The schedule for the 28th Starz Denver International Film festival has been announced on the Denver Film Society’s . Highlights include the opening night film, “The World’s Fastest Indian,” starring Anthony Hopkins, and the closing night film, director Ang Lee’s new “Brokeback Mountain,” starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.
The festival, which runs Nov. 10-20 at the Starz Film Center at the Tivoli and at other locations including the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House, features almost 200 films from 39 countries, with over 100 directors and actors attending.
Tickets will be available starting Oct. 26 through the festival website, the Starz FilmCenter Box Office at the Tivoli or via phone (303-534-1339).
Highlights will be posted later this morning on . Here is a sampling, in alphabetical order:
Blue Butterfly (part of the Kids First childrens’ series)
Canada/Great Britain 2005, 97 minutes Color
English, Spanish
Director: Lea Pool Lea Pool
Screening Nov. 19 at the King Center on the Auraria campus
William Hurt’s steady, professional hand shows itself in “The Blue Butterfly,” directed by Swiss-born Canadian Léa Pool (Emporte-moi, 1999; Lost and Delirious, 2001). This is the story of 10-year-old Pete Carlton (played with grace by “White Oleander”’s Marc Donato). Pete is terminally ill, and he has one last wish. An amateur entomologist, he loves watching the small, small world of insects and cocoons, and has his hopes pegged on traveling to Central and South America to see the Mariposa Azul, the most beautiful butterfly in the world. His mother, Teresa (Pascale Bussieres, “Between the Moon and Montevideo,” 2001) will do anything to make that happen. To ensure it, she must go through Alan Osborne (Hurt), a renowned entomologist and Pete’s hero. Unfortunately, the brilliant but vulnerable scientist has a secret that makes the company of insects much preferable to that of his fellow humans. “The Blue Butterfly” is about privacy, intimacy, cocoons and coming out of them to live life to the hilt.
Brick
USA 2005, 119 minutes Color
English
Director: Rian Johnson
In person: Rian Johnson
Screening Nov. 17 & 18
Feature-debut writer and director Rian Johnson combines the sucker punch of Dashiell Hammett fiction (“The Maltese Falcon,” “Red Harvest” and “The Glass Key”) and maybe some Raymond Chandler with the sharply clawed world of a “Heathers”-like, Southern California high school. In the loopy detective genre that Johnson creates, loner Brendan Frye shuns the in-circles of his school like the plague. He always has, finding loyal companionship with his girlfriend, Emily — until now, that is. Against his will, Brendan is pulled into the world he hates. He receives a frantic call from Emily, a plea for help filled with mysterious references to “Brick” and “Pin.” When she turns up dead, Brendan’s Sam Spade persona catches on fire. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt deadpans Humphrey Bogart’s tough-headed, tough-knuckled detective like a champ. Brick gives a modern nod to the lingo and manners of classic noir fiction and film.
Brokeback Mountain Closing Night Premiere
USA 2005, 130 minutes Color
English
Director: Ang Lee Ang Lee
In person: Ang Lee, Annie Proulx, Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana
Screening Nov. 19
Far from a typical story of forbidden love in a beautiful place, Ang Lee’s film is a dazzling update of the American Western, a celebration of the literature of the West, an examination of our shifting attitudes toward sexuality and a showcase of two of the world’s most talented young actors. Brokeback Mountain follows the rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and ranch-hand Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), who meet while tending sheep one summer, share a tent one night and form a dangerous, lifelong bond that time and physical distance fail to break. Brokeback Mountain, which won the grand prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival, was adapted by acclaimed novelists Larry McMurtry (“Lonesome Dove,” “The Last Picture Show”) and Diana Ossana from Annie Proulx’s lauded New Yorker short story, which was insp0ired by Matthew Shepard’s murder in Wyoming. Lee, co-screenwriters McMurty and Ossana and Annie Proulx will attend this screening. Lee will also be awarded the Mayor’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Combover: The Movie
USA 2005, 55 minutes Color
English
Director: Chris Marino, Tim Fenoglio Chris Marino, Tim Fenoglio
In person: Chris Marino and Tim Fenoglio
Screening Nov. 17 & 20
Some of the finest moments in hairstyle history came during the Iran-Contra hearings; as a relief from the political storm, a startled nation’s water-cooler discussions hinged on Senator George Mitchell’s “combover.” The style itself is far from dead–that impulse for a balding man to bring a few strands of hair up from the side and slap them over the top of his shiny pate. Producers/directors Chris Marino and Tim Fenoglio document a trek across the United States that is filled with hilarious and often intimately revealing interviews with guys who sport the combover. Combover: The Movie also digs into the hairstyle’s history and cultural and religious contexts. The history-happy filmmakers even discover veiled references in the Old Testament. Shooting over 18 months, they paid out $100 for each glorious interview.
Duane Hopwood
USA 2005, 99 minutes Color
English
Director: Matt Mulhum Matt Mulhum
Cast: David Schwimmer, Janeane Garofalo, Judah Friedlander, Susan Lynch, Dick Cavett
In person: David Schwimmer
Set in the cold, windswept world of an Atlantic City November, recently divorced Duane Hopwood (David Schwimmer) works the graveyard shift at Caesar’s. A security camera catches Duane appeasing a gambler with some cash, and his pit boss Carl (Jerry Grayson) has to fire him. His cherished relationship with his young daughters, Mary (Ramya Pratt) and Kate (Rachel Covey), is the only light in Duane’s lonely, intoxicated life. Ex-wife Linda (Janeane Garofalo) still loves him, but can’t trust him to be responsible. When he is caught driving drunk with his daughter in the backseat, his visitation rights are threatened, and Duane decides that the time has come to get his life together. Duane Hopwood is a touching story of a man trying to come back from the edge and accept life with all its imperfections.
Duck Part of the Phillip Baker Hall Tribute
USA 2004, 106 Color
English
Director: Nic Bettauer Nic Bettauer
Cast: Philip Baker Hall, Amy Hill, Bill Cobbs, French Stewart, Bill Brochtrup
In person: Phillip Baker Hall and Nic Bettauer
Screening Nov. 18 & 19
“Duck” is a survival tale about a duck who saves the life of a man, explains writer/director Nic Bettauer. It’s also a tale, she maintains, about “having the hopes to make a change.” Arthur is a retired history professor in his ’70s who has pretty much come to the end of his tether. His original reasons for living have left him high and dry. His family is gone, as are his friends and his profession. It’s Los Angeles 2009, and the last park still open to the public, where his wife and son are buried, has drained its pond for landfill. Given the way the whole world is going, Arthur decides to end his life — in the park. Also in the park is a baby duck that confronts the hopeless man and, indeed, saves his life. But Joe, as the duck is named by Arthur, also has his own needs. The little duck “imprints” with the former history prof, taking Arthur as his mother and following him about the dying L.A. landscapes, giving Arthur a new sense of hope and purpose. “Duck’s Arthur (Philip Baker Hall) has been in the public eye for some time. His early theater career includes roles opposite Helen Hayes in “The Skin of Our Teeth,” Bill Pullman in “All My Sons” and recent SDIFF Cassavetes Award winner William H. Macy in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo.” On screen, Hall has appeared in, among many other films, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, The Truman Show and as Richard M. Nixon in Robert Altman’s Secret Honor.
Godzilla: Final Wars Part of Focus on Japan series
Japan 2004, 124 minutes Color
Japanese
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura Ryuhei Kitamura
Cast: Masahiro Matsuoka, Rei Kikukawa, Kazuki Kitamura, Don Frye, Akira Takarada
Screening Nov. 19
Opening with a credit paying homage to the men who made the original, Director Ryuhei Kitamura adds a new twist to the mythology as Gojira (Godzilla) battles old foes across the world. Celebrating Godzilla’s 50th anniversary, the guest list for this legendary screen favorite’s purported final appearance includes a hall of fame roster of Toho Kaiju monsters, such as Mothrah, Ebirah, Hedorah, and Rodan. The nostalgia extends to bringing back actor Akira Takarada, who was in the original Godzilla. The whole world, from Tokyo to Antarctica, becomes background fodder for epic battles. The Earth Defense Forces have neutralized and imprisoned Godzilla in the ice of the Antarctic. Twenty years later, the planet is overrun with other large, city-crushing monsters. To save the planet, our favorite anti-hero’s help is needed and Godzilla is awakened. Combining the beloved rubber-suit effects and modern technology, “Godzilla: Final Wars” is a fitting final chapter.
Good Morning Focus on Japan
Japan 1959, 94 minutes Color
Japanese
Director: Yasujiro Ozu Yasujiro Ozu
Cast: Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishu Ryu, Kuniko Miyake, Haruko Sugimura
Introduced by: Howie Movshovitz
Predicting that “TV will produce 100 million idiots,” Hayashi (Chishu Ryu) refuses to buy his two young sons their much-desired television. When he quiets their protests by scolding them for talking too much, the boys take a vow of silence, arguing that, after all, most adult talk is meaningless, idle chatter. And indeed, they are right. The housewives in the neighborhood circulate rumors through their daily gossip that would be malicious if they weren’t so ridiculously trivial. Meanwhile, prospective lovers turn to the ever-safe subject of the weather instead of declaring their affections for one another. “Good Morning” is an amiable, at times sparkling, comedy that once again demonstrates Ozu’s mastery and his wry view of consumerist Japan.
Holy Modal Rounders … Bound to Lose
USA 2005, 97 minutes Color & B/W
English
Director: Sam Wainwright Douglas, Paul Lovelace Sam Wainwright Douglas, Paul Lovelace
Cast: The Holy Modal Rounders, Sam Shepard, Dennis Hopper, The Fugs, Wavy Gravy
In person: Sam Wainwright Douglas, Paul Lovelace and Peter Stampfel
Screening Nov. 18 & 19
When fiddler Peter Stampfel collided with guitarist Steve Weber during the “Great Folk Scare” of the early ’60s in New York, the two musicians formed a powerful bond based on their shared fascination with American-roots music and early psychedelia. Dubbing themselves the Holy Modal Rounders, these eccentric outsiders have been playing their unique brand of psychedelic folk for more than four decades, barely surviving on the fringes of the music industry while drawing a dedicated following of luminaries and lunatics. From their origins in New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene and their inclusion in the Easy Rider soundtrack to the lost years of constant drugging, endless touring and a final shot at redemption, Stampfel and Weber unabashedly recount their unique 40-year journey — and what a long, strange trip it’s been. Filmmakers Sam Wainwright Douglas and Paul Lovelace have created an engaging and revealing portrait of musical passion, collaborative spirit, missed opportunities and the fickleness of fate. Featuring endearing and hilarious appearances by Dennis Hopper, Loudon Wainwright III, Wavy Gravy, John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful, Peter Tork of the Monkees, Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg of the Fugs, Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, music editor Robert Christgau of The Village Voice, playwright (and former Rounders drummer) Sam Shepard and many more, “Bound to Lose” is a must-see no matter what your musical persuasion.
No Bigger Than a Minute
USA 2005, 80 minutes Color & B/W
English
Director: Steve Delano
In person: Steven Delano
Screening Nov. 13 & 15
Few people ever meet a dwarf person face-to-face, though we are all familiar with Happy, Grumpy, Dopey and of course those denizens of Oz. “My name is Steven, and I am a dwarf.” So begins “No Bigger Than A Minute,” a stylishly eclectic documentary film by four-foot-tall filmmaker, Steven Delano. In it, he asserts his license-of-stature and a healthy dose of irreverent humor to inform and entertain. “No Bigger Than A Minute” is a film that, in a sense, has taken a lifetime to make. For forty years Steve disavowed his dwarf deviance, thus avoiding both the benefits and potential traumas of real self-discovery. Nevertheless, he has learned first-hand how a genetic mutation marks a person for life. You can read on “No Bigger than a Minute” and see a 3-minute preview of the film on DenverPost.com.
Only the Brave
USA 2004, Color
English
Director: Lane Nishikawa Lane Nishikawa
Cast: Lane Nishikawa, Tamlyn Tomita, Yuji Okumoto, Greg Watanabe, Jason Scott Lee, Mark Dacascos
In person: Lane Nishikawa
Screening Nov. 12 & 13
October 1944: U.S. Army Sgt. Jimmy Takata and his platoon of the 100th/442nd Regiment have secured their third French town along the German border from the Nazis. But the promise of two days’ rest after months of fighting soon disappears with their new orders from headquarters: rescue the “Lost Battalion,” Texans of the 141st Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, trapped behind enemy lines in the Vosges forest. And so begins “Only the Brave,” a powerful new feature film based on the true accounts of the heroic all-Nisei unit of second-generation Japanese Americans who chose to fight in Europe during World War II. Even more remarkable is that these very men were serving their country at a time when their families were detained in internment camps back in the States. First-time feature director Lane Nishikawa, who also stars in the lead role and wrote the screenplay, avoids the easy route of sentimentality to craft a gripping story that was inspired by the real-life experiences of his four Nisei uncles, who served in this little-known combat unit. With a stellar ensemble cast of Asian American actors that includes Jason Scott Lee, Oscar-nominee Pat Morita, Mark Dacascos, Yuji Okumoto and Tamlyn Tomita, “Only the Brave” is the perfect film to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and the sacrifices that were made by the men and women from many countries.
Solidarity, Solidarity
Poland 2005, 113 minutes Color
Polish
Director: Juliusz Machulski Juliusz Machulski
Screening Nov. 13 & 15
A formidable venture in which 13 of the greatest Polish filmmakers have come together to present short films for the 25th anniversary celebration of Solidarity. The brainchild of Andrzej Wajda, this two-hour film, ranging from comic to documentary styles, aims to show the phenomenon which, above all social divisions, united ten million Poles. Andrzej Wajda himself conducts an interview with Lech Walesa reflecting on the illusions of social accord and economic equality. Concluding with Malgorzata Szumowska’s film about a girl whose life spans the history of Solidarity. This feature is an impressive cinematic memorial to the events of August 1980.
World’s Fastest Indian Opening Night Premiere
New Zealand 2005, 131 minutes Color
English
Director: Roger Donaldson
Screening Nov. 10 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House
To be the fastest man on earth, that’s what New Zealander Burt Munro dreamed of his entire life. And all the tinkering away on his ancient motorcycle (the Indian Scout of the title) at his small-town, little bunker of a house was aimed toward that goal. Director Roger Donaldson’s 1971 documentary, Offerings to the God of Speed, followed the story of the 72-year-old motorcycle enthusiast’s trip to America. “Enthusiast” is probably an understatement, by the way. The outgoing wayfarer finally made it to the Salt Flats of Utah, got on that bike and set the land-speed record of 201 miles an hour. In “The World’s Fastest Indian,” Donaldson is finally able to fulfill one of his dreams-to make a feature out of the documentary and Munro’s story. And he couldn’t do better than to cast Sir Anthony Hopkins as the lively septuagenarian with the infectious laugh and infectious spirit.
