One of California’s leading film festivals returns with a full slate of live screenings, industry panels and starry tributes, offering movie lovers a ray of sunshine in the gloom of Covid. The Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival (Sbiff) unspools March 2-12, for its 37th year via an in-person program. Although the fest adapted in 2021 to Covid health safety protocols and hosted drive-in screenings and virtual Q&a sessions, “This year will be closer to way things used to be,” promises executive director Roger Durling, who’s marking 20 years as the prestige West Coast fest’s executive director.
In all, the 200-film festival will host 95 U.S. premieres (62 features and 33 shorts) and 48 world premieres, including 21 feature films. “Being back in person, being at the festival, congregating and sharing opinions, it’s something we desperately missed,” says Durling of the Sbiff’s reawakening.
Festgoers will notice a major change to the...
In all, the 200-film festival will host 95 U.S. premieres (62 features and 33 shorts) and 48 world premieres, including 21 feature films. “Being back in person, being at the festival, congregating and sharing opinions, it’s something we desperately missed,” says Durling of the Sbiff’s reawakening.
Festgoers will notice a major change to the...
- 3/2/2022
- by Kathy A. McDonald
- Variety Film + TV
The Santa Barbara Film Festival on Thursday revealed the lineup for its 37th edition, which is set to run March 2-12 in-person in its customary spot in the heat of Oscar season.
The festival will kick off with The Phantom of the Open, the Sony Pictures Classics comedy directed by Craig Roberts and starring Mark Rylance in the true story of Maurice Fitcroft, who entered the 1976 British Open despite never having played a round of golf before. Sally Hawkins and Rhys Ifans also star in the BBC Films pic.
The documentary Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over is the closing-night film, with Warwick set to be in attendance.
Overall, the festival in the beach city just north of Los Angeles will present 48 world premieres and 95 U.S. premieres from 54 countries, with a lineup that features films from directors Neil Labute, Ramin Bahrani, François Ozon, Eva Husson and more.
Also...
The festival will kick off with The Phantom of the Open, the Sony Pictures Classics comedy directed by Craig Roberts and starring Mark Rylance in the true story of Maurice Fitcroft, who entered the 1976 British Open despite never having played a round of golf before. Sally Hawkins and Rhys Ifans also star in the BBC Films pic.
The documentary Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over is the closing-night film, with Warwick set to be in attendance.
Overall, the festival in the beach city just north of Los Angeles will present 48 world premieres and 95 U.S. premieres from 54 countries, with a lineup that features films from directors Neil Labute, Ramin Bahrani, François Ozon, Eva Husson and more.
Also...
- 2/10/2022
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Anton Yelchin was commemorated by his family and costars Sunday in a touching and heartfelt celebration of life at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
The actor, who died at the age of 27 in June 2016 after he was pinned by his own car at his Studio City, California, home, left an unforgettable impression on those who worked with him, such as Zoë Saldana, who starred alongside him in Star Trek.
“It is a bitter sweet moment, because we’re here for Anton, and he’s not here with us,” she said. “But, it alleviates my heart knowing that we’ll keep him alive.
The actor, who died at the age of 27 in June 2016 after he was pinned by his own car at his Studio City, California, home, left an unforgettable impression on those who worked with him, such as Zoë Saldana, who starred alongside him in Star Trek.
“It is a bitter sweet moment, because we’re here for Anton, and he’s not here with us,” she said. “But, it alleviates my heart knowing that we’ll keep him alive.
- 10/8/2017
- by Alexia Fernandez
- PEOPLE.com
“Breakable You” is like a kinder gentler version of Woody Allen’s “Crime and Misdemeanors”: a rumination on human fallibility and corruption with lower stakes but a lot more sexual heat in its heart. Freely adapted by writer-director Andrew Wagner (“Starting Out in the Evening”) and co-screenwriter Fred Parnes from Brian Morton’s well-reviewed novel, “Breakable You” is the story of the Weller family, a cluster of neurotic New Yorkers who live outwardly charmed but inwardly tempestuous lives. “Matriarch” is perhaps the wrong word for Holly Hunter’s lithe and whippet-thin Eleanor, a character notably more obese in the book.
