A: Hi Y.A.,
I'm going to try to get your email address. Thanks

A: Hi Gail,
I am trying to find your email. Thanks

A: Hi Derek,
The ones you mentioned are the closest, I am pretty sure. The Sundance theater is great on so many levels.
Thanks,
Carla

A: It is opening Christmas Day at the Crest.

A: Hi TJ,

"Away We Go," directed by Sam Mendes ("American Beauty") and starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as a young couple on a road trip in search of a new home, opens this Friday (June 18) at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento.

Thanks,

Carla

A: It opens this Friday, March 27, at the Crest.

A: Hi Dennis,

You're talking about director Danny Boyle's ("Trainspotting") film about a young man who goes on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" in the hope his great love will be watching the show.

It's supposed to open Dec. 12 in Sacramento.








otns;eDanny HIt's supposed to open on Dec. 12th. I saw it last night and really liked it.

A: Hi Dave,

The film is opening next Friday, Oct. 24 at the Tower, and probably in other local theaters as well.

Thanks,

Carla

A: Dear MJ: Excellent questions all. But I think the answer to the first one would be better contained in a book than in the space of a Q&A answer, since Mexican films differ from Russian films and Swedish movies from Canadian films.

But if I were to take a broad brush to foreign films, I would they they differ most from Hollywood films in a more naturalistic technical approach and in the confidence of their story telling.

Foreign filmmakers allow scenes to breathe without imposing cuts or inserting pop songs to try to make a message more palatable. They also appear more willing to present ambiguity, presuming the audience is intelligent enough to accept shades of gray and/or a lack of happy ending.

My favorite foreign films are those made by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. His work intoxicates in its vibrant color schemes, naughty insistence on shocking the audience and expansive embrace of all sorts of unorthodox human behavior. I am especially fond of “Live Flesh” (1997) and “All About My Mother” (1999), but I appreciate all his films.

Interestingly enough, Almodovar, heavily influenced by Hollywood and especially Alfred Hitchcock, isn’t very naturalistic. His films are sometimes lit and art-directed within an inch of their lives. So you can see what I mean by the “foreign film” thing being hard to encapsulate.

On to the guilty pleasures: I try not to feel guilty about any art I like, a policy I adopted upon discovering a song I wanted to download was sung by Avril Lavigne, heretofore known to me only as that surly Canadian kid from magazine photos. I decided at this point not to judge until I had watched or listened.

But I know what you’re getting at, and there are plenty of mediocre-to-bad comedies I’ll watch for 10 minutes or more every time they come on cable. These films usually involve, directly or tangentially, Anna Faris, the delightful comic actress currently starring in “The House Bunny,” yet another movie unworthy of her talents.

Faris got her break with the hit-and-miss “Scary Movie” franchise, made by the Wayans brothers, who also made “White Chicks,” (2004) a so-so comedy with a few truly funny scenes. Faris also appeared in the intermittently entertaining “The Hot Chick,” (2002) opposite Rob Schneider, star of the strangely irresistible “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” (1999).

But no subpar film has retained my fancy like “Fools Rush In,” a Faris-less 1997 romantic comedy in which Salma Hayek and Matthew Perry play culture-clashing lovebirds. The movie is dumb in parts and far too broad in others, but I cannot turn away. The stars show so much chemistry that each time I see the film, I continue to hope these kids will be able to work things out.

A: Hi Marilyn,

A: Dear Marilyn: Hitchcock’s "Rebecca," the 1940 Oscar Best Picture winner, has been out of print on DVD in the United States. But on Oct. 14, MGM Home Entertainment will release a restored version of the film (available on its own and as part of an eight-film Hitchcock collection) featuring extras such as original screen tests and a commentary by film critic and historian Richard Schickel. Earlier editions of the DVD, including a Criterion Collection set, are available through Amazon.com via private sellers. There’s also a no-frills English-language DVD from Korea that’s less expensive. But your best bet is to wait for the new DVD, available for pre-order at Amazon for $14.99.

A: Hi Tim,

I assume you're talking about the Sacramento Film and Music Festival, because it's opening this Friday (there's also the Sacramento International Film Festival, which happens ever spring).

I wrote a story about the Sac Film and Music Festival for yesterday's (8/03) Explore section of The Bee. You also can find it at www.sacbee.com/meyer.

Thanks and good luck with the filmmaking,

Carla

A: Hi Kenny,

It's telling that the movie you chose as best-looking also is one of your favorite films. It's impossible (at least for me) to divorce a film's visuals from its content (acting, plot, etc.).

For instance, Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" is one of the most gorgeous films of the past decade. But because its charms primarily are surface, it's not memorable.

For me to find a film good-looking, it must be pretty on the inside as well. And I prefer artfully shot black and white films.

Forget Technicolor splendor. I am most captivated by silhouetttes, and by the play of shadows on faces, buildings and landscapes.

I especially favor modern (or at least relatively modern) films that were shot in black and white because it suited the story, not because it was the norm for the time.

My favorites are "Hud" (1963) and "The Last Picture Show" (1971), shot by the great James Wong Howe and Robert Surtees, respectively. It helps that both films derive from books by one of my favorite authors, Larry McMurtry.

The black and white photography lends "Hud" an unsettling quality, celebrating Paul Newman's handsome exterior while also imparting the danger that roils beneath it.


The cinematography of "The Last Picture Show," by contrast, invests the film great poignancy, and helps to reveal that the story's key characters aren't the teenagers at its center but the older people on the periphery -- people ruled by loneliness and regret rather than by adolescent hormones.

So ... I choose "The Last Picture Show," for reasons that go beyond its accomplished cinematography.

Thanks,

Carla