Partial to Movies With Scripts

A number of screenings in this year's film festival started out like this: The director comes out to say that he or she had a deliberate approach and story to tell, but did not have a script; the actors were allowed to improvise.

After seeing three of these unscripted improvisations over a span of less than 24 hours, I have new appreciation for screenplays. So did another woman I ran into when I went to the "Funny Bones" screening (now there's a good script!). She had seen me the night before at a late-night showing of a film whose lack of a script slowed it down and gave us each plenty of time to lose interest in the characters.

The unscripted films had some fine scenes and moments, and I don't believe filmmakers have to follow rules. But they can break even more rules with a good screenplay. I'm hoping that as these young filmmakers mature, they'll do that in ways I can only imagine.

Treeless Mountain

Of the record number of foreign-language films the Maryland Film Festival screened this year, programmer Eric Allen Hatch said, "Treeless Mountain" may have the best chance of getting a wide release. That should be good news to anyone who didn't make it to the Sunday screening of this film by So Yong Kim.

In the film, a struggling single mother must leave her two daughters with their absent father's older sister. The girls -- the oldest is 6 and the younger one appears to be about 4 -- call her what the subtitles translate to "Big Aunt." While she's not in Spiker and Sponge territory as far as evil aunts go, she is neglectful and harsh most of the time. The child actors -- including one who plays a little boy the girls befriend -- are magnificent, and they are in nearly every scene, so that matters.

The low-key performances by the children remind me of Francois Truffaut's "Small Change," "The 400 Blows" and "The Wild Child."

There is, according to the festival program notes, an emerging South Korean cinema. But this is the first South Korean film I've ever had a chance to see. I was unable to make it to "Daytime Drinking," a comedy by Noh Young-seok, but the preview I saw for it reminded me of Martin Scorcese's "After Hours."

World's Greatest Dad

Could this be the film that finally makes Bobcat Goldthwait famous for what he does best and loves most? I never paid much attention to him when he was a loud and wild actor and stand-up comic. But after seeing three of his films in the last two years, I can say that I will never skip one, and I'm hoping to rent his earlier feature, "Shakes the Clown."

"World's Greatest Dad," starring Robin Williams and Daryl Sabara ("Spy Kids") as father and son, is one of the films from this festival that are most likely to get wide release. Robin Williams still has star appeal, though he doesn't do the kind of comedy here that he's known for. Audiences may give the film a chance just for him, and they'll be rewarded.

Of course, there's the "taboo" factor. Just as in Goldthwait's "Sleeping Dogs Lie," shown at the 2007 Maryland Film Festival as a John Waters pick, "World's Greatest Dad" has a plot that centers on something most people don't like to say aloud. In the latter film's case, it's something that some people can't pronounce, either. And then he takes things further. Goldthwait is a daring filmmaker, but not just for the sake of going to the edge. The story is absolutely original, and it holds together.

Catch “Stingray Sam” Sunday

I didn’t think I’d like “Stingray Sam.” I’m not crazy about sci-fi or westerns. But I saw a trailer for it a month ago and yesterday, just had to peek inside the theater to see what it was like. Turns out that it’s stylish and goofy at the same time, with hip gags and a black-and-white high-contrast look that was hard to tear myself away from.

I stayed longer than I meant to, and would have stayed longer still if I hadn't been so determined to see “Funny Bones” (see below), which played the same time. The good news is “Stingray Sam” repeats today (Sunday) at one of the festival’s remote locations – the University of Baltimore Student Center. You can get there via shuttle from the festival’s main site at the Charles Theater.

Video Americain, by the way, carries director Cory McAbee's earlier film, "The American Astronaut."

Thanks, Laura. I needed that.

Most of the films we see at a festival feature unknown or even first-time actors. That's a good thing, usually. It can feel like we're watching real people when we aren't aware it's, say, Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt or Leslie Caron.

But I just had the pleasure of watching all three of those fabulous actors together in "Funny Bones" (1995). The film also stars comedian/actor Lee Evans, whom most of you would recognize by face, if not by name. He played the obsessed pizza guy in "Something About Mary," and also starred in "Mouse Hunt."

So while I can appreciate a film that has pretty good actors, there really is nothing like a movie that has it all: great actors with presence, great writing and a director who knows what to do with it all.

The film was novelist Laura Lippman's pick as a guest host this year. She originally saw it 12 years ago knowing nothing about it except that it was a house favorite at Video Americain. That would be enough for me, too. Like Laura, I can't say enough about the store and the staff. Support it -- the owners have recently said they know that sooner or later, they won't be in business. They weren't whining, just being practical. I still don't want to believe it has to happen.

So, go rent "Funny Bones" if you missed it today. You know where to find it. And if they don't have it in, ask about the other house favorites -- there's a whole wall of shelves of them when you walk in, and staff such as Tyler Brown (left) and Antoinette Suiter are more than happy to discuss them with you.

Mexican Cinema

One of the most pleasant surprises for me this weekend is "Lake Tahoe," a touching film from Mexico that is beautifully told with just enough dialogue.

An older gentleman sitting behind me was telling me after the lights went up that, "It told the story visually -- which is what a film is supposed to do." Whatever dialogue was there was well-written.

The story has little to do with Lake Tahoe. It centers on a middle-class family in a small town (or perhaps suburb) of a Mexico we don't usually see in the few films that come to the United States from that country. The teenage boy of the house is on the verge of manhood. We watch him go through the day dealing with car trouble, but it gradually becomes apparent that there is a much more serious loss.

Directed by Fernando Eimbcke -- new to me but obviously experienced based on the quality -- this could have been an early film by someone like Alejandro González Iñárritu. Maryland Film Festival programmer Eric Allen Hatch appropriately compares Eimbcke to Jim Jarmusch. This is one worth keeping an eye on.

"Let's all go to Paris."

That's what we were all thinking, and also John Waters' first words as the lights came up after last night's screening of "Love Songs," a 2007 French film that showed in Baltimore for only a week. "Am I the only person who thinks this was the best foreign language film this year?" Waters asked the audience before it started. Of course, we couldn't answer then; Waters purposely picks films that didn't get enough (or any) screen time in Baltimore.

For any who missed it, it is released on DVD. It's a pansexual romantic comedy with music, full of beautiful people in a beautiful city. "Everyone was sexy in this movie," Waters said. "The mother was sexy." It was more like "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" than I would have guessed -- including a good measure of tristesse.

Moved to Tears

Jed Dietz, director of the festival, has always insisted that local filmmakers do not get priority to have their films entered. I'll accept that. But there are several local filmmakers who are good enough to get their work in -- even featured. Matt Porterfield, Ramona Diaz and Kurt Kolaja all have had films here in past years and screened works in progress this afternoon.

At opening night, local artists included Eric Dyer ("The Bellows March") and Julia Kim Smith ("Grand Teton"). Their two very different films moved me tremendously. Dyer's animated work in progress was 5 minutes, but it was something that spoke to me instantly -- it made me think of the tragedy of war. Another friend saw it as a metaphor for conformity. Dyer's mix of digital photography and zoetrope is mesmerizing. In the photo (right), Dyer holds up the sculpture used to make the film. But all of that visual virtuosity wouldn't keep my attention for even five minutes without the meaning it evokes.

As for Smith's movie, this is the first time I can remember being moved to tears by a short. Also 5 minutes, and so deceptively simple that it appears like nothing more than a lucky break. Smith had sought, on a return family trip to the Grand Teton National Park 25 years later, to recreate a family photo of her mother, sister and herself.

"We thought, 'Why don't we take a picture in the same spot?' " Smith said. And so she figured she would set up her digital video camera on a tripod, too, just to document the whole thing.

But as mother and daughters stood there to pose, and a grandson wandered in and out, Smith's Korean-born mother began crying. Smith appears a bit thrown off, but also moved, knowing her mother and father's struggles to escape the Korean War and make a new life in the United States. You can hear more about Smith's story from a WYPR broadcast today of The Signal.

"When I saw the footage, I decided I would turn the film into a tribute to my family," Smith said. Yes, it was a lucky break, but Smith was able to recognize what she had captured, and the universal impact on anyone who has lived through hardship -- in Mrs. Kim's case, war and the death of two sons.

Smith replaced the ambient sound with a moving rendition of "America," which spares us what might have been distracting audio and puts the focus on these three women, particularly the strong one in the middle. Happy Mother's Day to Mrs. Kim.

Friday Priorities

Having just seen a lot of shorts last night, I may pass on shorts programs today in favor of a few feature-length films that are my priorities: "Garbage Dreams," because it looked great in the snippet I saw at a MD Film Fest preview a month ago, and Agnes Varda's "The Beaches of Agnes."

I'd like to see Kris Swanberg's "It was great, but I was ready to come home." (love it -- title that is a full sentence, correct case and punctuation) because I'm curious about films exploring the tensions and subtleties between women friends. But I may have to wait 'til the second screening for that (Sunday). In the photo above, Swanberg and her husband, filmmaker Joe Swanberg (center), speak with filmmaker and comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, who hosted opening night.


At 7 pm, John Waters presents "Love Songs," a French romance, with music, that sounds like it's in the spirit of Agnes Varda and her New Wave amis.

Opening Night

Could a new genre have been born? Marc Kess, an exuberant New York filmmaker, believes he has created one. But he knows one film does not a genre make, so while is making a second "shot-to-fit" film out of the audio from a real old-time radio play, he is putting out the call to other filmmakers to do the same. Here's the link to the noir film he shot from the radio play, "Mildred Richards."

Kess showed "Mildred Richards" as part of the opening night shorts program. Like other shorts featured at opening night, this one won't be shown again, but Kess will be on a panel. Check the festival website or go to the Filmmaker Tent Village across from The Charles to find out more.

Sharing Works-in-Progress

Disclosure: I have to say right off that Baltimore filmmaker Matt Porterfield's wife, Sara Gerrish, was my son's kindergarten teacher. But even if I didn't know his wife -- and his father, educator and playwright Gordon Porterfield -- I would still have been moved by "Hamilton" when I saw it at the Maryland Film Festival a few years ago. Porterfield will be showing newly shot footage from his latest project, "Metal Gods," joined by other local filmmakers sharing some of their own works-in-progress Friday, May 8, 3:30-4:45 pm at the festival.

The other filmmakers joining him:

Ramona Diaz, whose documentary on Imelda Marcos managed, I think, to be one that would appeal to Mrs. Marcos' loyal subjects as well as to those who are, well, less sympathetic. Diaz is now making a film about teachers from the Philippines who have been recruited to teach in Baltimore City Public Schools.

and

Kurt Kolaja, who showed a film at the festival a few years ago about turning an old barn into his new home. Kurt's film was touching and funny, and most of all, beautifully shot, which can happen when the filmmaker is already a highly respected cinematographer.

Agnes Varda: From New Wave to Beaches

It's only a 15-minute drive to Video Americain. Normally, I would not have to ask my friends there to hold Agnes Varda's 2001 film, "The Gleaners and I," until I could arrive. But Varda's latest film, "The Beaches of Agnes," is coming to the Maryland Film Festival this weekend, and there is a cadre of French New Wave devotees in Baltimore who might be thinking the same thing I was. Yes, I'm a film geek, but I am not alone.