SPEAKING A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE FOREIGN FILMS ARE THE BIG TICKET AT PALM SPRINGS FESTIVAL.Byline: Jerry Rice Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962 in Crawford, Mississippi) is a former football wide receiver in the NFL. Rice is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in NFL history, consistently showing exceptional performance and strong work ethic on and off of the field. Staff Writer With foreign language films coming off a banner year, the timing couldn't be better for the Nortel Networks (Nortel Networks Limited, Brampton, Ontario, www.nortelnetworks.com) A world leader in telecommunications products, which includes switching, wireless and broadband systems for service providers and carriers, telephones and systems for residential and business users, computer telephony Palm Springs International Film Festival. That is, after all, their specialty. The festival's 13th edition unspools Thursday with Mira Nair's ``Monsoon Wedding,'' a ``dramedy'' from India about a large family making preparations for upcoming nuptials. It closes Jan. 21 with ``The Power of Good,'' the gripping true story of Englishman Nicholas Winton Sir Nicholas Winton MBE (born May 19 1909) is a Briton who organized the rescue of about 669 mostly Jewish Czech children from their doomed fate in the Nazi death camps prior to the outbreak of World War II in an operation known as the Czech Kindertransport. who managed to save 669 Czech Jewish children from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis by spiriting them away to his homeland. In between will be 156 other films from 59 countries, including 44 of the 51 films submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration. Also in the mix are 50 U.S. premieres and 10 world premieres. Celebrities will get some recognition, too. The festival will fete Andy Garcia (``Ocean's Eleven'' and ``The Godfather Part III'') with the Desert Palm Award, Irwin Winkler Winkler may refer to:
(born 1767, Sauk Sautenuk, Va.—died Oct. 3, 1838, village on the Des Moines River, Iowa, U.S.) Sauk Indian leader. Long antagonistic to whites, Black Hawk was driven into Iowa from Illinois in 1831. Down'' and ``The Lion King'') with the Frederick Loewe Noun 1. Frederick Loewe - United States composer (born in Austria) who collaborated with Lerner on several musicals (1901-1987) Loewe Award for film composing, Arthur Hiller (``Love Story'') with the Director's Achievement Award, and Bruno Delbonnel ``Amelie'') with the DaVinci Award for cinematography cinematography: see motion picture photography. cinematography Art and technology of motion-picture photography. It involves the composition of a scene, lighting of the set and actors, choice of cameras, camera angle, and integration of special . Don't bother asking programming chief Jennifer Stark for a short list of the must-see screenings. ``I can't do it,'' she says. ``It's like, 'Tell me which of your children are the most beautiful, or which one is the most talented.' If you look at the films, every one has its own unique quality.'' Still, some titles at the festival are more recognizable than others. Among those at the top of that list: ``Amelie,'' an urban fairy tale fairy tale Simple narrative typically of folk origin dealing with supernatural beings. Fairy tales may be written or told for the amusement of children or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events, scenes, and personages about a waitress (Audrey Tautou) who puts her love life on hold as she tries to manage the lives of those around her. The French import won four statuettes, including the top prize, at last month's European Film Awards, and has chalked up an impressive $15.6 million in ticket sales during its limited release Stateside state·side adj. 1. Of or in the continental United States. 2. Alaska Of or in the 48 contiguous states of the United States. adv. Informal 1. . ``Elephants and Grass,'' a thriller dubbed ``The Turkish Traffic,'' which focuses on the ties between politicians, the Mafia and police. ``The Happy Man,'' written and directed by Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska, it's the story of a 30-year-old guy still living at home. He finally meets the woman of his dreams, just as his mother develops a serious medical condition. ``Lagaan,'' the story of revolt, romance and cricket from India. ``To the Left of the Father,'' an excursion into the human psyche about a Brazilian father who lines up his wife and children on one side of the dinner table or the other. ``Violet Perfume,'' a drama about a rebellious teen-ager