Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993 TAG: 9311010022
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO Correspondent
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
This year's festival, the sixth, got off to a fast start with several sell-out shows and crowds noticeably larger than those of past years. More than 70 feature films, discussions, lectures and programs will be presented over the long weekend.
For the first time, ticket demand has been so intense that in some cases additional screenings have been scheduled at the last minute.
That kind of success is exactly what the organizers have been hoping for - but it can create problems.
The schedule delays - already notorious - cropped up early, leaving some moviegoers stranded after midnight when screenings outlasted the shuttle bus service.
Beyond that, however, the movies have been terrific, and this year's special guest, Robert Mitchum, has charmed audiences, living up to his reputation as one of Hollywood's most irreverent and self-deprecating stars.
It may be an old line but he repeated it anyway when asked about his profession: "One of the greatest movie stars ever was Rin Tin Tin. It can't be much of a trick."
That's probably true on a set when the cameras are rolling, but Mitchum has the presence to carry it off in front of a live audience.
At the opening reception Thursday evening, the TV lights and cameras swarmed around him the moment he appeared on the porch of the Bayley Art Museum. The crowd moved in close, but not too close. After all, this is a real star.
Maybe it's that distinct voice, or the drawl. Whatever the reason, when you meet him, the man you see in person is the man you've seen on the screen.
He and fellow guest, critic Roger Ebert, used the various TV interviews they did then to test some of the material they repeated later in a discussion after a screening of "Out of the Past," one of Mitchum's best from 1947.
Even though the theme of this year's festival is film noir, Mitchum refused to take the genre too seriously. "They were B-pictures, that's all," he said. In post-World War II America and Europe they were popular because "everybody had had some misfortune, had been bruised."
He's right, of course, and that's why these dark, moody films are still drawing such large crowds today.
George Cooper made the trmp to Charlottesville from Richmond. After appearing in small roles in various Virginia productions, including "Toy Soldiers" and the upcoming "The Foreign Student," he caught the acting bug.
This year, he came to his first festival in hopes of meeting Robert Mitchum and seeing some good movies. He may not have had his picture taken with the star, but he got his money's worth on the screen.
The restored print of "The Maltese Falcon" presented Thursday afternoon was remarkably clear, and given the technical advances that have been made in film audio, it probably sounds better today than it did to audiences in 1941.
The print of "Out of the Past" came from the Library of Congress and it too looked like it had just been made from a carefully preserved negative.
Like any good raconteur, Mitchum knows that the truth is a necessary element in a good story, but not the most important one. In the same vein, he said that Humphrey Bogart once told him what set the two of them apart from other actors of their generation: "You know, the difference between you and me and these other guys - we're funny."
Knowing a good exit line when he heard it, Roger Ebert ended their conversation right then. Besides, it was past time to screen "Ruby in Paradise," a fine low-budget movie starring Ashley Judd and Mitchum's grandson Bentley.
By the time that one was over, the shuttle buses had disappeared.
by CNB