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From: oscar@utcsrgv.UUCP (Oscar M. Nierstrasz)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: FESTIVAL OF FESTIVALS (3 of 3)
Message-ID: <28@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Sep-84 17:00:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.28
Posted: Sun Sep 23 17:00:46 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Sep-84 17:23:34 EDT
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 108

(the last batch of capsule summmaries ...)

Room 666  (Wenders, Wim; France/West Germany; 1983; 60m)
	Wim Wenders gets his Famous Friends to sit in a hotel room
	during the 1982 Cannes film festival and tell whether they
	think television is ruining the future of cinema.  Includes
	Godard, Fassbinder, Spielberg, Herzog etc etc.

Notes from Under the Volcano  (Conklin, Gary; USA; 1984; 56m)
	Okay documentary on the making of Under the Volcano.  No great
	revelations.

Flight to Berlin  (Petit, Christopher; GB/West Germany; 1984; 91m)
	Excellent film about a British woman who goes to Berlin to pay
	a visit to her half-sister after the London police want to
	question her about a murder she may or may not be involved in.
	Things are not all well in Berlin either, however ...

Wildrose  (Hanson, John; USA; 1984; 95m)
	Set in a mining town in northern (Minnesota?).  Interesting
	story about a young woman who works in the mines.  Somewhat
	similar to ``Independence Day''.  Made by the director of
	``Northern Lights''.

Fraulein Berlin  (Lambert, Lothar; West Germany; 1983; 90m)
	Ulrike S., porno film star of ``Monster Woman'', is sent by her
	director to the Toronto Festival of Festivals to present a
	screening of the film, only to find it has been cancelled by
	the Ontario Board of Censors.  She tries to mingles with the
	likes of Norman Jewison and and John Cassavettes, to no avail.
	She moves on to New York and things go from bad to worse.  Good
	looniness.  (16 mm black and white, non-sychronized sound.)

Paso Doble  (Lambert, Lothar; West Germany; 1983; 90m)
	A middle-aged couple decides their marriage is not working out,
	so she moves in with her masseuse, and he takes a (homosexual)
	lover he picked up in Spain, all to the amusement/disgust of
	their teenaged children.  For this movie Lambert had a real
	budget.  The results are inferior, however, to his 16mm B&W
	films.

In Heaven There Is No Beer?  (Blank, Les; USA; 1983; 50m)
	Documentary short about polka-fanatics.

Sprout Wings and Fly  (Blank, Les; USA; 1983; 30m)
	Documentary short about an Appalachian fiddler.

Swann In Love  (Schlondorff, Volker; France/West Germany; 1984; 110m)
	Arid transcription of Proust's novel.  Jeremy Irons is the
	foppish Parisian (!) Jew who falls in love with a high-priced
	hooker.  Pretty pictures but nothing of Swann's character makes
	it to the screen.  Disappointing film from the director of
	``The Tin Drum'' and ``Circle of Deceit''.

Embers  (Koerfer, Thomas; West Germany/Switzerland; 1983; 109m)
	Fabulous movie about a Polish woman who, as a child, was taken
	in during WWII as a refugee by a Swiss family of arms
	manufacturers.  Many years later she meets the boy of the
	family who has inherited the business.  Most of the film is a
	flashback to her stay in their home.  (In many ways this movie
	felt like some of the best work that Fassbinder has done, but
	part of that may be due to the music by Peer Raben (?) who did
	the music for many of Fassbinder's films.)

Choose Me  (Rudolph, Alan; USA; 1984; 106m)
	Dumb movie about a collection of oddball characters, including
	Lesley Ann-Warren as a bar-owner, Keith Carradine as A Man With
	A Mysterious Past, and Genevieve Bujold as Doctor Love, who
	advises the lovelorn on radio.  Some of the looniness works,
	but mostly Rudolph does not go far enough, or he just gets too
	serious.

Paris, Texas  (Wender, Wim; West Germany/France; 1984; 150m)
	A classic from the director of ``The American Friend''.  A man,
	missing for four years, is rejoined with his brother and son.
	He and his son go on a trip to try and find his wife, the boy's
	mother, who has also been missing.  Some may find this movie a
	bit long, but it's worthwhile for the patient.  Script by Sam
	Shepard.  (Some superficial similarities to Wender's earlier
	film, ``Alice of the Cities'', in which a journalist is asked
	to babysit a young girl by her mother, who promptly vanishes.
	The two then go on a long journey to try and find the girl's
	grandmother -- or anybody.)

Company of Wolves, The  (Jordan, Neil; GB; 1984; 95m)
	Good fantasy film about werewolves, based on the Red Riding
	Hood story.  Lots of strange things happening.  (Adults would
	probably enjoy this more than kids.)

Secret Honor  (Altman, Robert; USA; 1984; 90m)
	Unsuccessfull one-man movie about Richard Nixon dictating (and
	reminiscing) to his secretary.  The gist is that Nixon offered
	himself up as a sacrifice to cover up *really* dirty goings
	on.

That's it!  My pick of the best of the festival are:
(no particular order)

Blood Simple
The Brother from Another Planet
Paris, Texas
Embers
The Illusionist
Man Without Memory
Wildrose
The Company of Wolves

Oscar Nierstrasz @ utcsrgv!oscar