growing up in a low-class Mexico City Mexico City Spanish Ciudad de México City (pop., 2000: city, 8,605,239; 2003 metro. area est., 18,660,000), capital of Mexico. Located at an elevation of 7,350 ft (2,240 m), it is officially coterminous with the Federal District, which occupies 571 sq mi neighborhood. A number of the films, particularly ``Monsoon Wedding,'' were selected for their crowd-pleasing qualities. ``Over the year, especially after Sept. 11, you look for something that's a little more upbeat,'' says festival director Denis Denis, king of Portugal: see Diniz. Pregnolato. ``You want to get people back into a wonderful frame of mind, to take away some of the stuff this country has gone through." Besides the films, festival organizers also have plenty to be upbeat about. Already, the sale of both levels of access passes are up about 25 percent over last year, when 70,000 people turned out during the 11 days of the festival. ``With the strong sales, we're in pretty incredible shape,'' Pregnolato says. Still, it has been a rough few months. Faced with the fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks and the economic recession, American Airlines American Airlines Major U.S. airline. American was created through a merger of several smaller U.S. airlines and incorporated in 1934. It continued to buy the routes of other airlines, becoming an international carrier in the 1970s; its routes include South America, the , a major sponsor last year, decided not to return. And the festival's title sponsor, Nortel Networks, nixed its $340,000 contribution for a glitzy glitz Informal n. Ostentatious showiness; flashiness: "a garish barrage of show-biz glitz" Peter G. Davis. tr.v. black-tie gala on Saturday. On the positive side, two new companies were signed: Audi and Road & Track. And the festival party will go on - albeit a much smaller one - at the Annenburg Theatre and Palm Springs Desert Museum. Some behind-the-scenes maneuvering allowed Palm Springs to avoid cutbacks other festivals have had to make. For example, the Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. International Film Festival, which fetes Sean Penn during its Feb. 27-March 3 run, has been trimmed considerably from its previous 11-day schedule. Palm Springs will maintain the same number of days as last year and plans to screen 16 more films. In addition, the festival will be offering free bus transit service and has installed ticketing devices at all screening locations (in past years, all sales were done at the main venue, the Festival of Arts Cinemas). Should the increased advance interest hold up during the course of the event, it would parallel last year's rising box-office fortunes of foreign- language films. In 2001, 14 titles earned $1 million or more (considered a successful showing by an imported film) - four more than 2000, and that's not counting the $113 million taken in by ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Traditional Chinese: 臥虎藏龍; Simplified Chinese: 卧虎藏龙; Pinyin: .'' ``American audiences have been warming up to foreign films,'' Pregnolato says. ``The more people hear about them, the more interest there is.'' NORTEL NETWORKS PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Where: Screenings/events at five Palm Springs locations - Festival of Arts Cinemas, Courtyard 10 Theater, Palm Springs High School Auditorium, Palm Springs Desert Museum/Annenberg Theatre, Welwood-Murray Memorial Library. When: Thursday through Jan. 21. Tickets: $9 for individual screenings; $12 for gala screenings. Also, weekend and all-screening passes are available for $250 and $350. (Doesn't include opening and closing nights.) Other events: Besides movie screenings, there's the annual Cinematographers' Day forum, a retrospective of the works of Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (February 17, 1934 – December 27, 2003) was an English actor. Biography Early life Bates, the eldest of three brothers, was born in Allestree, Derby, the son of Florence Mary (Wheatcroft), a homemaker, and Harold Arthur Bates, an . Information: (760) 322-2930; www.psfilmfest.org. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1) Poland's ``The Happy Man,'' written and directed by Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska, tells the story of a 30-year-old man, still living at home, who finally meets the woman of his dreams. (2) ``To the Left of the Father,'' Brazil's entry about a man and his family, explores the human psyche. (3) India's ``Lagaan'' is a story of revolt, romance and cricket. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion