Friday, July 10, 2009
STONY BROOK FILM FESTIVAL 2009
It's 14 years old, and seems to be getting better every year!
Thursday July 23 – Saturday August 1
At the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University.
I had a very good time at last year's Stony Brook Film Festival (SBFF-08). The screening facilities are exceptional, the whole Stony Brook Campus is inviting and friendly, and the crowd is great. The selections were excellent last year, and this year seems particularly interesting.
Last year, Mary Stuart Masterson showed her remarkable first film, The Cake Eaters. One year later, her film, now also on DVD, seems to be generating interest all around the world. This year SBFF is showing a film that her husband directed (and she produced).
Another film I'm interested in.... I was rehearsing an adaptation I did (a play using Shakespeare's Sonnets) at rehearsal halls in New York and I often passed signs directing actors to nearby studios for a film in production that had a great title: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Undead. Well, it wasn't a joke, it's showing up at SBFF.
Looking through the program, there are stars & new talent; provocative stories & romances; wars and unrest; lovers from antagonistic cultures; features and shorts; many countries and languages. It's mostly stories, with few documentaries. It's almost entirely relationships with very little FX. Mostly live, with just a bit of animation.
Here are some highlights of this year's festival:
OPENING NIGHT:
The New York Premiere of The Answer Man
with Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham
Written and directed by John Hindman, the comedy from Magnolia Pictures features Daniels as Arlen Faber, a reclusive author of a best-selling spiritual book who is pursued for advice by a single mother and a man fresh out of rehab. Graham (TV’s Gilmore Girls and currently in Broadway’s Guys and Dolls) is the very protective mother, and Lou Taylor Pucci is a bookstore owner.
CLOSING NIGHT:
The New York Premiere of The Little Traitor
with Alfred Molina (and 85 year old Theodore Bikel)
Directed by Lynn Roth, set in Palestine in 1947, just before Israel becomes a state, Alfred Molina (The DaVinci Code, Spider-Man 2) plays a British officer who finds a little boy out on the street after curfew. The film, from Regent Releasing and based on the novel Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz, explores the unlikely friendship that develops between them.
WORLD PREMIERES:
Tickling Leo, written and directed by Jeremy Davidson, produced by his wife, the acclaimed actress Mary Stuart Masterson, and starring Eli Wallach, Lawrence Pressman, Daniel Sauli, Annie Parisse, Ronald Guttmann and Victoria Clark.
Blindness-Saramago in China, a documentary from China directed by Xilin Chen that grapples with the concept of intellectual property rights. Blindness tells a story about the adaptation of Jose Saramago’s Nobel Prize winning book by the same name into a play. It vividly transports the viewer to Beijing, to rehearsals by a professional theatre company, and into the negotiations going on between the play’s producer and the writer’s representative.
Life is a Banquet, which filmmaker Jonathan Gruber says is the first ever about actress and entertainment giant Rosalind Russell. Using words taken from Ms. Russell’s autobiography, the film’s narration is by acclaimed actress Kathleen Turner.
US, EAST COAST & NEW YORK PREMIERES:
Adam’s Wall, from Canada;
Family Rules, from Germany;
Country Wedding, from Iceland.
Whales, from the U.S. (A short; with stunning looking, upcoming actress Sarah Desage.)
Dana Delany (Desperate Housewives), who attended the Stony Brook Film Festival in 2008 when she starred in John Putch’s Route 30, stars this year in a short film dealing with autism, Flying Lessons. The short, making its New York Premiere, is by Janet Grillo and will be paired with the screening of Tickling Leo.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, a vampire comedy with an eccentric cast, starring Jake Hoffman, son of Dustin, in a story featuring sexy vampires, the Holy Grail and Hamlet. Sean Lennon composed the score for the film, which also stars Devon Aoki, John Ventimiglia, Kris Lemche, Ralph Macchio, Jeremy Sisto, Joey Kern and Waris Ahuwalia.
The Anarchist’s Wife, from Germany/Spain/France;
also...
