your project (if viable) into the hands of someone who can actually make it a reality.  SilverDocs really does have something for everyone  . . .

http://silverdocs.com/

ROBERT GINTY:  Bob Ginty was best known to action fans as the title star of Jim Glickenhaus’ 1980 smash THE EXTERMINATOR, but there was so much more to this talented artist who died of cancer at the age of 60 on September 21, 2009. A native New Yorker, Bob began his career as a musician, playing with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, before studying acting with legendary teacher Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse. He became a TV star on such series as THE PAPER CHASE and BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON, and Hal Ashby cast him in BOUND FOR GLORY (1976) and COMING HOME (1979). Bob was on his way to A-movie stardom when he last-minute replaced Sam Bottoms as the star of the low-budget NYC action indie THE EXTERMINATOR; when the movie became an international sensation, Bob suddenly became a global action star, earning lucrative paychecks on a series of ultimately forgettable exploitation pics, making him a bankable star on the Go-Go Eighties B-action movie market, an era that saw grindhouse give way to video. A whole generation of fanboys consumed these video pics the way the previous generation devoured comic books at the corner candy store.

But Bob was at heart an artist, and after nearly a decade of B-action movies, punctuated by an occasional mainstream flick like LOVERBOY (itself an 80s cult picture), MADHOUSE, HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN, network TV movies like EARTHQUAKE IN NEW YORK, and countless guest star roles on shows like CHIPS, Ginty had had enough. He made a deal with the producers of THE BOUNTY HUNTER to waive his acting fee for the opportunity to direct and that was it. He directed (and starred in) the award-winning VIETNAM, TEXAS and helmed some of the best episodes of DREAM ON, CHINA BEACH, XENA, NASH BRIDGES, LOIS AND CLARK, HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS and CHARMED, a versatile list of credits.

What most people don’t know is that Bob Ginty was a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Global Market Place, a member of the International Center for Human Rights and an Associate of both The Carnegie Endowment and The Brookings Institute. He taught and directed in Rome, Dublin, London, Edinburgh, Toronto and at Harvard and Yale, mentoring four decades of actors and filmmakers (including yours truly). While he never quite lived down “The Exterminator” tag, it doesn’t really matter. Bob Ginty shared so much and touched so many lives. Requiescat in pace.

www.robertyginty.com

KINO: Kudos to Kino for releasing MARLENE (1986), Maximilian Schell’s award-winning documentary on the fabulous Dietrich, with whom he had co-starred in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961). Arriving in Paris to film a series of on-camera interviews with the 81-year-old star, Schell is told by her that she will not permit him to put her on-screen. Schell sets her candid off-camera remarks against film footage and stills to create a scintillating portrait of the cinema icon. The Washington Post called this film “the SUNSET BOULEVARD of documentaries,” a most apt description.

HOW TO BE A MAN and HOW TO BE A WOMAN compile several dozen educational films for adolescents from the 50s through the early 80s. Those of us of a certain age will remember classroom screenings of such short films as “Your Body During Adolescence” (1954), “The Wonders of Reproduction” (1958), “Saying No: A Few Words to Young Women About Sex” (1982) and the ever popular “Let’s Make a Sandwich” (1950). Sometimes mind-blowing, sometimes mind-numbing, these shorts are invaluable mid-20th Century Americana time capsules.

HALLOWEEN TREATS: Warner Home Video makes Monster Kids and vintage horror buffs happy this Halloween with KARLOFF & LUGOSI HORROR CLASSICS, a double disc with four features. Michael Curtiz’ THE WALKING DEAD (1936) is worth the price of the whole set, a fascinating hybrid of the Warners gangster movie and the studio’s expressionistic horror movies DOCTOR X (1932) and MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), both directed by Curtiz years before his prestige pics like THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938), YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942), CASABLANCA (1943) and MILDRED PIERCE (1945) [all these titles are available on DVD from Warner Home Video]. In one of his very best performances, Karloff stars as a man framed for murder by gangsters led by Ricardo Cortez and sent to his death in the electric chair. Resurrected by scientist Edmund Gwenn, sporting special makeup remarkably similar to his heavy-lidded gaunt-cheeked Frankenstein monster, Karloff goes on a revenge spree. Historian Greg Mank provides expert audio commentary. Karloff also stars in the low-budget 1958 sci-fi horror movie FRANKENSTEIN 1970, directed by future Paramount chief Howard Koch. It’s fun Fifties camp, with Boris as a surly mad scientist creating a homemade monster. Historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns are joined by co-star Charlotte Austin for the commentary. Horror freaks of a certain age have fond memories of this flick playing repeatedly on TV shows like CHILLER THEATRE, and it’s great to have a terrific-looking widescreen version finally available. Karloff teams with Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre for David Butler’s YOU’LL FIND OUT (1940), a comedy-mystery headlining popular Forties bandleader Kay Kyser; the trio of terror titans make the movie entertaining. The same can’t be said for Gordon Douglas’ ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (1946), a grade “C” RKO quickie designed as a vehicle for the poor man’s Abbott and Costello, Alan Carney and Wally Brown. As he always did in even the worst Ed Wood concoctions, Bela Lugosi gives his acting all (some would say over-acting).

