Season of the silver screen
The Magic Lantern Spring Film Festival opens Friday
By ADAM TANOUS
Express Arts Editor
To live in the Wood River Valley is to live with and in
synch with the seasons. What we do with our free time ebbs and flows with
the whims of the weather. June through September brings a gamut of fun in
the sun, October through November offers hunting, fishing and hiking
through yellow aspen groves, December through April means skiing, sledding
and skating. That leaves May—the rainy month.
Monica Bellucci in
Malena. Photo by
Fabian Cevellos
Well, let it rain, sleet, hail even snow. None of that
really matters if you are tucked into the safety of a dark theater,
popcorn in hand, with the world of film ready to carry you away.
It is time for the annual Magic Lantern Film Festival—a
three-week event that brings the best foreign, art and independent films
to the valley. The festival opens Friday in Ketchum.
This year’s festival offers the local debuts of films
from Italy, France, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain and the United
States. Three of the films being shown, Malena, Before Night
Falls and Amores Perros, were Oscar nominees this past year.
Further, there will be two Sundance Film Festival sensations screened.
Kicking off the festival Friday will be three films: Malena,
The House of Mirth and The Caveman’s Valentine. Opening
Friday, May 11, are Before Night Falls and Amores Perros. The
Widow of Saint-Pierre and The Dish open May 18.
Steve Bynum, manager of the Magic Lantern, is also
finalizing the bookings of two "mystery" movies to be shown week
two and three. A brief round-up of the week one fare follows.
Malena: From the writer and director of Cinema
Pardiso, Giuseppe Tornatore, comes a coming-of-age saga set in a
lovely Sicilian village. World War II has drawn all of the young men to
battle, and the old men and young boys are left home to ponder the charms
of the most beautiful woman of the village. One particularly bewitched
adolescent applies all of his energies and time to discover the hidden
truths about the seductive Malena.
The House of Mirth: Terence Davies has
adapted the Edith Wharton novel about the moneyed classes of 1905 New
York. Gillian Anderson plays Lily Bart, a beautiful and socially prominent
woman who, at the then late age of 29, is unmarried. Laura Linney (Academy
Award nominee for You Can Count On Me) plays Bertha Dorset,
ostensibly Lily’s friend, but one who is a rival for potential suitors
and casts aspersions on Lily’s character. Linney and Anderson are
supported by Eric Stoltz, Elizabeth McGovern, Anthony LaPaglia and Dan
Akyroyd. The turn-of-the-century costumes and settings are yet two more
reasons to see this drama.
The Caveman’s Valentine: In this voguish
mystery, Samuel L. Jackson plays a highly intuitive schizophrenic, Romulus
Ledbetter, who lives in a cave in Central Park. Ledbetter’s daughter,
Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis), is a detective investigating a murder. She employs
her father in the search for the killer. The film presents surrealistic
visual effects in its portrayal of Ledbetter’s mental state—one that
flits between delusion and truth. Kasi Lemmon (Eve’s Bayou) has
adapted this film from the cult novel of the same name. Also starring in
the film are Colm Feore and Anthony Michael Hall.
For more movie information and daily showtimes, call the
Magic Lantern at 726-4274.
