SIFF. Preview.

The first American screening of Son of Rambow since Sundance 2007 kicks off the 33rd Seattle International Film Festival tonight. (The film was curiously unscreened for critics, ostensibly at the request of distributor Paramount Vantage, despite a warm reception at Sundance.) The North American premiere of the French costume farce Molière brings the festival to a close on Sunday, June 17. In between are 24 days of screenings featuring over 280 features and documentaries (including 17 world premieres and 29 North American premieres) and 117 short films: the longest film festival marathon in the United States, and the most well attended.

Updated.

World premieres include the black comedy Sex and Death 101 the second directorial effort from Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters, who also wrote a leading role for Heathers star Winona Ryder; the B-movie alien invasion parody Trail of the Screaming Forehead by Larry Blamire (The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra), and the Seattle-spawned Lovecraft adaptation Cthulhu, directed by Daniel Gildark. North American premieres include Timur Bekmambetov's blockbuster Russian hit Day Watch, the second film in the epic fantasy trilogy, Jacob Cheung's A Battle of Wits from Hong Kong, and My Friend & His Wife by Shin Dong-il (Host and Guest) from South Korea. Milos Forman's international drama Goya's Ghosts, starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgard, makes its US premiere.

Guest of honor Anthony Hopkins is attending with his directorial debut, Slipstream, and will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award and an evening tribute with an onstage interview and a screening of The Remains of the Day. Also honored this year are four directors chosen as "Emerging Masters": Abderrahmane Sissako (Bamako) from Mauritania, Eytan Fox (The Bubble) from Israel, Franco-Iranian Rafi Pitts (It's Winter) and Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose) from France. Sissako is unable to attend, due to commitments on the Cannes jury, but the other three have committed to attend.

German cinema gets the spotlight with a selection of 15 features and documentaries from Germany, among them Volker Schlöndorff's Strike, his dramatization of Poland's Solidarity movement, and Chris Kraus's award-winning sophomore feature Four Minutes, as well as a revival of Walter Ruttmann's Berlin: Symphony of a City with a live score performed by Sub-Pop recording artists Kinski.

The latter is also part of the third "Face the Music" program, a collection of music documentaries and live events that include "An Evening With Lisa Gerrard" in conjunction with the documentary Sanctuary: Lisa Gerrard and "Conversation with Julien Temple," who accompanies his new documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, as well a local-focus documentaries Kurt Cobain: About a Son and Girls Rock!, Arne Johnson's portrait of a rock camp for girls in Portland, Oregon.

Archival presentations include a film noir double feature hosted by Eddie Muller (who promises a brand spanking new 35mm print of the brilliant The Big Combo), four classic swashbucklers from the golden age of Hollywood, the 1933 hit comedy Tugboat Annie (which was shot in Seattle's Pike Place), and a couple of rare silent presentations: the 1919 A Sentimental Bloke from Australia and the noir-ish A Cottage on Dartmoor, directed by Anthony Asquith. And that doesn't include the never-to-be revealed "Secret Festival" stealth screenings, where non-disclosure agreements signed by passholders guarantee that whatever happens at Secret Fest stays at Secret Fest.

The Egyptian Theater on Capitol Hill is still the ostensible anchor of the festival, but this year SIFF has its own home cinema at McCaw Hall in Seattle Center. The new SIFF Cinema, which opened in March with 32 films from the Janus film classics package, is a refurbished lecture hall that has turned into a very comfortable theater seating over 400. It's currently home to SIFF press screenings (which are also open to all full-series passholders) and will become one of the seven screens for festival showings. You can still walk between the Egyptian and the Harvard Exit and Pacific Place if you don't mind a healthy hike, but with SIFF Cinema in Seattle Center, the Neptune in the University District and Lincoln Square in Bellevue, this festival is more spread out than ever, making theater jumping difficult. If you're planning a day of screenings, it's easier to pick a venue and stay put for a couple of films than ricocheting across town... not that it will stop the diehards from doing just that.

Let the films begin.

- Sean Axmaker.

Updates: Previews at the Siffblog: Gillian G Gaar on Girls Rock!, Crazy Love and Doubletime; and on The Life and times of Yva Las Vegass and Red Road.

Posted by dwhudson at May 24, 2007 2:15 AM