Sony’s WILLIAM CASTLE COLLECTION takes us back to the heyday of theatrical horror showmanship with a five-disc set highlighting Castle classics THE TINGLER (1959), 13 GHOSTS (1960), HOMICIDAL (1961), MR. SARDONICUS (1961) and STRAIT-JACKET (1964), along with three of his pictures making their DVD debuts, ZOTZ! (1962), THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963) and 13 FRIGHTENED GIRLS! (1963). Castle started directing in 1944 at Columbia, where he stayed for two decades, churning out B movies. When he teamed with Vincent Price for THE TINGLER, he came up with the gimmick of “Percepto,” with theatre seats wired to create a tingling sensation. It was a smash hit, and for his follow-up horror, 13 GHOSTS, he provided patrons with “Illusion-O,” a piece of cardboard with two transparent panels – look through one and you saw the ghosts! For HOMICIDAL, he implemented a “Coward’s Corner,” for MR. SARDONICUS, a “Punishment Poll” at the picture’s climax in which Castle himself appeared to let the audience decide the villain’s fate. The gimmicks eventually wore thin, and with STRAIT-JACKET, Castle cast Joan Crawford as an axe killer and played it straight (Castle eventually left directing to produce Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY). Sony has provided a ton of extras, included Jeffrey Schwartz’ award-winning documentary SPINE-TINGLER! THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY. There are new and vintage featurettes for each title, a variety of special promotional messages and trailers from Castle, alternate openings and endings, and Joan Crawford wardrobe and axe tests. Sony has really stepped up the packaging of their catalogue sets this year, and we are most grateful.

Sony also has a new trio of Blu-rays – BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (1992), directed by Francis Coppola, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN (1994), directed by co-star Kenneth Branagh, and Mike Nichol’s WOLF (1994). While each has their merits (not the least of which is impeccable production value), DRACULA is the centerpiece here, a stunning and usually faithful adaptation of the Stoker novel, one of Coppola’s very best films. Gary Oldman is the king vampire, Winona Ryder his victim, Anthony Hopkins the vampire fighter Van Helsing, with only Keanu Reeves throwing off the balance with a confounding performance and a weak British accent. The literary approach was also taken with FRANKENSTEIN, with an unlikely Robert DeNiro as the undead creation of Dr. Frankenstein (Branagh). Unlike the 1931 Karloff/Whale classic (which like the ’31 Lugosi/Browning DRACULA was adapted from a stage play), the Branagh film retains the atmospheric Arctic setting for some of the movie’s most powerful sequences. Mike Nichols directed Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer in WOLF, a slickly entertaining tongue-in-cheek horror flick with Nicholson at his over-the-top best as a werewolf. DRACULA includes lots of bonus material – intro and commentary with Coppola, deleted and extended scenes, and four featurettes. The real magic of these movies lie in the exquisite cinematography of each film, brought to dazzling new visual heights in Blu-ray, a tribute to camera greats Michael Ballhaus (DRACULA), Roger Pratt (FRANKENSTEIN) and Guiseppe Rotunno (WOLF).

From Hen’s Tooth Video comes THE ASPHYX (1973), a supernatural British horror pic in the Hammer tradition, with Robert Stephens as a 19th century scientists who discovers an apparition (the Asphyx) that appears in photographs the moment before death. The chills begin as he attempts to capture the force. Peter Newbrook (longtime David Lean camera operator) directs (his sole directorial effort), with typically outstanding cinematography by his mentor Freddie Young (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA).

DEADGIRL (2009), a recent low-budget horror movie, earned heavy praise from hardcore fans; for anybody else, it just might be too much. Well-made by director-producers Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel, the picture starts as an edgy coming-of-ager, before our two high school misfits discover the naked body of a dead girl in a newly abandoned hospital … except she isn’t really dead. Things get crazy (and bloody), reminding the viewer, as the folks at Film Threat wrote, of “the best of Cronenberg.” The filmmakers cast excellent actors (sadly not the case in many contemporary horror flicks), including Shiloh Fernandez (CADILLAC RECORDS), Noah Segan (BRICK), Michael Bowen (KILL BILL) and Candice Accola (JUNO). The Dark Sky Films DVD has cast and crew commentary with stars, directors and writer (Trent Haaga), deleted scenes, production featurette and makeup gallery.

