“A Star is Born” was originally filmed in 1937 and subsequently remade three times, most famously (until now) as a rock musical starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in 1976. Bradley Cooper directs and stars in the latest version, one that hits all the right notes.
Cooper plays Jackson Maine, a rock star with magnetism to spare but carrying around a guitar case overflowing with personal problems. Drug addicted and alcoholic, he’s a troubled guy who falls for Ally (Lady Gaga) after seeing her perform a tour de force version of “La Vie En Rose“ in a bar. It’s love at first sight. He’s attracted to her talent and charisma; she is wary but interested. Soon they become involved, personally and professionally. As their romance blossoms her star rises meteorically as his fades slowly into the sunset.
It’s a familiar story given oxygen by rock solid direction, music with lyrics that forwards the story and two very good, authentic performances.
Cooper, all easy charm and weathered smile, digs deep to play a good man undone by his addictions but Lady Gaga equals him. Gaga sheds the theatricality of her pop persona, creating a soulful character that mixes vulnerability and combative independence. Stripped down, she is rawer than we’ve seen her before in a performance that feels authentic and not a musician playing a musician. It helps that she and Cooper have chemistry to spare—from their mentor and student relationship to their romance—but make no mistake this is a performance that stands alone.
In addition to the romance and music “A Star is Born” has something to say about art. In a time when the arts are under siege by government cuts and pre-packaged pop culture the film emphatically reminds us, both in practice and in its themes, that artists are here to actually say something. Everything else is just product. “Music is essentially twelve notes between any octave; twelve notes and the octave repeats. It’s the same story told over and over. All any artist can offer the world is how they see those twelve notes.”
“A Star is Born” could have been product, a glitzy film with a heartthrob and a pop star in the leads but instead resonates with real feelings and heartfelt emotion.
From CTVnews.ca: “Despite being two completely different genres appealing to very different moviegoers, Lady Gaga’s fans are reportedly trashing Sony Pictures’ ‘Venom’ supervillain film online because it’s opening on the same day as the pop star’s own romantic drama ‘A Star Is Born.'” Read the whole article HERE!
Hollywood is in the habit of remaking everything these days, relying on brand recognition to sell their movies, so it’s hard to understand why this remake of “The Bodyguard” is called “Beyond the Lights.” Sure, the character names are different, it was written by different people, Kevin Costner is nowhere to be seen and it’s an “original” story but a sense of déjà vu hangs heavy over the movie’s every frame.
When we first meet Noni Jean she’s a young girl with a set of pipes to revival any American Idol contestant. Her mother and manager—her momanger—Macy Jean (Minnie Driver) is a determined presence with her eye set on superstardom for her daughter. Cut to a few years later, Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is now a hip hop star à la Rihanna. She’s on the cusp of fame, has a rapper boyfriend and a record about to come out that is guaranteed to be a hit. One night, just days before a big performance at the Billboard Awards, the pressure gets to be too much and Noni tries to jump off the balcony of her hotel room. She is rescued by Kaz (Nate Parker), a handsome police officer working on her security detail who grabs her hand just as she is about to tumble in to the tabloid headlines.
A romance blossoms between the two, despite the protests of their parents. Kaz’s father (Danny Glover), a retired police officer is grooming his charismatic son for a career in politics while Macy Jean simply wants sever any ties to the suicide story. Noni and Kaz, however, have a special bond, one born out of an understanding of what it’s like to have pushy parents and wanting to do your own thing.
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood trowels the melodrama on thick in this sensationalistic show-biz fable but that doesn’t stop her from commenting on the downside of notoriety in a way that hasn’t been done since “A Star Is Born” chronicled the decline of singer John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson). It’s an occasionally scorching look at the world of fame, but defaults to soap opera theatrics to keep the plot moving forward.
None of this would register if Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker weren’t such compelling performers. Mbatha-Raw wowed in last year’s “Belle” and shines here playing both sides of Noni’s personality, the onstage diva and conflicted offstage woman. If anyone sees “Beyond the Lights” a star may be born. Her chemistry with Parker is undeniable and together they overcome the film’s unnecessary plot theatrics.