- 1/13/2017
- by Ray Greene
- The Wrap
Spirit nominations announced
UPDATED 5:21 p.m. PT Nov. 27, 2007
Film Independent's 2008 Spirit Awards took on an international accent as nominees were announced Tuesday. Best feature noms went to the French-language "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and the Pakistan-set "A Mighty Heart", while the starring duo of Tony Leung and Tang Wei of the Shanghai drama "Lust, Caution" both figure in the top acting categories.
But Americana also ruled as "I'm Not There", Todd Haynes' kaleidoscope deconstruction of the work of Bob Dylan, led the field. With four nominations, including best feature, director and supporting noms for Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, it also was named the inaugural winner of the Robert Altman Award, recognizing Haynes, casting director Laura Rosenthal and the ensemble cast.
While the Spirit Awards focus on American independent film, a film can qualify if at least one U.S. citizen or permanent resident is credited in two or more of the categories of writer, director or producer, which opened the door for this year's globetrotting noms.
In addition to "I'm Not There", "Diving Bell", a film told from the point of view of a stroke victim, and "Mighty Heart", the dramatization of the search for kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, the other contenders in the best feature category are "Juno", a comedy about an unintended pregnancy, and "Paranoid Park", the account of a teen who accidentally kills a man.
Four of the best film nominees saw their helmsman nominated for best director: Haynes ("I'm Not There"), Jason Reitman ("Juno"), Julian Schnabel ("Butterfly") and Gus Van Sant ("Paranoid"). But instead of Michael Winterbottom for "Mighty Heart", the fifth slot went to Tamara Jenkins -- who also was nominated for best screenplay -- for the family drama "The Savages".
"There wasn't a dominant genre or even a film. It was a mix of emerging filmmakers and veteran filmmakers like Gus Van Sant and Todd Haynes. I felt like it was a wide spectrum of talent in all areas," FIND exec director Dawn Hudson said at the ceremonies that Lisa Kudrow and Zach Braff hosted at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles.
"You want all these films to gain some momentum," she added. "There's such a glut of films this season that you hope that this will shine a spotlight on these lower-budgeted films that are so deserving."
The best actress contenders are Angelina Jolie for portraying Mariane Pearl in "Mighty Heart"; Sienna Miller, seen as a soap actress facing off with a journalist in "Interview"; Ellen Page, who appears as the pregnant teen in "Juno"; Parker Posey, who finds herself embarking on an affair in "Broken English"; and Tang, who becomes entangled in love and espionage in "Lust".
Nominated as best actor are Pedro Castaneda, who plays an undocumented farm worker "August Evening"; Don Cheadle, who stars as a radio host in "Talk to Me"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose character struggles with an ailing father in "Savages"; Frank Langella, who appears as the older half of a May-December relationship in "Starting Out in the Evening"; and Leung, who plays a spy in "Lust".
Still, several performances that have excited critics failed to make the cut: Among the missing were Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl"), Laura Linney ("Savages"), Nicole Kidman ("Margot at the Wedding"), Keri Russell ("Waitress") and John Cusak ("Grace Is Gone").
Along with Blanchett, who seems to channel Dylan in "Not There", the nominees for best supporting female are Anna Kendrick ("Rocket Science"), Jennifer Jason Leigh ("Margot"), Tamara Podemski ("Four Sheets to the Wind") and Marisa Tomei ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead").
Best supporting male nominee Franklin plays a young musician who calls himself Woody Guthrie in "Not There". In the nominees circle, he joins Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Talk to Me"), Kene Holliday ("Great World of Sound"), Irfan Khan ("The Namesake") and Steve Zahn ("Rescue Dawn").