SAMUEL FULLER: The first two DVD sets from Martin Scorsese’s film preservation organization, The Film Foundation, established a high standard of quality with loving presentations of works by Budd Boetticher and Michael Powell. Their newest effort, again released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, is another gem – THE COLLECTOR’S CHOICE: SAMUEL FULLER COLLECTION. The maverick journalist/soldier/director is represented by five films with Fuller writing credits, and two he wrote, produced and directed, culled from the Columbia vaults and beautifully restored and remastered. Harry Lachman’s IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD (1937), scripted by Fuller, Ethel Hill and Harvey Fergusson, is a rarely seen B-picture starring Richard Dix as a silent Western movie star involuntarily retired when talkies come in, co-starring gorgeous Fay Wray and featuring fascinating glimpses of the Columbia lot. Ross Lederman’s entirely entertaining ADVENTURE IN SAHARA (1938), from a Fuller story, is even more “B,” an hour-long French Foreign Legion potboiler starring Paul Kelly, no doubt inspired by BEAU GESTE. Lew Landers’ POWER OF THE PRESS (1943) is another programmer, a tight newspaper yarn from a Fuller story, starring Lee Tracy and Guy Kibbee. Fuller and Helen Deutsch collaborated on Douglas Sirk’s brilliant noir thriller SHOCKPROOF (1949), while Fuller’s newspaper crime novel The Dark Pages provided the source material for Phil Karlson’s compelling thriller SCANDAL SHEET (1952) with Broderick Crawford, Donna Reed, and John Derek. Fuller’s THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959) and UNDERWORLD U. S. A. (1961) are two of his finest works, perfectly constructed and executed, hardboiled and visually exciting. KIMONO cast James Shigeta in one of Hollywood’s first non-stereotypical Asian roles, as an L.A. detective partnered with Glenn Corbett in the investigation of a stripper’s death; Cliff Robertson is excellent in UNDERWORLD U. S. A. as a gangster out to avenge his father’s slaying. Special features include “Sam Fuller’s Search for Truth with Tim Robbins;” “Sam Fuller Storyteller” with Scorsese, Robbins, Wim Wenders, Curtis Hanson, Fuller’s widow Christa (star of Fuller’s 1966 DEAD PIGEON ON BEETHOVEN STREET) and daughter Samantha; “Curtis Hanson: The Culture of THE CRIMSON KIMONO;” and “Martin Scorsese on UNDERWORLD U.S.A.”

MPI VIDEO: The 2008 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner was Paolo Sorrentino’s gripping true crime story IL DIVO/THE GOD, with Toni Servillo (GOMORRA) in a genius performance as Giulio Andreotti, Italy’s most feared politician since Mussolini, a seven-time Prime Minister who orchestrated a shocking Vatican/Mafia/Neo-Fascist conspiracy while ordering the assassinations of judges, journalists and members of his own political party. Beautifully produced, directed, acted and photographed, IL DIVO received international rave reviews. Stephen Holden (New York Times) wrote “it ranks alongside the best of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola,” Stephen Rebello (Playboy) called it “a bold, provocative, original, wildly inventive stunner … a moviegoing feast in a world of snack food,” and Bilge Eberi (New York Magazine) observed “If Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Federico Fellini had a love child, Sorrentino would be it.” Special features include a making-of featurette, an FX reek, deleted scenes and an interview with the director.

NEW YORK THEATRE: Randall Wallace (BRAVEHEART, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK) has said of Paul Anthony Storiale’s THE COLUMBINE PROJECT, an epic re-telling of the 1999 American tragedy, “If this play were in every high school in America, it would change the country.” It is indeed a disturbing, cathartic, gut-wrenching, emotional work … and great theatre.  After its Los Angeles premiere, the show has moved to The Actors Temple Theatre on West 47th Street in Manhattan (an historic former synagogue where show biz legends like Al Jolson, Jack Benny, The Marx Brothers and Milton Berle worshipped in bygone Broadway days). THE COLUMBINE PROJECT boasts a large cast of tremendous actors, grounded by the simply stunning performances of Ryan O’Callaghan and Morgan Roberts as teenage sociopaths Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold. The night I saw the show there was a fascinating q-and-a session with the cast and a special guest, one of the first police officer responders on the scene. The hit show has an open-ended extended run; for details visit www.TheColumbineProject.com.

Before he won an Oscar for writing AMERICAN BEAUTY, before he created the smash HBO shows SIX FEET UNDER and TRUE BLOOD, Alan Ball enjoyed a successful playwriting career. I’m currently directing his 1993 play FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS, opening October 29th at the Duo Theatre on East 4th Street (another historic venue – John Philip Sousa created the first musicians union there, Andy Warhol made the theatre his home in the Sixties, and Francis Coppola directed the 1917 Italian operetta sequence there with Robert DeNiro and Frank Sivero for his 1974 THE GODFATHER II). It’s a typically Ball-esque comedy-drama about five bridesmaids in a Knoxville, Tennessee mansion, escaping the downstairs reception in an upstairs bedroom, exploring sisterhood, lost dreams, dark secrets, with cutting, often hilarious observations on life, love, sex, marriage and religion. The writer’s characteristic genius for turning comedy into drama and back again with the turn of a phrase is on full display. FIVE WOMEN stars a troupe of wonderful new artists, Krissy Garber (who is also producing), Lauren Schacher, Kate Eisenhower, Allie Dunbar, Darla Delane and Stefano DaFre. There are sixteen performances until November 22 – stop by, say hello, enjoy the show! Tickets and schedule info at www.smarttix.com.

                                                     John Gallagher

                                          jgmovie@gmail.com