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Nunez film a highlight of festival
[Photo: Clear Blue Sky, Nunez-Gowan, IFC Productions]
From left, Timothy Olyphant, Sarah Wynter and Josh Brolin star in Coastline. |
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 7, 2002
The writer-director of Ulee's Gold brings his latest work to Sarasota's Cine-World, joining a tantalizing lineup of international cinema.
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Florida's best filmmaker chose the state's best festival to introduce his latest work. But Victor Nunez already knew his way around Sarasota's Cine-World showcase of international cinema. This year's edition begins Friday and continues through Nov. 17.
Nunez, 56, has been there before, in 1993 with Ruby in Paradise, starring then-unknown Ashley Judd, and in 1997 with Ulee's Gold, another Sunshine State story that earned an Oscar nomination for star Peter Fonda. Nunez is a longtime friend of Sarasota Film Society founder Dick Morris, whose Burns Court Cinema triplex is a model for specialized film exhibition.
[Photo: Magnolia Pictures]
‘Interview with the Assassin’
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[Photo: Wellspring Cinema]
‘Alias Betty’ |
[Photo: Lion’s Gate Films]
‘Max’ |
[Photo: amuel Goldwyn Films]
‘The Crime of Father Amaro’ |
[Photo: United Artists]
‘All or Nothing’ |
The writer-director's new film, Coastlines, will have its world premiere at 8 p.m. Nov. 15, with an encore showing at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 16. Nunez will attend both screenings as a favor to his movie and his friend Morris, a champion of small, personal films such as Coastlines for three decades.
"When he called, I said yes, quickly," Nunez said Monday from his home in Tallahassee. "He's made such a difference for specialized films.
"Before Dick was around, Florida was really a wasteland for any kind of film that didn't come out of a major studio. He really worked at developing an audience across the state, even out of the state. And people in Sarasota are very lucky to have that theater there."
Coastlines is the story of an ex-convict (Timothy Olyphant) returning to his home near Carabelle and the bad influences that led him to jail. His childhood friend (Josh Brolin) is the sheriff, whose wife (Sarah Wynter) is bored with her life. Nunez calls it "my character-driven melodrama" after a career of focusing on Florida's culture and history.
Despite Nunez's track record, his film still doesn't have a distribution deal. Cine-World will be Coastlines' first public display, although this isn't a festival for dealmakers or social posing. Cine-World is 10 days of films without frills, except for the gourmet snacks at Burns Court. Leave your formal wear at home. Morris and his staff arranged 48 films and programs for people who love movies and may never again have a chance to see some of these offerings.
Even Nunez acknowledges that.
"Who knows? This may be the last time (Coastlines is) shown on a screen for a long time," he said. "It's nice to be doing the world premiere for Dick and his festival."
Other highlights in the Cine-World lineup include Mike Leigh's latest dour look at working-class Brits, All or Nothing, and Sundance Film Festival award winner Personal Velocity, starring Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk. The Crime of Father Amaro has gained publicity -- and big box office in Mexico -- for its true-life portrayal of a Catholic priest's love affair. Another eyebrow-raiser is Max, starring John Cusack as the art teacher of young Adolf Hitler.
John Malkovich makes his directorial debut with The Dancer Upstairs, and another first-timer, Neil Burger, poses fictional JFK conspiracy theories in Interview With the Assassin. Brazilian director Sergio Bianchi's dreamy fringe realism is the subject of a three-film retrospective and short subject trilogy.
Two documentaries could have moviegoers dancing in the aisles. Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a rousing documentary about the Funk Brothers, the previously unheralded studio musicians who backed up most of Motown's classic hits. I'm Trying to Break Your Heart is the story of Wilco, an alt-country band trying experimental rock, contending with its record label's disenchantment after the change.
Five films compose Cine-World's annual sidebar of French cinema, including Alias Betty, focusing on three mothers in a bizarre kidnapping case, and Bertrand Tavier's Safe Conduct, a tribute to French filmmakers who kept filming despite Nazi occupation during World War II.
Log on to the festival's Web site (www.filmsociety.org/cine.htm) for a complete list of show times, synopses and directions to Burns Court Cinema, south of Ringling Boulevard between Pineapple and Palm streets. Tickets are limited. The box office opens daily at 10 a.m. with any available tickets for that day's screenings. Tickets are $7 per screening, with no refunds or exchanges. For information, call (941) 955-9338, ext. 3, or (941) 364-8662, ext. 23.
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