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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

SIFF 2007: Wednesday Highlights

posted by on June 13 at 10:43 AM

The Stranger’s recommendation for every slot in the festival continue below and at www.thestranger.com/siff. Does it seem to anyone else as though the quality of the films is flagging in the last stretch?

WEDNESDAY JUNE 13

Pacific Place, 2 pm. Start off with the pleasantly morose doc Out of Time, about old-timey Viennese businesses that have outstayed the interest of their clients. (Except the middle-aged butcher. Everybody loves the butcher, but the cheeky bugger wants to retire to the countryside.)

SIFF Cinema, 4 pm. OK, I recommended it yesterday, but who can resist another still from the wack Indonesian musical Opera Jawa?

Opera_Jawa2.jpg

The Hungarian generation-gap drama Fresh Air (Neptune, 4 pm), which we weren’t able to review, also looks good. Here’s the Variety writeup.

SIFF Cinema, 7:30 pm. This one should be good. Anthony Asquith’s A Cottage on Dartmoor is a proto-noir from 1929 concerning a barber, a manicurist, and a love triangle. Introduced by self-styled “czar of noir” Eddie Muller.

The late evening slot is tough. Oh La La! is silly (and should probably have been called Augustin Puts on a Show, so as not to mislead the easily titillated), Vitus is a dumb movie about a precocious child, Several People, Little Time is a (very badly titled) Polish movie about a cranky poet. Then there’s a dubious shorts program. I suppose I’d probably go with How Is Your Fish Today? (Harvard Exit, 9:30 pm), from China.

RSS icon Comments

1

A Cottage on Dartmoor looks interesting ...

Posted by Will in Seattle | June 13, 2007 10:58 AM
2

Good choice. If "How is your Fish Today" is as bad as its title, it's still only 83 minutes long and you wouldn't have invested so much time in it.

Posted by Sammie | June 13, 2007 11:42 AM
3

No mention of the 4:30 showing of Shotgun Stories (at Harvard Exit)? Too bad that the film is being lost in the shuffle.

Posted by stinkbug | June 13, 2007 12:41 PM
4

The word from the SIFF press office Monday was that Eddie Muller would not be in town for this film. I spoke with him between films at the noir program and he confirmed the bad news. He will introduce 'Dartmoor' at the SFSFF (SIFF is auctioning two pair of passes to the SFSFF at a starting bid below face value!) and he will be in town for the entire week of Noir City in July at SIFF Cinema. Word on ticket sales for tonight's show is that many are left. This film is, after a fashion, a synthesis of German Expressionism and Hollywood production values. I don't think it was covered by the media at large too well (my preview was it). 'Dartmoor' is however, a wonderful film. This presentation includes crackerjack live accompaniment (Donald Sosin) to boot!

Posted by David Jeffers | June 13, 2007 4:27 PM

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