FADE IN: The 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival has come and gone. I don’t know long they can go on breaking attendance records, but it keeps happening. This year, more than 135,000 movie maniacs, Hollywood industry officials, celebrities, guests, tourists, and filmmakers from all over the globe descended on our fair valley. Being the perfect hosts that we are, we provided everyone picture-perfect weather just like in the movie Shangri La. How very appropriate. Festival Executive Director Darryl Macdonald and Festival Chairman Harold Matzner can take bows for a festival that came off without a glitch… almost. At times, the disappointment of not being able to get to see a certain movie, even though one had a Platinum Pass, due a surfeit of available seats, put a damper on the festivities for some. While a few glitch’s out of 135,000 festival attendees may be okay for some, for the exec’s of PSIFF, it means more homework has to be done before next year’s festival. Thanks to an army of volunteers 99 percent of the festival went smoothly. On the bright side, the patrons who lined up at the five venues located little more than a mile from each other, provided many happy hours for other film junkies to compare notes and exchange their takes on the 188 films from 70 countries who made up this year’s festival. The festival screened all nominees, on the long list, for Best Foreign Language Film consideration at this month’s Oscars. It should be an interesting race for all nominees, and perhaps, a surprise or two for the viewers, as well as the actors, writers, producers, directors, and
other creative types that make the movies America’s favorite entertainment. Up next for the Palm Springs International Foreign Film festival is “ShortFest”, the most popular and largest short film festival in the world. It arrives on June 19 and runs through June 25. If you can’t get enough movies during the two festivals we have here in the desert, hang in there. I often report on the three film societies we have here in the desert: The Palm Springs International Film Society, the Desert Film Society, and The Desert Classic Film Society. Home base for PSIFS is the Regal Cinemas, Palm Springs Stadium Nine. They meet once a month on a Saturday, October thru May. Contact them at (760)322-2930 or www.psfilmfest.org. The Desert Film Society meets at The Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, and screens films on Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. The screening for March 10 is the Japanese comedy film “Hospitalite.” It’s a wild and wacky story of a family living in a crowded Tokyo apartment suddenly visited by relatives and their relatives’ friends who have no plans to move out. The March 17 film is “Elena,” a Russian drama concerning an older man and his younger wife. Both have children from previous marriages. When the older husband has a heart attack and recovers, he changes his will, deciding to give his entire estate to his estranged older daughter. The new wife then decides to protect her three younger children’s futures. Now we have a recipe for… who knows what, as the drama unfolds. Contact them at www.desertfilmsociety.com. If you’re a fan of film noir or aging film classic movies, The Desert Classic Film Society, founded and organized by film historian Chris Perry of Yucca Valley, is definitely for you. On February 10, the society is screening F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent masterpiece “Nosferatu,” with musical accompaniment. For fans of horror and noir this is a film not to be missed. All films are screened at the society’s Bijou Cinema, 57482 Onaga Trail, Yucca Valley. On February 17 at 7 p.m., former NPR movie reviewer Randy Fischer presents his “Literature-to-Film” series. And on Friday, March 2, at 7 p.m., the society presents “Classic Animation Festival #2.” It’s a dazzling program of animation films from the 1930s to the 1960s hosted by Perry. For more information, visit www.desertclassicfilmsociety.com. See you at the movies… where “the stuff that dreams are made of” can be seen. FADE OUT: February/March 2012 – The Sun Runner 39