That's a Wrap!

It goes without saying that by the time the end comes it is almost always bitter sweet. At least, that’s the way it always goes with me when it comes to doing something I love. Softball season, going home to Spokane for the holidays, shoe shopping, going to a concert of a favorite artist, eating Mexican Food, Seahawk football games, going out to clubs with friends; all of these give me a euphoric high I never want to see end.

That’s how I feel about this year’s edition of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Twenty-five days (and a couple weeks of press screenings before that) may sound like a lot of time to be sitting inside movie theaters, but by the time it’s over every minute always seems to have gone by much too much too fast. But that, as they say, is the nature of the best, and if SIFF didn’t come to a close than I couldn’t sit in eager anticipation of next year, now could I?

As far as the 2007 edition of the festival was concerned, I couldn’t have been happier. I saw plenty of pictures to make me excited, not the least of which was what I think is the best movie of 2007, the glorious Irish musical Once. There was Oliver Dahan’s La Vie en Rose, Steve Buscemi’s Interview, Roar Uthaug’s Cold Prey, David Sington’s In the Shadow of the Moon, Luc Besson's Angel-A, Christopher Smith’s Severance, Daniel Karslake’s For the Bible Tells Me So, Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn, Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes, Seth Gordon’s King of Kong, Asger Leth’s Ghosts of Cité Soleil, Dan Klores’ Crazy Love, Johnnie To’s Exiled, David Hoffman’s The Fever of ’57, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Strange Culture, Ash Brannon and Chris Buck’s Surf’s Up, Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in Paris, Jonathan King’s Black Sheep, J-yong E’s Dasepo Naughty Girls, Cate Shortland’s The Silence, Xiaogang Feng’s The Banquet, Fredi M. Murer’s Vitus, Lainy Bagwell and Lacey Leavitt’s Blood on the Fast Track: The Rise of the Rat City Rollergirls, Timur Bekmambetov’s Day Watch, David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry’s The Signal, Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s Mushishi, Jeff Nichols’ Shotgun Stories, Taika Waititi' s Eagle vs Shark, Johan Söderberg, Michael Stenberg and Linus Torell The Planet, Daniel Waters’ Sex and Death 101 and Laurent Tirard’s Molière.

I didn’t love all of these, of course, but most of them were either very good or near exceptional, with an even handful bordering on magnificent. And while there were plenty of misfires (I doubt I need to bring up The Ten again, but, as this is the last column, I will anyways because, let’s face it, the movie is so bad it deserves to be placed in a category of mediocrity all of its very own), there were far fewer of them for me this year, I fact I thank the SIFF programmers for immensely.

As for the annual awards, The Golden Space Needle Awards showed Seattle continues to have some of the most eclectic taste in all of America, John Jeffcoat’s amusing Outsourced winning for best film, Kaslake’s For the Bible Tells Me So taking home the documentary award, Waters winning Best Director for Sex and Death 101, Marion Cotillard getting the statue for Best Actress with her stunning turn as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose and Daniel Brühl winning Best Actor for his work in Salvador (a film I wanted to see but sadly missed).

SIFF 2007 also saw the arrival of Anthony Hopkins to receive a lifetime achievement award and to premiere his directorial debut Slipstream, Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Nobody’s Fool) came to town to talk about screenwriting, Hollywood and his impressive career, a Face the Music Rock Party celebrating the Northwest’s diverse musical talent and filmmaker Julian Temple (Absolute Beginners, The Filth and the Fury) sat down to talk about rock, punk and what it takes to make a documentary about he music industry in a constantly evolving world.

There was plenty else of interest, and even more I missed out on (with over 400 films, shorts, documentaries and programs how could I not) but that’s how it is every year. All I know is that I can’t wait to see what SIFF has in story for us in 2008. If it is anything like what we got to experience in 2007, I say call up Cinema Seattle and become a member so you can make sure and get your pass for next year as soon as possible.