'Ice Storm' to come to laid-back Mill Valley

By VARIETY STAFF

SAN FRANCISCO --- In 1978, the Mill Valley Film Festival launched with 18 programs over 2-1/2 days on an $11,000 budget, drawing participation from a lot of area-resident talent.

Among them were poet-filmmaker James Broughton and director John Korty (the fest's first tributees), plus fellow helmers Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Carroll Ballard.

A few things have changed in the two decades since: Mill Valley is now a multivenue, 11-day event executed on a considerably larger bankroll.

But several other elements haven't changed very much at all. Its 20th anniversary sked finds MVFF still non-competitive, still especially attentive to American independent and video/digital media works --- two areas that scarcely registered on the larger fest horizon in '78.

Unlike the somewhat similarly angled Sundance, MVFF has retained a laid-back feel endemic to its Marin County setting --- even if local real estate has long since gone stratospheric.

Lee 'Storms' ahead

Some 79 features and 130 shorts will be featured on 100 programs during the Oct. 2-12 fest. Opening-night duo are Ang Lee's Cannes-acclaimed U.S. drama "The Ice Storm" (which Fox rolls out nationally the next week), and world preem of the star-laden spoof "An Alan Smithee Film," helmed by Arthur Hiller under the title's famous posterior-covering pseudonym.

Latter pic's scenarist, Joe Eszterhas, will also be repped closing night by director Guy Ferland's '60s nostalgia piece "Telling Lies in America." Other official closer on Oct. 12 is Iain Softley's Brit Henry James adaptation "The Wings of a Dove," with Helena Bonham Carter.

In between is a typically quirky mix of Amerindies, high-profile faves from other recent fests, emerging international talent, multimedia work, tributes and seminars.

World preem features are, aside from Waris Hussein's U.K. "The Sixth Happiness," all U.S.: "Smithee," Kenn Hamm's "Moving In/Moving Out," thesp-turned-helmer Michael O'Keefe's docu "Raising the Ashes," Anna Nicholas' urban drama "Univers'l," Nell Cox's romantic comedy "Hudson River Blues."

Principal tributes this year are to Marin County transplant Barry Levinson ("Diner," "Rain Man" et al.) on Oct. 9, and Hollywood vet Robert Wise, whose '59 jazz-world thriller "Odds Against Tomorrow" with Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan will screen during his program on Oct. 8. Wise's rather better-known "The Sound of Music" will also be shown, Oct. 11 at nearby Mount Tamalpais' outdoor ampitheatre.

Notable world filmmakers repped during fest's course include Daniel Bergman ("Expectations"), past MV tributee Idrissa Ouedraogo (with his English-lingo debut "Kini & Adams"), Lars von Trier (a revival of the '88 vid-shot "Medea"), Jafar Panahi ("Ayneh"), James Toback ("Two Girls and a Guy"), Bruno Barreto ("Four Days in September"), Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter"), Alan Rickman ("The Winter Guest"), Hal Hartley ("Henry Fool"), Wong Kar-wai ("Happy Together") and Michael Winterbottom ("Welcome to Sarajevo").

Two-decade landmark will be nodded toward primarily by dusting off of nuggets from the fest's many past self-promotional trailers. The 1997 edition is a typically elaborate affair cleverly spoofing genre styles from Hollywood action blockbuster to Amerindie talkfest.

Programs running parallel to the feature screenings will encompass the usual suspects: A New Media/Videofest; Children's Filmfest; daily "5 at 5" short-subject compilations; and eight seminars ranging from bizzy ("Strategizing for Distribution") to analytical ("Bucking the Trends: Can Intelligent Films Survive in Hollywood?") to vicarious-thrill-oriented ("Q&A with Joe Eszterhas").

Other special events include mini-tribs to producing org the Independent Television Service (Oct. 6) and longrunningly anonymous Bay Area music/multimedia makers the Residents (Oct. 4). As usual, MVFF will also tie-in several live musical performances, all at Mill Valley's cozy Sweetwater club: Screening of docu "Can't You Hear the Wind Howl?" (about blues legend Robert Johnson) will be followed by octogenarian slide guitarist Honeyboy Edwards in person (Oct. 6). One night prior to closing-night unspooling of his vehicle "Telling Lies in America," center-of-universe thesp Kevin Bacon will appear with sib Michael and band as the folk-rocking Bacon Brothers. A "Mill Valley Music Festival Salutes the Mill Valley Film Festival" program on the Oct. 8 promises an all-star TBA roster.

MVFF may have hewed staunchly to its original values over 20 years. But it's not entirely immune to reigning currents.

Musing, "I think there's a festival law that you have to have at least two films with Parker Posey in them," founder-director Mark Fishkin duly noted; the sked will include her Miramax starrer "The House of Yes" and newer, Canadian "Dinner at Fred's."

Lili Taylor was unavailable for comment.

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