St. Louis International Film Festival Highlights

by Sandra Olmsted

With the Film Festival still running, everyone has an opportunity to see films they might never get to see without the efforts of the team at Cinema St. Louis which puts on the Film Festival every year and has for the last twenty-fifth years. Personally, I have seen many films that that as yet are not scheduled to open in St. Louis at all, including A Quiet Passion (2016) and The Fitzroy (2016), two very different and delightful films, and there’s even a film, Gentlemen of Vision, with a Hazelwood connection.

Gentlemen of Vision, a PBS documentary featuring Hazelwood East High School students who participate in Marlon Wharton’s competitive stepping program, screens November 10 at 7:30 pm at Ritnour High School Auditorium, and it is free.

A Quiet Passion, Music Box Films release, delves into the life of American poet Emily Dickinson, revealing in the process her life, inner thoughts, and poetry. A beautiful film told with immense cinematic power and evocative cinematography, not to mention exceptional performances by Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson, Jennifer Ehle as her sister Vinnie, Keith Carradine as her father Edward. Emma Bell plays the younger Emily briefly.

The Fitzroy (2016), was funded by a Kickstarter campaign and took over four years to make, according the filmmakers, who cross the pond to accompany their film the first time it was shown in America. Their film is a delightfully dark comedy set in a post-apocalyptic, 1950s-esque world. The air will kill anyone who breathes it, and a group of odd-ball misfits have taken you residence on old submarine which has been refitted as a residency hotel. The put-up-on bell boy, Bernard (Cerith Flinn), caters to the whims and strangeness of the tenets and nurtures a love for femme-fatal Sonya (Jan Anderson), a beautiful singer, who wants Bernard to murder the hotel owner, Cecil (David Schaal). A hilarious web of lies, backstabbing and chaos results.

Along with many of the other 400 PLUS films and many special events and classes that grace this 25th Anniversary of the St. Louis International Film Festival, this weekend offers two films that are must sees: 1) Director Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016), which stars Natalie Portman in the role of Jackie Kennedy as she navigates her changed world after her husband’s assassination. 2) Within Our Gates (1920), writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, will have live accompaniment by Stace England & the Salt Kings. The St. Louis International Film Festival is a St. Louis treasure, and everyone should take advantage of seeing at least a few of the amazing films that Cinema St. Louis brings to town each year. Although ticket prices are generally in the $13 range, there are also many free events and the schedule and other information can be accessed at <http://www.cinemastlouis.org/about-festival>.

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