Sundance film enthusiasts see everything but sun

Sundance film enthusiasts see everything but sun

Brannagh’s ‘Midwinter’s Tale’ fitting for opening of
blizzard-impeded festival

By Michael Horowitz

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

PARK CITY, UTAH — The Sundance Film Festival in Utah receives
yearly criticism for growing too big and growing too fast. So this
year, nature helped keep the early crowds at bay by unleashing a
minor blizzard for the opening days.

Each year in late January, the Sundance Film Festival fills 10
days with independent cinema screenings, film-related parties and
surrounding hoopla second only to the Cannes Film Festival for film
enthusiasts and Hollywood. For some, especially the independent
filmmakers who hope to achieve recognition and share their common
experiences, Sundance is second to none.

On Thursday, Jan. 18, Kenneth Brannagh’s generally well-received
a "A Midwinter’s Tale" opened the festival as heavy snow all but
buried Salt Lake City and the surrounding ski resorts. In a few
words before the screening at Crossroads Mall in the center of Salt
Lake City, he urged the audience to stop him on the streets during
the festival and praise him for 30 minutes at a time. Now sporting
a shorn bleached blonde Danish ‘do and matching goatee for his
upcoming role as Hamlet, Brannagh suggested the compliment
"Darling, you look fabulous!" His exaggerated statement presumed a
degree of visibility sorely lacking on Friday, when the festival
moved to its home in the mountains at Park City.

Crowds endured discomfort in frigid winter weather more suited
for powdery skiing than movie watching. A few screenings were
canceled due to problems delivering the prints and difficult
transportation throughout the town.

Festival-goers, usually treated to punctual free shuttles to
visit theaters scattered around the ski village, quickly adapted to
the inconvenience of long waits in the wind and chill as service
gradually improved.

* * *

Amid much blushing and nervous laughter, Dianne Wiest picked up
the prestigious Piper-Heidsieck Tribute to Independent Vision
Saturday night. The award has been recently received by such cinema
luminaries as John Turturro, Denzel Washington and Nicholas Cage
last year. Geoffrey Gilmore, director of programming at the
festival, praised Wiest, saying "She’s made a name for herself,
she’s won some Academy Awards, she’s done a lot of work, but more
than that, she contributes a great amount of artistry."

Wiest understated her case for the award, explaining her
successful collaboration with Woody Allen in less than impressive
terms. She says she starred in "Hannah and Her Sisters" and
"Bullets Over Broadway" for Allen, "because he asked me to … So
much for my independent vision."

Wiest’s newest film is the Alcoholics Anonymous movie "Drunks,"
playing at Sundance during the week. She’s also just finished Mike
Nichols’ "The Birdcage" and is shooting a new film with Whoopi
Goldberg. Yet she insists that her recent Oscar win for "Bullets"
hasn’t impacted her career.

The only change she’s noted is an increase in public notoriety.
"I’ll walk into a grocery store," she says, "and there’ll be a mom
with kids in tow and she’ll say ‘I tell my kids ‘Don’t speak!’ all
the time, and it doesn’t work!’"

* * *

Saturday night’s screening of "I Shot Andy Warhol" drew a
massive crowd and a line down two flights of stairs. The rush to
see the Dramatic Competition entry was undoubtedly due to lead
actress Lili Taylor, perennial indie favorite. Taylor plays Valerie
Solanas, the real-life visionary-feminist who gunned down Warhol in
the late 1960s, and founded SCUM, the Society for Cutting Up
Men.

Director Mary Harron focused her film on Solanas in the same
probing, extensive way other films have studied societal heroes. In
her search to humanize Solanas she came across sides brilliant and
disturbed. "She was so self-destructive," Harron said after the
screening, "that if someone was nice to her she’d turn on
them."

Taylor’s bravura performance follows Solana..s’ struggle to lead
a revolution few are interesting in creating. "(Solanas) would tell
people she had many followers," says Harron, "but it really was a
political movement of one."

* * *

Sundance grows more crowded this week as buzz on festival
entries picks up and the parties get even more packed. The quest to
find the next Ed Burns (maker of last year’s success "The Brothers
McMullen") is in full swing.

Sundance festival-goers endured long waits in frigid Utah
weather to see such films as Kenneth Brannagh’s "A Midwinter’s
Tale."

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