Screenplay nominees are Ronald Harwood ("Butterfly"), Jenkins ("Savages"), Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner ("Starting Out"), the late Adrienne Shelly ("Waitress") and Mike White ("Year of the Dog").
In the adjoining category of best first screenplay, the nominees are Jeffrey Blitz ("Rocket Science"), Zoe Cassavetes ("Broken English"), Diablo Cody ("Juno"), Kelly Masterson ("Devil") and John Orloff ("Mighty Heart").
The Spirits also recognize films made for less than $500,000 with its John Cassavetes Award.
Film Independent's 2008 Spirit Awards took on an international accent as nominees were announced Tuesday. Best feature noms went to the French-language "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and the Pakistan-set "A Mighty Heart", while the starring duo of Tony Leung and Tang Wei of the Shanghai drama "Lust, Caution" both figure in the top acting categories.
But Americana also ruled as "I'm Not There", Todd Haynes' kaleidoscope deconstruction of the work of Bob Dylan, led the field. With four nominations, including best feature, director and supporting noms for Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, it also was named the inaugural winner of the Robert Altman Award, recognizing Haynes, casting director Laura Rosenthal and the ensemble cast.
While the Spirit Awards focus on American independent film, a film can qualify if at least one U.S. citizen or permanent resident is credited in two or more of the categories of writer, director or producer, which opened the door for this year's globetrotting noms.
In addition to "I'm Not There", "Diving Bell", a film told from the point of view of a stroke victim, and "Mighty Heart", the dramatization of the search for kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, the other contenders in the best feature category are "Juno", a comedy about an unintended pregnancy, and "Paranoid Park", the account of a teen who accidentally kills a man.
Four of the best film nominees saw their helmsman nominated for best director: Haynes ("I'm Not There"), Jason Reitman ("Juno"), Julian Schnabel ("Butterfly") and Gus Van Sant ("Paranoid"). But instead of Michael Winterbottom for "Mighty Heart", the fifth slot went to Tamara Jenkins -- who also was nominated for best screenplay -- for the family drama "The Savages".
"There wasn't a dominant genre or even a film. It was a mix of emerging filmmakers and veteran filmmakers like Gus Van Sant and Todd Haynes. I felt like it was a wide spectrum of talent in all areas," FIND exec director Dawn Hudson said at the ceremonies that Lisa Kudrow and Zach Braff hosted at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles.
"You want all these films to gain some momentum," she added. "There's such a glut of films this season that you hope that this will shine a spotlight on these lower-budgeted films that are so deserving."
The best actress contenders are Angelina Jolie for portraying Mariane Pearl in "Mighty Heart"; Sienna Miller, seen as a soap actress facing off with a journalist in "Interview"; Ellen Page, who appears as the pregnant teen in "Juno"; Parker Posey, who finds herself embarking on an affair in "Broken English"; and Tang, who becomes entangled in love and espionage in "Lust".
Nominated as best actor are Pedro Castaneda, who plays an undocumented farm worker "August Evening"; Don Cheadle, who stars as a radio host in "Talk to Me"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose character struggles with an ailing father in "Savages"; Frank Langella, who appears as the older half of a May-December relationship in "Starting Out in the Evening"; and Leung, who plays a spy in "Lust".
Still, several performances that have excited critics failed to make the cut: Among the missing were Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl"), Laura Linney ("Savages"), Nicole Kidman ("Margot at the Wedding"), Keri Russell ("Waitress") and John Cusak ("Grace Is Gone").
Along with Blanchett, who seems to channel Dylan in "Not There", the nominees for best supporting female are Anna Kendrick ("Rocket Science"), Jennifer Jason Leigh ("Margot"), Tamara Podemski ("Four Sheets to the Wind") and Marisa Tomei ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead").
Best supporting male nominee Franklin plays a young musician who calls himself Woody Guthrie in "Not There". In the nominees circle, he joins Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Talk to Me"), Kene Holliday ("Great World of Sound"), Irfan Khan ("The Namesake") and Steve Zahn ("Rescue Dawn").
Screenplay nominees are Ronald Harwood ("Butterfly"), Jenkins ("Savages"), Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner ("Starting Out"), the late Adrienne Shelly ("Waitress") and Mike White ("Year of the Dog").
In the adjoining category of best first screenplay, the nominees are Jeffrey Blitz ("Rocket Science"), Zoe Cassavetes ("Broken English"), Diablo Cody ("Juno"), Kelly Masterson ("Devil") and John Orloff ("Mighty Heart").
The Spirits also recognize films made for less than $500,000 with its John Cassavetes Award.
- 11/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Spirit nominations announced
UPDATED 6:36 p.m. PT Nov. 27
Film Independent's 2008 Spirit Awards took on an international accent as nominees were announced Tuesday.
Best feature noms went to the French-language "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and the Pakistan-set "A Mighty Heart", while the starring duo of Tony Leung and Tang Wei of the Shanghai drama "Lust, Caution" both figure in the top acting categories.
But Americana also ruled as "I'm Not There", Todd Haynes' kaleidoscope deconstruction of the work of Bob Dylan, led the field. With four nominations, including best feature, director and supporting noms for Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, it also was named the inaugural winner of the Robert Altman Award, recognizing Haynes, casting director Laura Rosenthal and the ensemble cast.
While the Spirit Awards focus on American independent film, a film can qualify if at least one U.S. citizen or permanent resident is credited in two or more of the categories of writer, director or producer, which opened the door for this year's globetrotting noms.
In addition to "I'm Not There", "Diving Bell", a film told from the point of view of a stroke victim, and "Mighty Heart", the dramatization of the search for kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, the other contenders in the best feature category are "Juno", a comedy about an unintended pregnancy, and "Paranoid Park", the account of a teen who accidentally kills a man.
Four of the best film nominees saw their helmsman nominated for best director: Haynes ("I'm Not There"), Jason Reitman ("Juno"), Julian Schnabel ("Butterfly") and Gus Van Sant ("Paranoid"). But instead of Michael Winterbottom for "Mighty Heart", the fifth slot went to Tamara Jenkins -- who also was nominated for best screenplay -- for the family drama "The Savages".
"There wasn't a dominant genre or even a film. It was a mix of emerging filmmakers and veteran filmmakers like Gus Van Sant and Todd Haynes. I felt like it was a wide spectrum of talent in all areas," FIND exec director Dawn Hudson said at the ceremonies that Lisa Kudrow and Zach Braff hosted at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles.
"You want all these films to gain some momentum," she added. "There's such a glut of films this season that you hope that this will shine a spotlight on these lower-budgeted films that are so deserving."
The best actress contenders are Angelina Jolie for portraying Mariane Pearl in "Mighty Heart"; Sienna Miller, seen as a soap actress facing off with a journalist in "Interview"; Ellen Page, who appears as the pregnant teen in "Juno"; Parker Posey, who finds herself embarking on an affair in "Broken English"; and Tang, who becomes entangled in love and espionage in "Lust".
Nominated as best actor are Pedro Castaneda, who plays an undocumented farm worker "August Evening"; Don Cheadle, who stars as a radio host in "Talk to Me"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose character struggles with an ailing father in "Savages"; Frank Langella, who appears as the older half of a May-December relationship in "Starting Out in the Evening"; and Leung, who plays a spy in "Lust".
Still, several performances that have excited critics failed to make the cut: Among the missing were Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl"), Laura Linney ("Savages"), Nicole Kidman ("Margot at the Wedding"), Keri Russell ("Waitress") and John Cusack ("Grace is Gone").
