St. Louis International Film Festival

The 20th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival kicked off last week on Thursday, November 10, with a special screening of the French silent film that has been making waves, The Artist. It is rumored to be a Best Picture nominee contender this year. It will be the first silent film to be nominated in a long time. That’s right, it is a silent film.

The St. Louis International Film Festival will be invading the Tivoli, Plaza Frontenac, Webster University, and other various venues for eleven days, and will be screening 400 films from over 20 different countries. I encourage you to go to Cinema St. Louis, download the PDF of the program and pick a flick or two to view. Some are even free. There are also seminars and guest speakers.

I made it down to the festival on Friday night at the Tivoli for the showing of Coriolanus, which was almost sold out. It is the directorial debut of actor Ralph Fiennes, better known as Voldemort. It is based on Shakespeare’s play of the same name and is written by John Logan, who wrote Gladiator. The screenplay for Coriolanus is written in Elizabethan English, which works both for and against it. While Fiennes, playing the titular role, and Vanessa Redgrave, who plays his mother, have no problem with the lines, Gerard Butler struggles with every one of his. The use of news broadcasts to keep the story moving forward without deviating from the dialog set forth by the play works very well. The film will be in limited release starting January 20, 2012. I will have a full review up closer to the release date on my blog.

The next afternoon, I went to see the hockey movie Goon starring Sean William Scott (American Pie), Liev Schrieber (Wolverine), Jay Baruchel (She’s Out of My League), and Alison Pill (Milk). It tells the story of Doug Glatt (Scott) as he becomes the enforcer for his hockey team, The Halifax Highlanders. While the sound in the auditorium was downright terrible on the bass tones, the movie was hilarious and worth the ear bleeding noise. After the film, we were treated to a Q & A with Michael Dowse, the director. He talked about the filming process and how long it took to get the movie funded. The film is still going through a few changes, but Goon will hit theaters on March 30. Again, my review will be up later on my blog.

Last night I volunteered to work a shift at the Tivoli. That, too, was a good time. I got a free t-shirt, the opportunity to sit in on a screening that was going on during my shift, a free pass to use at a later screening, meet directors of the films that screened and met more people active in the St. Louis film community. I have another shift tonight at the Tivoli.

It has been an amazing weekend, and I can only hope that the next film I see, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, seminar I attend, and Closing Night Party are just as fun. If you are a fan of film, or just looking for something to do, going out to a SLIFF function is a must. I am originally from the Indianapolis area, and we had nothing like this. We are lucky to have an International Film Festival and should patronize it as much as possible to ensure it comes back again and again.

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