Flipper may be the biggest dolphin movie star of all time but he’s not the only dolphin in Hollywood’s great big sea. Winter, star of “Dolphin Tale” and its new sequel, is a close second.
Winter is an injured bottleneck dolphin rescued off the Florida coast who was taken in by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. He lost his tail to infection but a VA prosthetic designer, an Iraqi war vet and the caregivers at her new home were determined to put a new end on this tale. She now swims with the aid of a silicone and plastic tail, and is the star attraction at the aquarium and the subject of two movies.
The new film sees Sawyer (Nathan Gamble, who has perfected the “concerned face” method of acting) and Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff), the two dolphin loving kids from the first film, come back for more rousing sea mammal action. This time out they and the good folks at the Clearwater Marine Hospital (including Harry Connick Jr. and Kris Kristofferson), search for a companion for the lonely dolphin when Winter’s old partner passes away. Also making return visits are Ashley Judd as Sawyer’s mom, Morgan Freeman as Dr. Cameron McCarthy the designer of Winter’s prosthetic tail and Rufus the Emotional Pelican.
Like the first film “Dolphin’s Tale 2” is a wholesome family movie for the entire clan. Messages about dealing with grief and loss are woven into the story, but the film is more about uplift and inspiration.
Sometimes too much so.
For instance, Connick Jr. officially plays the biologist who runs the aquarium but, in reality, is a living embodiment of Father Knows Best. He always seems to know exactly the right thing to say and do which gives the film the feel of a 1950s family drama. Reaching hand over fist for emotional moments, “Dolphin Tale 2” relies a bit too heavily on inspirational children’s movie clichés—any movie that features Bethany Hamilton romping with dolphins is unafraid of embracing its redemptive soul—but does so without an ounce of cynicism.
The two F’s are front and center—family and friends—along with lessons in determination and fighting for what you believe in. Good stuff all round, if a little ham-fisted in its presentation.
Kris Kristofferson has worked with a laundry list of brand name directors—Martin Scorsese, John Sayles and Tim Burton to mention a few—but his relationship, both professional and personal, with Sam Peckinpah tops them all. Not only did the hard drinking duo make three films together, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Convoy and the misunderstood classic Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, but in tribute to the director Kris also wrote and recorded two songs, One for the Money and Sam’s Song (Ask Any Working Girl).
Peckinpah, known as one of Hollywood’s most hardheaded directors—at his funeral Robert Culp said what was surprising is not that Peckinpah only made fourteen movies, but that given the way he worked, that he was able to make any at all—returned the compliment, saying, “I like Kris because he writes poetry and he’s a fucking good man.”
The actor and director clicked, Kristofferson says, because they had self destructiveness in common. “Sam was an artist like I thought artists were. He was self destructive and the most important thing in his life was what he was creating. Unfortunately a lot of people who are built that way burn out.
Feeding the legend of Peckinpah’s prodigious intake of booze was a gag photo taken on the set of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid showing the director laid out on a stretcher being fed whiskey through an IV bottle as cast members carried him.
“I don’t think his art came from his self destructiveness, that’s what destroyed his art. I don’t think you have to be self destructive to be a great artist. Some of us just have so many inhibitions going into it that to free ourselves we need to hit ourselves in the head with a hammer. Fortunately I don’t have to do that anymore.”
Peckinpah’s legendary battles with actors and studios may have been his undoing. “He was an artist and he was his own worst enemy,” says Kristofferson. “His work and it came first in front of everything else. I had the feeling it was burning out his energy at the end. He was spending so much time arguing with MGM, you know, that Pat Garrett suffered for it and they took it away from him. They stole it.”
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, the story of former desperado turned lawman, Pat Garrett (James Coburn), and his quest to hunt down his old friend Billy the Kid (Kristofferson, age 36 playing a character of 21), was typical of the troubled productions that plagued Peckinpah’s career. But despite the turmoil, Peckinpah, who usually ruled his sets with a firm (although frequently drunken) hand, showed the singer-turned-actor respect, permitting him to change the script.