Along with Blanchett, who channels Dylan in "Not There", the nominees for best supporting female are Anna Kendrick ("Rocket Science"), Jennifer Jason Leigh ("Margot"), Tamara Podemski ("Four Sheets to the Wind") and Marisa Tomei ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead").
Best supporting male nominee Franklin plays a young musician who calls himself Woody Guthrie in "Not There". In the nominees circle, he joins Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Talk to Me"), Kene Holliday ("Great World of Sound"), Irfan Khan ("The Namesake") and Steve Zahn ("Rescue Dawn").
Screenplay nominees are Ronald Harwood ("Butterfly"), Jenkins ("Savages"), Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner ("Starting Out"), the late Adrienne Shelly ("Waitress") and Mike White ("Year of the Dog").
In the adjoining category of best first screenplay, the nominees are Jeffrey Blitz ("Rocket Science"), Zoe Cassavetes ("Broken English"), Diablo Cody ("Juno"), Kelly Masterson ("Devil") and John Orloff ("Mighty Heart").
The Spirits also recognize films made for less than $500,000 with its John Cassavetes Award.
Film Independent's 2008 Spirit Awards took on an international accent as nominees were announced Tuesday.
Best feature noms went to the French-language "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and the Pakistan-set "A Mighty Heart", while the starring duo of Tony Leung and Tang Wei of the Shanghai drama "Lust, Caution" both figure in the top acting categories.
But Americana also ruled as "I'm Not There", Todd Haynes' kaleidoscope deconstruction of the work of Bob Dylan, led the field. With four nominations, including best feature, director and supporting noms for Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, it also was named the inaugural winner of the Robert Altman Award, recognizing Haynes, casting director Laura Rosenthal and the ensemble cast.
While the Spirit Awards focus on American independent film, a film can qualify if at least one U.S. citizen or permanent resident is credited in two or more of the categories of writer, director or producer, which opened the door for this year's globetrotting noms.
In addition to "I'm Not There", "Diving Bell", a film told from the point of view of a stroke victim, and "Mighty Heart", the dramatization of the search for kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, the other contenders in the best feature category are "Juno", a comedy about an unintended pregnancy, and "Paranoid Park", the account of a teen who accidentally kills a man.
Four of the best film nominees saw their helmsman nominated for best director: Haynes ("I'm Not There"), Jason Reitman ("Juno"), Julian Schnabel ("Butterfly") and Gus Van Sant ("Paranoid"). But instead of Michael Winterbottom for "Mighty Heart", the fifth slot went to Tamara Jenkins -- who also was nominated for best screenplay -- for the family drama "The Savages".
"There wasn't a dominant genre or even a film. It was a mix of emerging filmmakers and veteran filmmakers like Gus Van Sant and Todd Haynes. I felt like it was a wide spectrum of talent in all areas," FIND exec director Dawn Hudson said at the ceremonies that Lisa Kudrow and Zach Braff hosted at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles.
"You want all these films to gain some momentum," she added. "There's such a glut of films this season that you hope that this will shine a spotlight on these lower-budgeted films that are so deserving."
The best actress contenders are Angelina Jolie for portraying Mariane Pearl in "Mighty Heart"; Sienna Miller, seen as a soap actress facing off with a journalist in "Interview"; Ellen Page, who appears as the pregnant teen in "Juno"; Parker Posey, who finds herself embarking on an affair in "Broken English"; and Tang, who becomes entangled in love and espionage in "Lust".
Nominated as best actor are Pedro Castaneda, who plays an undocumented farm worker "August Evening"; Don Cheadle, who stars as a radio host in "Talk to Me"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose character struggles with an ailing father in "Savages"; Frank Langella, who appears as the older half of a May-December relationship in "Starting Out in the Evening"; and Leung, who plays a spy in "Lust".
Still, several performances that have excited critics failed to make the cut: Among the missing were Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl"), Laura Linney ("Savages"), Nicole Kidman ("Margot at the Wedding"), Keri Russell ("Waitress") and John Cusack ("Grace is Gone").
