June 14, 2005

5:27a, LOS ANGELES, CA - Now is the winter of our drizzle content made glorious summer by this sunny dork.

If it weren't for all the people talking about how endlessly, though minimally, it rains in Seattle, you might not notice that a beautiful summer day is 63 degrees warm. It's a cool town in ways that many seaports are not. The people are welcoming, the arts scene is popping and they have this film festival that goes on for 28 days - one of, of not the, longest fest(s) in the world - with a consistent downpour of new films with some spots that are hotter than the norm for this city.

The only real complaint I have about the Seattle International Film Festival is that I wasn't there long enough to enjoy more of it.

I'll come back around to the Jury Prizes a little later. (I was on the New Directors Jury and we awarded a film from a young director who may be the next great visionary from the eastern bloc.) But I want to focus first on two films that got accolades at the festival and need to find a place at the table.

First is the Luc Besson, who has become the Jerry Bruckheimer of France in the seven year hiatus he's taken from directing. In those seven years, he's taken 33 producing credits and is given credit for godfathering another dozen productions while not taking any credit. One of the films that he co-wrote and produced is Banlieue 13, which had its American premiere in Seattle and sent even the hardest core of Seattle's movie lovers into a "must see" frenzy.

The film was directed by Besson-collaborating cinematographer Pierre Morel, who shot films that have been seen here, such as The Transporter and the recently released Unleashed (aka Danny The Dog). It's a real Verhoeven to De Bont kind of thing. Morel has a home run here. And there is absolutely no way of knowing whether he is capable of delivering a quality movie that is about anything but action. But damn, the action he shoots here is a home run.

Much as I believe in subtitling of foreign language films for the American market, this is a movie in which it really doesn't matter. I wouldn't be offended by dubbing, since the words are nothing but a nod to convention. (Keep those dubbing hands off the Zhang Yimou, damn it!) This movie is 75 minutes of VVVVRRRROOOOMMMM and 10 minutes of incidental chatter.

Banlieue 13's been in circulation since November of last year, lingering long enough for the smart programmers of Seattle to scoop it up for a Midnight Adrenaline slot. My cell phone rang shortly after an afternoon screening of the film. It was a friend who is well into her 50s... "Nice to see you the other day... maybe we'll run into each other again... but anyway, I just called to tell you that you have to go see Banlieue 13 at Midnight tomorrow night... get there early... there will be a long line... but if there is one film you can't miss, this is it." She is not your traditional bang bang boom boom audience.

And, indeed, the film came in fourth in the overall audience award voting (The Golden Space Needle Award) and it ranked second in an extra-festival voting pool, The Fool Serious Awards, which is given by full season pass holders only, 95% of whom saw more than 25 films at the festival and 67% of whom saw more than 50 films.

I love Mad Hot Ballroom, but if Paramount Classics needs a hit that would take off with some MTV play, this is the one to buy. It is classic Lions Gate. It would be a home run at Screen Gems. Searchlight could put it in theaters in August.

The overall budget for the film is under $15 million and clearly, it has played out in the theatrical pick-up community already. But, at a price, the buyers are way wrong... just missed the mark. This is not an Ong-Bak (with due respect to Ong-Bak) or any of the great Asian cinema originals that are steeped in a visual look that makes them look very grind house, no matter how good the chop socky. This one looks slick, is slick and if you can release it and gross $8 million and be perfectly happy or $20 million and be ecstatic, you should be in this business.

It is not Kung Fu Hustle... not by a long shot. But the flip side is that this one, in my opinion, is an easier sell.

But back to The Golden Space Needle Award...

The winner of the GSNA wasn't this romp or foreign-language Oscar nominee As It Is In Heaven, or even Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle (which came in second... his Spirited Away won the award a few year's back), but a movie that is beloved by many, yet has also failed to get a theatrical pick-up since premiering at Toronto last September and being put up as the Mexican nominee for the Oscars.

Innocent Voices is set in the civil war of 1980s El Salvador, much like the unwanted film Salvador, which came back to great acclaim when its support base refused to let it fade into obscurity. Director Luis Mandoki is a top line veteran. Producer Lawrence Bender is as connected as connected can be. And still... nothing.

When a film that gets this kind of attention and can't find a home, I get a little suspicious. Maybe they were trying for too much in a sale. Maybe they let too many other distributors go cold while they waited for one that never closed. Maybe the Dependents just don't see the film as commercial enough for their investment. I don't know.

What I do know is that it played remarkably well with these Seattle audiences. And sure, the city is into political activism and stories of the left (as is pretty much any festival crowd), but it is still an audience of civilians.

More on the festival and the awards tomorrow...

E-ME. Would you buy something that's been on the shelf for a while?