It happened during a scene where Billy the Kid blasts Deputy Bob Ollinger (R.G. Armstrong) with a shotgun loaded with 16 silver dimes. After the shot Billy the Kid wryly says, “Keep the change, Bob!”
“That was an adlib,” says Kristofferson. “I’m not sure Sam wanted that to happen but he recognized immediately when something was coming out more honest than the other.”
Later, in a scripted moment, Billy adds a second punch line to the macabre joke. When confronted by a man looking to be reimbursed for the horse Billy stole after shooting the Deputy the outlaw says, “There’s a buck-sixty in old Bob if you can dig it out.”
“I don’t think [Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid] was one of his best,” says Kristofferson, citing The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs as the director’s masterpieces, but he relished the experience anyway, as did Peckinpah. “Working with Kris on Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was one of the great experiences of my life,” he said.
True to its name “Deadfall” tumbles downward after an exciting opening sequence.
Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde are Addison and Liza, a brother-and-sister crime wave fresh off a successful casino heist. In the opening minutes of the film their getaway car loses control, crashing on an icy roadway. After Addison kills a state trooper who stops to help the pair decide to split up and meet later to escape over the Canadian border. Liza connects with a parolee Jay (Charlie Hunnam) on his way home for Thanksgiving dinner with mother June (Sissy Spacek), and father Chet (Kris Kristofferson). On the run, Addison hides out in a hunting cabin before the police catch up to him, forcing him to move along toward a protracted climax.
There are some nice moments of tension in “Deadfall.” Bana’s overly polite—“Serve the pie please June.”—but psychotic take on Addison lends some menace to the story but his good work is undone by a predictable script that relies on convenient and unbelievable coincidences to tell the story. Add to that a (possibly) incestuous relationship, daddy issues galore and an unconvincing love story and you’ll wish the Coen Brothers had been free to edit this script before it went to camera.
Also, there will be no spoilers here, but let’s just say if you are looking for the chance to see the entire cast in one place, brought together by coincidence, you’ll get it.
The photography, however is as gorgeous as the story is lackluster. You’ll feel the chill in your bones watching the harsh winter landscape portrayed so beautifully.
“Deadfall” feels incomplete, like a missed opportunity. Bana’s a good bad guy but he deserves a better story than this.
Actor and musician Kris Kristofferson was honoured by the Victoria Film Festival this year with its presentation of the inaugural IN award, celebrating one “who has been INspirational, INnovative, and INdependant.”
Kristofferson was received warmly by the crowd, which was left utterly charmed by his candor and humility. The former Rhodes Scholar spoke freely and reflected about his incredible life and broad career, from being a janitor at Nashville’s Columbia Records to his emergence as a singer-songwriter associating with the likes of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Janis Joplin before successfully transitioning to an acting career. That includes a memorable stint in a bathtub with Barbra Streisand (A Star is Born, a performance that earned him a Golden Globe).
A brief question-and-answer period was followed by a rather grainy screening of Kristofferson’s 1996 film Lone Star, which was succinctly summarized by filmmaker Ken Galloway (at the Festival with his short film, “Ways on Wheels”) as an example of how “the white man fucks everything and then fucks everything up.” Indeed.
The evening was emceed by Canada AM’s Richard Crouse, pulling double-duty at the Festival by presenting the series of SpringBoard talks and seminars. I had a chance to catch up with him about interviewing one of his personal heroes, hanging out with Teddy the Toad, and the unexpected treat of falling in love with a woman whose life and story stole everyone’s heart.
RF: How’s your experience been at the Victoria Film Festival so far?
RC: It’s over, now. I’m done (laughs). It’s been really fun. I cover film festivals all over the world. I go to Cannes, I cover Toronto – I live in Toronto. They’re much different festivals; I’m really working those ones really hard and seeing sometimes 75 movies [at the Toronto International Film Festival] and interviewing people so they’re much different. In this one, I was presenting things the whole time and doing interviews onstage and was more a part of it. So I kind of kicked back and relaxed a little bit at this one …
RF: You kicked back and relaxed in Victoria?
RC: Well a little bit, a little bit. You know what, I had fun here. The people who were here – I got here on Friday and the people that were here were amazing, good fun to hang out with, always something to do. I got to interview Kris Kristofferson tonight which was mind-blowingly cool.
RF: It was sort of like your James Lipton moment.
RC: I do a lot of these kinds of things in Toronto and other places too, but to sit next to him, that close… I don’t know if you could tell from the audience, but he teared up when he talked about Janis Joplin. That was… those kind of moments that I didn’t expect, and as an interviewer are very special and as an audience member I hope so too.
RF: What I noticed during the interview was he had this way, a sort of humility about him – he almost was like a little boy. He’d be talking about something and then he’d laugh about it as though it was no big thing. I thought it was quite endearing.
RC: Considering who he is, and the songs that he’s written – if he had only written “Me and Bobby McGee”, that would’ve been enough. If he’d have only written “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make it Through the Night”, that would’ve been enough. If he had only written those and “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, that would’ve been enough. But the film work on top of that – for 40 years he’s been making records consistently, and good ones, and films, and working with directors like Martin Scorsese and everybody else. It’s kind of one of those unparalleled careers in terms of a musician who has branched off and done other things, considering the amount of success he’s had. I’m thrilled to sit and do it.
RF: Looking at someone like Kris Kristofferson and the career transitions he’s made – it’s something we’re seeing a lot more of now; artists who start as musicians and then suddenly they become actors and then perfumers.
RC: We’re only seconds away from Lady Gaga making a movie and having a clothing line. I think though, in some ways, it happens so quickly now that it dilutes the brand, and none of it is done particularly well. Whereas maybe I would’ve said that about Kris Kristofferson in 1971, “He’s a songwriter, what’s he doing making movies?” But he stayed at it and worked at it for so long and really made it not just a sideline, but a really parallel career. That’s interesting to me.
RF: One thing that you touched upon in your introduction of him was that “independent spirit”, which you spoke of along with the likes of Johnny Cash. When I think of Kris Kristofferson, one thing that always comes to mind is (I don’t recall what the event was) was when Sinead O’Connor performed for the first time …
RC: I was there.
RF: Were you there?
RC: I was. It was at Madison Square Gardens. She had torn up the picture of the Pope on “Saturday Night Live” the previous Saturday. I’d forgotten about this, or I would’ve asked him about it.
RF: Ahhh!
RC: See, I should’ve talked to you beforehand. [Laughs] It was at MSG, it was the 30th anniversary of Bob Dylan on Colombia Records. There was, I don’t know, 40 bands or acts – everyone from Eric Clapton to Sinead O’Connor. And so she comes out, and it’s horrific-
RF: I remember watching it on television and just being stunned at the [audience] response.
RC: Sitting in the audience watching that, I felt like, “great violence could happen any time now.” It was one of those times that the feeling changed in the room so quickly, and there’s 50,000 people –
RF: New Yawkers…
RC: New Yorkers, who were angry at her. And Kristofferson came out because he had hosted part of the evening. He put his arm around her and said, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” And I remember it being such a cool moment, because it’s not like he took her off stage and did it. He did it onstage, and said to the audience, “I know what you’re doing, and I’m gonna help her.” And then Neil Young came out and blew everybody’s mind playing “All Along the Watchtower” and lifted the crowd right back up again. But it was Kristofferson’s moment.
RF: I remember that. When I think of him, that’s what comes to mind.
RC: I think that’s kind of emblematic of how he is. It seems to me that he, even if it’s not going to be popular, he does the right thing. Because he was then staring down 50,000 angry people –
RF: New Yawkers…
RC: – who were not really happy at him. It’s kind of a cool thing.