Along with Blanchett, who channels Dylan in "Not There", the nominees for best supporting female are Anna Kendrick ("Rocket Science"), Jennifer Jason Leigh ("Margot"), Tamara Podemski ("Four Sheets to the Wind") and Marisa Tomei ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead").
Best supporting male nominee Franklin plays a young musician who calls himself Woody Guthrie in "Not There". In the nominees circle, he joins Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Talk to Me"), Kene Holliday ("Great World of Sound"), Irfan Khan ("The Namesake") and Steve Zahn ("Rescue Dawn").
Screenplay nominees are Ronald Harwood ("Butterfly"), Jenkins ("Savages"), Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner ("Starting Out"), the late Adrienne Shelly ("Waitress") and Mike White ("Year of the Dog").
In the adjoining category of best first screenplay, the nominees are Jeffrey Blitz ("Rocket Science"), Zoe Cassavetes ("Broken English"), Diablo Cody ("Juno"), Kelly Masterson ("Devil") and John Orloff ("Mighty Heart").
The Spirits also recognize films made for less than $500,000 with its John Cassavetes Award.
- 11/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Starting Out in the Evening
PARK CITY -- At a time when directors are falling over each other to scramble the medium's form, it is reassuring and invigorating to see a film like "Starting Out in the Evening" that succeeds so beautifully because of a compelling story, great acting, intelligent writing and sensitive direction. Andrew Wagner's portrait of an aging writer and his adrift daughter cuts across generational lines, capped by an astounding performance by Frank Langella. This is a picture with real boxoffice potential for a selective audience.
The film opens with Leonard Schiller (Langella) staring at the blank page, hands on his chin. He is a once-acclaimed novelist, now out-of-print, who has been working on his latest book for ten years. He is from the generation of '50s New York intellectuals who are faithful to a code of behavior. His life is structured and joyless, but he is not unkind; he has a loving relation with his daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor).
Schiller's orderly life is shattered by the arrival of the brash and beautiful graduate student Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose) who is writing her Master's thesis on him. Not wanting to disrupt his writing routine, he at first declines to cooperate, but changes his mind and gradually opens up to her.
Watching Langella struggle with the character's resistance is to observe a pro at work. He totally inhabits the character with his voice, gestures and erect posture. And Ambrose almost keeps pace with him. Her character is a piece of work -- smart but also cunning (hence her name, Wolfe) and ambitious. Her intimacy with Schiller is at once a schoolgirl crush, an admiring fan and an opportunistic writer.
She goads Schiller by telling him that he's "using his age to mask a deeper conflict," and proceeds to pick at the scabs of his life, including the long-ago death of his wife. Her candor and optimism is both refreshing and frightening to a man who is not accustomed to expressing his feelings and wears a tie to breakfast. In a quiet but startling moment near the end of the film, he slaps Heather lightly, and in that gesture one can read all of his conflicting feelings.
At the same time Heather is invading Leonard's world, Ariel is struggling with her own issues. Close to 40 and desperate to have a child, she is nonetheless deeply in love with a man (Adrian Lester) who doesn't want to have children. Having chosen someone who lives in his head much like her father, she must now figure out her own life. An ex-dancer-turned-Pilates-teacher, she is a touching and believable character, thanks to the warmth and vitality Taylor brings to the role. It's a terrific performance in a film filled with them.
"Starting Out in the Evening" could easily have tipped over into the maudlin and sentimental were it not for Wagner's precise direction and his succinct script, written with Fred Parnes (based on a novel by Brian Morton). Beautifully shot on locations in New York in an unbelievable 18 days by Harlan Bosmajian, the film manages to keep its balance, aided by a lovely and restrained score by Adam Gorgoni.
In the end, Schiller, his health deteriorating, is faced with the same blank page. Confronting the madness of art and the cruelty of old age, he must decide to start out again in the evening. Like a Beckett character, he can't go on, he goes on.