The Missing Person, from the U.S. and starring Michael Shannon, Frank Wood, Amy Ryan, Linda Emond, and John Ventimiglia;
Bowled Over, from The Netherlands;
The Maiden and the Wolves, from France;
The Friend, from Switzerland;
Like Dandelion Dust, from the U.S., with Mira Sorvino and Barry Pepper;
Interpretation, from the U.S.;
True Beauty This Night, from the U.S.;
Light Bulb, from the U.S., with Dallas Roberts, Jeremy Renner, and Ayelet Zurer;
The Gold Lunch, from the U.S.;
In the Dark, from the U.S.;
Adopt a Sailor, from the U.S., with Bebe Neuwirth, Peter Coyote, and Ethan Peck;
After the Storm, from the U.S.;
The Painter of Skies, from Spain;
The Fairy Princess, from the U.S.;
On the Road to Tel-Aviv, from Israel.
For a complete schedule, and film passes, visit http://www.stonybrookfilmfestival.com/ or call the Staller Center Box Office, 631-632- ARTS [2787]. Tickets to parties and receptions are also available. Individual movie tickets go on sale July 13.
Labels: Mary Stuart Masterson, Nina Hoss, SBFF, The Stony Brook Film Festival
Monday, July 14, 2008
MARY STUART MASTERSON AND THE CAKE EATERS
Mary Stuart Masterson directing
The Cake Eaters
Mary Stuart Masterson, is charming, ebullient and intelligent... and an actress and the director of The Cake Eaters, to be shown on Saturday evening (July 17, 7:00 PM) at the Stony Brook Film Festival (SBFF) (see our post on SBFF below).
In this film, she tells an interesting, romantic story, about difficult and troubled people. The acting, especially by Kristen Stewart, is dead-on. Kristen plays an adolescent girl with a serious disease and, thinking about the film, I kind-of had to keep reminding myself that Kristen was an actress and not a patient recruited for a film role.
Mary Stuart (that seems to be what she likes to be called) said that she cast Kristen (fifteen when this film was made), remembering having seeing her in The Panic Room in 2002 (which she made when she was just nine). Meeting her, she found Kristen was "so poised and intelligent and ... had such a ferocious... love for the character, that I just knew that it had be her." (Poised, intelligent and ferocious: great qualities for an actress!)
Mary Stuart Masterson with her brother
cinematographer Pete Masterson
What makes the film most special, it seems to me, is that it is uniquely American in a way that few films are. It was shot on location upstate in New York, and has an authenticity that comes from being firmly rooted in the present time in a real place in this country. The film was shot with understated realism by Mary Stuart’s brother, Peter Masterson.
Mary Stuart Masterson and Bruce Dern
The story is contemporary and gently treats of romance and relationships, difficult and otherwise. The character’s talk, and the action proceeds, with a rhythm that is genuine to the place, the time and the story. The script, by Jayce Bartok, who also appears in the film, has not been formulized the way studio films are.
Mary Stuart comes from a family and milieu of actors and directors. Her mother is the Tony winning actress Carlin Glynn. And Mary Stuart has appeared as an actress in films which are something of a family affair, such films as The Trip to Bountiful, written by the playwright, Horton Foote and directed by her father, Peter Masterson (who is Horton Foote's cousin). Mary Stuart's father is a charming, and intelligent (Note: it's not a coincidence that I used the same adjectives to describe Mary Stuart) actor, writer and Tony nominated director (for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas). That understanding of family, and that tradition of crafting film and theater which is in her background history, seems to inform the decisions and structure that were made in crafting a film that portrays sophisticated relationships, and that looks and feels unique and genuine.
There is likely to be a Q&A with Mary Stuart after the screening on Saturday. With a diverse and interesting schedule of films, the Stony Brook Film Festival seems like a very good place to visit between Thursday (July 17) and Saturday (July 26), with the first Saturday night (July 19) a particularly fine time to attend, for the screening of The Cake Eaters.
Note (July 25, 2009) -- The Cake Eaters is now out on DVD. Below is a link to watch the film online or buy a DVD. Also, Mary Stuart has produced a new film, Tickling Leo, written and directed by her husband, Jeremy Davidson, which is being shown today at the Stony Brook Film Festival 2009.
Labels: Kristen Stewart, Mary Stuart Masterson, Peter Masterson, The Cake Eaters, The Stony Brook Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival
