Photo Sue Harrison Kathleen Turner and John Waters, along with Film Festival program director Connie White, offered up a toast at the posh Wellfleet Drive-In reception.
Photos Lisa Hull/Sue Harrison From the Drive-In to Town Hall and on to the Awards Party, the Film Festival offered a variety of movies and plenty of fun.
Film Festival wrap-up
Banner Daily Update posted Thurs. June 21 (slideshow)
By Howard Karren Banner Correspondent
The 2007 Provincetown International Film Festival ended with a hearty laugh on Sunday, when Frank Oz’s brilliant new farce, “Death at a Funeral,” won the Audience Award for Best Feature. Oz, who is a world-famous puppeteer (Miss Piggy, Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover, Yoda) and a director of Hollywood comic blockbusters (“In & Out,” “Bowfinger,” “What About Bob?”), went low-budget with “Death at a Funeral,” and the movie’s utterly irreverent attitude toward death and propriety made for an appropriate closing night at a festival that celebrates “filmmaking on the edge.” Scheduled to hit theaters in August, “Death at a Funeral” is set in England, features a wonderful ensemble of mostly British actors, and was shot at London’s historic Ealing Studios, made famous by the Alec Guinness comedies of the 1950s.
“It felt more personal to me,” Oz says. “For the first time, without anyone over me or pushing me, I really did exactly what I wanted to do with this movie.”
The Audience Award winner for Best Documentary was “For the Bible Tells Me So,” Daniel Karslake’s expertly crafted and deeply moving look into the ways religious ideologues use the Bible to condemn homosexuality, even though there’s little or no justification for doing so in the Good Book itself. Karslake was also part of a memorable breakfast panel discussion at Bayside Betsy’s on Friday, which was moderated by Boston Globe critic Wesley Morris and also included documentarian Markie Hancock (“Born Again”). Among other topics, the filmmakers and festival-goers shared stories about religious families both torn apart and strengthened when a son or daughter comes out.
The Audience Award for Best Short went to “Private Life,” directed by Abbe Robinson, about a textile mill worker in Manchester, England. It was part of the “Shorts II: The Lezdom” program.
On Saturday night the festival’s talent awards were presented before a packed audience at Town Hall. Scottish actor Alan Cumming sat for a talk with queer-film scholar B. Ruby Rich, during which he quickly dismissed the way his profession is “mythologized in America.” Acting, Cumming noted sardonically, is “difficult if you’re not very good at it.” He explained that he took parts because they “touch me in my heart and my gut” and also, occasionally, “to make money.” In response to a question from the audience about being out, he asserted that it hadn’t been an obstacle for him and recommended that actors resist the pressure to create a false, closeted public identity. “If you’re going to lie about something that’s that important to you,” Cumming said, “how can you be a good artist?”
Festival board chair Fred Magee then presented Cumming with the Excellence in Acting Award. “To be honored in such a lovely environment means a lot to me,” Cumming said. “I’m truly grateful.”
Provincetown’s own John Waters then interviewed the 2007 Filmmaker on the Edge, Todd Solondz, who, Waters said, “maybe deserves [the award] more than any of us.” Solondz’s films (“Welcome to the Dollhouse,” “Happiness,” “Storytelling,” “Palindromes”), Waters added, “pull the rug out from under me each time.”
Despite his reputation for sensational, often disturbing material, Solondz said he was “trying always to find the right balance” and that “life is so much crueler than anything I could do [on film].” Boston Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich presented Solondz with his award, which the filmmaker said was “very cool and exciting” and thanked Provincetown. “It’s so lovely here,” Solondz said. “Everyone is so friendly and so sweet.”
Critic Molly Haskell then introduced Kathleen Turner, the winner of the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which added a touch of Hollywood glamour to the night’s festivities. Turner, however, was as down-to-earth as can be, as she reviewed with Haskell most of her major roles, from “Body Heat” and “Crimes of Passion” to “Romancing the Stone” and “Prizzi’s Honor.” Unabashed in her feminism and do-it-don’t-talk-about-it approach to work (“I don’t like coddling … I don’t like fussing”), Turner also spoke openly about her fight with rheumatoid arthritis and her continuing career ambitions — she’s unwilling to think of her lifetime of achievement as being over, and hopes to direct, teach acting at NYU, and publish a memoir, “Send Yourself Roses.”
“I accept this in my mind as a survival award,” she said. “I’m not done.” Anyone who drove to the Wellfleet Drive-In on a chilly and drizzling Thursday evening and saw Turner and Waters introduce “Serial Mom” and “War of the Roses” would know that she means what she says.
Awards aside, the buzz on the street during the festival was overwhelmingly positive. Despite some technical snafus, volunteers kept their cool and smiled, and the cold and cloudy weather earlier in the week eventually gave way to some warming June sunshine. In its ninth year, the Provincetown International Film Festival has continued to grow in stature. And that’s true whether one chose to sample some inspiring films from Portugal, sing along with “Xanadu,” or munch some French toast for breakfast while Jeff Garlin and Michael McDonald turned a discussion of “comedy on the edge” into a virtual stand-up routine. Here in Provincetown, film culture never looked so good.
[Editor’s note: Howard Karren is a member of the Provincetown International Film Festival’s advisory board.]
Jun 21st, 2007