RF: You spoke a lot about the musical portion of his career and how that’s influenced you. What was preparing for this interview like? You seem to be a fan.
RC: I am a fan. I’m a pop-culture junkie. I had to do research for this, a great amount of research, because I wanted that no matter where the interview went I was going to be able to go there. I don’t like to plan my interviews particularly well. I don’t like to have a list of ten questions. I didn’t have anything written down. I had a couple of quotes written down that I wanted to ask him about just in case I got stuck but there were no actual questions written down.
“Me and Bobby McGee” was a really significant song for me, I loved it. I was too young – even though I’m Toronto’s oldest living man – I was still too young for the original Janis Joplin version which wasn’t really significant to me when it came out. It became really significant to me years later – the song, it tells a story, the vocals are amazing. There’s so much to it, and he wrote it. I wanted to be clear that it wasn’t one aspect of his career that had blown my mind. There were a number of things there that I’m really impressed by.
RF: He speaks to another era, of film makers and songwriters, who tell a story.
RC: The storytellers. I’m not sure that it would be such a bad thing if there were more people like him, working in both film and writing songs.
RF: Any other parting words about your experience here in Victoria?
RC: It’s been fun, you know. I got to hang out with Charles Martin Smith, which was totally fun. We ended up hanging out for three solid days, pretty much. It was hilarious.
RF: I spoke with him a little bit. He called me “schmoozy”, or rather, “charming”.
RC: [Laughs]
RF: I reminded him of a time – true story – he almost hit me, or rather, more likely I almost ran into his car on my bike…
RC: Terry the Toad almost hit you! That’s cool, though.
RF: It was really exciting. I wasn’t wearing a helmet …
RC: See, you should be wearing a helmet.
RF: I do now.
RC: I’m old, and I’m telling you that. I must sound like your father. Anyways, I think the festival is attracting a really interesting crowd this year. I haven’t been before, but Charlie was a lot of fun to hang out with. I hosted two days of SpringBoard Talks as well, and Academy-Award-winning director Chris Landreth [Ryan, 2004] – his talk was unbelievable. It made me understand, finally, why I hate Robert Zemeckis’ stop-motion movies. I’ve always known why, in my heart…
RF: Why?
RC: Because they look dead in the eyes. And he explained to me why they look dead in the eyes. It was fascinating.
RF: I wish I’d seen it.
RC: Of the SpringBoard Talks, although many of them were really fascinating, there was a woman named Madeleine Sherwood, and I just fell in love with her.
RF: I heard the crowd was left “misty”.
RC: Oh my God. She was the final speaker of two days, and it was pretty much the same people who came back and saw both things. And they were long sessions, they were three or four hours long with no break. I was literally just like, “Next! Next!”, bringing them all up on stage, one after the others. Some speakers were great at engaging, others maybe not as much, so it was a mixed bag. And then we bring her up after showing a short film about her life, about how she was sent to a mental institution and escaped, and thought, “where should I go?” And she goes to New York to become an actor, it was far enough away that she figured she’d be left alone and ended up originating 18 Broadway shows onstage, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Crucible. Unbelievable stuff. And then she comes up and she’s endearing and amazing and knew Elia Kazan and told stories about Marilyn Monroe… It wasn’t just the stories, it was just her. She was really kind of incredible.
RF: A textured life?
RC: More than just a textured life. She is a woman who really bucked trends her entire life. She comes from a well-to-do family in Montreal, escapes from an insane asylum, becomes a Broadway star, marches with Martin Luther Kin in the South and gets herself arrested, and instead of doing what everybody else did – which was get the hell out of there, or hire some hot-shot white lawyer – she hires the only African-American lawyer in Alabama to represent her, which was probably, at the time, going to guarantee her to lose. But she believed in it, and she had the strength of her convictions. I was amazed by her. She was lovely, and of all the people that I’ve met here – she was the treat, the unexpected treat.
Kris Kristofferson, 73, developed a nasty chest cold on a “wild ride” to Victoria, where he’s being honoured with the film festival’s inaugural IN award in recognition of independence, innovation and inspiration.
Kris Kristofferson, 73, developed a nasty chest cold on a “wild ride” to Victoria, where he’s being honoured with the film festival’s inaugural IN award in recognition of independence, innovation and inspiration.
Photograph by: Debra Brash, Times Colonist, Times Colonist
A legendary actor, singer and songwriter who got his start sweeping floors at Columbia Records displayed traits often associated with a different profession — mail delivery — before landing here for his Victoria Film Festival appearance last night.
Kris Kristofferson had to brave ice, snow and freezing temperatures that gripped North Carolina and Tennessee, where he performed concerts on the weekend to promote his solo album Closer to the Bone.
“Oh, it’s been a wild ride, but I’m glad to be here,” said the smiling, gravelly voiced Grammy Award-winner.
Road conditions were so treacherous that before flying here from Nashville, Kristofferson and his wife and manager, Lisa Meyers, had to drive north from North Carolina through Virginia to reach Tennessee because of a “weather bonk,” they said.
“We’ve been living on the tour bus going really, really slow and we’re just lucky we made it,” Meyers said.
Along the way, Kristofferson, 73, developed a nasty chest cold but, ever the trouper, he wasn’t about to let that stop him from accepting the festival’s inaugural IN award in recognition of independence, innovation and inspiration.
“We’ve been here before,” recalled Kristofferson, clad in black jeans and a matching T-shirt and fleece jacket as he sipped coffee in the Fairmont Empress hotel’s Harbourside room. “It’s such a beautiful place.”
Despite being under the weather, he took part in a Q&A at Empire Capitol 6 last night and was interviewed by Canada AM film critic Richard Crouse.
If someone were to ask him to name a movie he would make over again, Kristofferson said it would be Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
“It was like being in hillbilly heaven,” he recalled. “But there was so much energy wasted on that because [director] Sam Peckinpah was feuding with the people at MGM and they were kind of doing him dirty.”
Shooting in Durango, Mexico, was “a thrill and a challenge,” he recalled, adding that Peckinpah was his own worst enemy.
“I don’t think Sam understood the potential. He thought the studio had pressured him into hiring a big star like Bob Dylan, but Bob was unique,” said Kristofferson, recalling that Dylan called him, unsure whether he should make his film debut as Alias.
“I said, ‘Man, do it. This is a lot of fun,’ and it was,” Kristofferson recalled. “I thought Bob did a great job. He’d been doing it onstage for a long time. I think Sam could have exploited that better, but what was great was the music he brought to it.”
Kristofferson is also often asked how he felt about his status as a superstar sex symbol.
“I don’t think anybody would be really comfortable with that, but it kept getting me work, whatever it was,” he said.
After flying back to California, the troubadour will resume his solo tour Feb. 16 in Missouri, followed by concerts with Merle Haggard in Texas, Oklahoma and other states.
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You can thank Chris Landreth for getting to see Ways on Wheels at the Odeon tonight.
It was the Toronto-based animator’s Oscar-winning short Ryan that inspired Ken Galloway to become a filmmaker.
“I was living in Tokyo, working as a muralist and an English teacher and hanging out at an artists’ collective bar,” recalled Galloway, whose short focuses on a quadriplegic artist and how he used his disability to turn his life around.
He made the film after doing four years of research for a book about Canadian graffiti. He interviewed 250 graffiti writers during a cross-country odyssey of hitchhiking, “couch surfing” and hopping freight trains.
“It was 3 in the morning and Ryan shows up on the screen,” he recalled. “I saw the NFB logo between beers and I was blown away by what I saw. I said, ‘I can’t just keep working as an English teacher. It’s time to make a change.’ ”
Three weeks later he applied to Sheridan College and “somehow talked my way in” to its film program.
Galloway was shocked and delighted to learn that Landreth was a festival guest. “I approached him and said, ‘You’re the reason I started making films,’ ” Galloway said. “He indulged me. It’s been a blast.”