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING
Cinetic Media, InDigEnt
Credits:
Director: Andrew Wagner
Writers: Fred Parnes, Andrew Wagner
Producers: Nancy Israel, Fred Parnes, Gary Winick, Jake Abraham
Executive Producers: John Sloss, Gregory Moyer, Douglas Harmon, Allen Myerson
Director of Cinematography: Harlan Bosmajian
Production Designer: Carol Strober
Music: Adam Gorgoni
Costume Designer: Claudia Brown
Editor: Gena Bleier
Cast:
Leonard Schiller: Frank Langella
Ariel Schiller: Lili Taylor
Heather Wolfe: Lauren Ambrose
Casey Davis: Adrian Lester
Victor: Michael Cumpsty
Running time: 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film opens with Leonard Schiller (Langella) staring at the blank page, hands on his chin. He is a once-acclaimed novelist, now out-of-print, who has been working on his latest book for ten years. He is from the generation of '50s New York intellectuals who are faithful to a code of behavior. His life is structured and joyless, but he is not unkind; he has a loving relation with his daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor).
Schiller's orderly life is shattered by the arrival of the brash and beautiful graduate student Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose) who is writing her Master's thesis on him. Not wanting to disrupt his writing routine, he at first declines to cooperate, but changes his mind and gradually opens up to her.
Watching Langella struggle with the character's resistance is to observe a pro at work. He totally inhabits the character with his voice, gestures and erect posture. And Ambrose almost keeps pace with him. Her character is a piece of work -- smart but also cunning (hence her name, Wolfe) and ambitious. Her intimacy with Schiller is at once a schoolgirl crush, an admiring fan and an opportunistic writer.
She goads Schiller by telling him that he's "using his age to mask a deeper conflict," and proceeds to pick at the scabs of his life, including the long-ago death of his wife. Her candor and optimism is both refreshing and frightening to a man who is not accustomed to expressing his feelings and wears a tie to breakfast. In a quiet but startling moment near the end of the film, he slaps Heather lightly, and in that gesture one can read all of his conflicting feelings.
At the same time Heather is invading Leonard's world, Ariel is struggling with her own issues. Close to 40 and desperate to have a child, she is nonetheless deeply in love with a man (Adrian Lester) who doesn't want to have children. Having chosen someone who lives in his head much like her father, she must now figure out her own life. An ex-dancer-turned-Pilates-teacher, she is a touching and believable character, thanks to the warmth and vitality Taylor brings to the role. It's a terrific performance in a film filled with them.
"Starting Out in the Evening" could easily have tipped over into the maudlin and sentimental were it not for Wagner's precise direction and his succinct script, written with Fred Parnes (based on a novel by Brian Morton). Beautifully shot on locations in New York in an unbelievable 18 days by Harlan Bosmajian, the film manages to keep its balance, aided by a lovely and restrained score by Adam Gorgoni.
In the end, Schiller, his health deteriorating, is faced with the same blank page. Confronting the madness of art and the cruelty of old age, he must decide to start out again in the evening. Like a Beckett character, he can't go on, he goes on.
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING
Cinetic Media, InDigEnt
Credits:
Director: Andrew Wagner
Writers: Fred Parnes, Andrew Wagner
Producers: Nancy Israel, Fred Parnes, Gary Winick, Jake Abraham
Executive Producers: John Sloss, Gregory Moyer, Douglas Harmon, Allen Myerson
Director of Cinematography: Harlan Bosmajian
Production Designer: Carol Strober
Music: Adam Gorgoni
Costume Designer: Claudia Brown
Editor: Gena Bleier
Cast:
Leonard Schiller: Frank Langella
Ariel Schiller: Lili Taylor
Heather Wolfe: Lauren Ambrose
Casey Davis: Adrian Lester
Victor: Michael Cumpsty
Running time: 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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