“Wow!” was the operative word Friday night as the Victoria Film Festival’s 2010 edition blasted off with a glitzy gala amid the stunning pools, fountains and tropical plants adorning its new venue, Parkside Victoria Resort and Spa.
Indeed, there were moments you half-expected Hugh Hefner to walk in.
“I feel like I’m at the grotto at the Playboy mansion,” quipped guttersnipenews.com correspondent Rachel Fox.
Opening nighters, many weary after spending hours on airplanes, were jubilant. The festival is a homecoming of sorts for Vancouver Island native Barry Pepper, former Glenlyon student Matt Frewer of Max Headroom fame, UVic grad-turned-producer Nicholas Tabarrok and Richard Crouse.
Who knew Crouse, the jovial Canada AM film critic, lived in a $350-a-month McLure mansion apartment in Rockland 25 years ago and ran the long-defunct jazz club The Alhambra?“I remember Victoria being really vital and having a great arts scene,” Crouse said, reminiscing about the “most intimate concert I’ve ever been to.” It was when he found himself alone with Dr. John when the legendary musician came in to do a sound check.
He asked if Crouse had any requests, and then played New Orleans Christmas songs for him.
Oscar-winning animator Chris Landreth (Ryan) gamely mingled despite feeling the effects of a head cold and a long flight.
“It sounds like everyone’s talking underwater,” he said, smiling.
Coincidentally, two gala guests were star athletes who overcame life-threatening health issues and are now in showbiz.
“I’m back to support the festival because I’m a Canadian boy and an Olympian so it coincides with Vancouver,” said Howard Dell, a former Olympic bobsledder, pro football player and actor (Totally Blonde).
Dell, 47, recently received a liver transplant after being diagnosed with a terminal liver disease.
“I planned for an end, and now I’ve got to plan for a new beginning,” he said.
Meghan Mutrie, who played for Canada and England’s national rugby teams, has also made an incredible comeback after she was knocked out for 18 minutes during a Nation’s Cup game two years ago.
“My brain was bleeding and I was handicapped for six months,” she said. “I couldn’t walk or talk and I was drooling.” After recovering at her parents’ home and completing her graduate degree in journalism in Wellington, New Zealand, Mutrie, 25, covered rugby during a brief internship with CHEK.
Now a rugby broadcaster for Australia’s heavensgame.com, she’s returning to Wellington in May for her grad ceremony.
Other guests included new film commissioner Jo Anne Walton, filmmaker Charles Martin Smith, producer Rob Merilees, Beyond Gay director Bob Christie and producer Morris Chapdelaine. Industrial FX studio chief Simon Game waxed enthusiastic about his feature film — “a Sam Raimi movie meets the Beachombers” — slated to roll this summer.
Christie was pumped about last night’s enthusiastically received Beyond Gay premiere at the Odeon.
“Victoria’s a great place for this film,” he said. “It’s a political capital and this is a political film.” There are two more intriguing documentaries on today’s schedule.
Director Alison Rose says the most interesting part of making hers, Love at the Twilight Motel (review below) was the editing process.
“It was something akin to alchemy,” she said, noting it brought out the “amateur social anthropologist” in her. “The interviews that you see were all surprising to me.” All the motel users interviewed, with the exception of Mr. R, answered her ads seeking stories.
“I offered them whatever degree of anonymity they required.” A tougher sell is Boyhood Shadows: I Swore I’d Never Tell (tonight, 9:45, Cap 6), a powerful, ultimately hopeful documentary about childhood sexual abuse as told through the eyes of “Glenn,” a survivor who will attend tonight’s screening.
“We’ve been fighting to get audiences, but it’s been difficult because of the subject,” said Monterey, Calif.-based director Steve Rosen, noting while it has played in Wales, Ireland and England, only one U.S. festival — Tiburon — is showing it.
“Americans are a force of quintessential ostriches,” he said. “They don’t want to hear about something unless it affects them directly, right now. But childhood sexual abuse is reaching epidemic proportions, so people need to pay attention.”