DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709120071

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E13  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER  

                                            LENGTH:  114 lines

MONTREAL FESTIVAL HONORS SIMPLE ART OF FILMMAKING

NEW STARS. Old stars. Wannabe-but-never-will-be-stars. And directors. And writers.

They were all a part of Montreal's Festival des Films du Monde, the annual unreeling of more than 200 movies from around the world. There were films that you won't see anywhere else - as well as quite a few that will be household names within months or years.

The Hollywood stars are supposedly at the glitzier fest in Toronto, but Montreal had the adventurous finds from movie markets such as Iran, Brazil, Cuba, China, Bulgaria and just about every country of the civilized world. It was a United Nations of film. There's the distinct hint that plots are the same all over - a film about poverty from Iran, a film about adultery from Japan, a film about womanizing from the United States. Storytelling is the same.

The tone was perhaps best stated by Australian actress Frances Collier's acceptance speech when she won the ``best actress'' accolade.

``So many festivals are involved in glamour,'' she said. ``It's a pleasure to be involved in one that is just for the joy of film.''

Collier played a kind of tough-but-naive girl-on-the-run in a ``Bonnie and Clyde''-type melodrama called ``Kiss or Kill.'' Her American breakthrough came in ``Love and Other Catastrophes,'' a comedy about college loves which was a surprise hit at the Naro Theater.

``I'm getting scripts from Hollywood,'' she admitted, ``but, well, I want to be careful. I love Australia, but, sure, I'd like to work in Hollywood. Who wouldn't?''

Kuroki Hitomi, one of the biggest stars in Japan, was prominent at a party given by the Japanese embassy on the Montreal waterfront. Hitomi, through an interpreter, said that her next film will not have ``so many'' nude scenes. Her festival film, which everyone seemed to either love or hate, no in-between, was ``Lost Paradise.'' It's about adultery and is the biggest-grossing Japanese film of the year in her homeland.

Ingmar Bergman, the great Swedish director, no longer makes films. But he was represented by his son, director Daniel Bergman and his former mistress, actress Liv Ullman. Daniel Bergman brought with him his new film ``Expectations,'' an adaptation of a number of short stories by Raider Jonssen (author of ``My Life as a Dog''). At parties, he was accompanied by a long-legged Swedish beauty who had a bit part in the film.

Daniel Bergman apprenticed, as a boy, on such films as ``The Magic Flute'' and ``Face to Face.'' He is much less gloomy than his father but with the same apparent love for actors, and for intimate scenes.

Ullman, who starred in many Bergman films, is now directing. She showed ``Private Confessions,'' for which she directed a familiar Bergman co-star, Max von Sydow. She was also announced as the festival's ``good will ambassador'' in Europe although she pointed out, ``I'm not sure what my job is. I always promote good film, wherever. It's too bad that so many of the best films aren't shown in the United States. They keep telling us there is no market for them there. I can't believe it.''

Nicolas Cage, who is in Montreal filming the thriller ``Snake Eyes'' with Charlie Sheen, was carefully guarded at his table during the opening night party in a chalet on Mount Royal, overlooking the city. Accompanying his wife, actress Patricia Arquette, Cage sat at a table with his director Brian De Palma. To say they were guarded is an understatement. A burly publicist kept party schmoozers at a distance.

Most humorous overheard confrontation: A woman attempted to reach across and put out her cigarette in an ashtray near Cage. The bodyguard grabbed her arm and yelled ``No!'' The woman shouted, ``What are they? The untouchables? I'm a lesbian. What the hell would I want with Nicolas Cage?''

Joanna Going, who starred as the wife of Kevin Costner in the epic ``Wyatt Earp,'' presented her film, ``Still Breathing,'' a love story in which she co-stars with Brendan Fraser. The film concerns the theory that a true love is out there for everyone - somewhere. Asked if she had met hers, she said, ``Several times. At least twice. I don't think there is just one true love per person. There may be more than one, and then, I think we should sing the Edith Piaf song, `No regrets.' There should never be regrets about a past love. Just be glad you experienced it.''

From England, Alan Rickman presented ``Winter Guest,'' his directorial debut. In it, Emma Thompson and her real-life mother play mother and daughter enmeshed in a touchy relationship. Rickman bristled when the press mentioned it was a break from his identity as a villain (he ``abolished Christmas'' in ``Robin Hood'' and fought Bruce Willis in ``Die Hard''). ``I don't believe in categorizing actors,'' he said, stiffly. ``I have been in many roles in which I was not a villain.''

He added that he owed much to Emma Thompson in getting ``Winter Guest'' made. ``Once she agreed to be in it, the money came,'' he said.

Bernie Casey directed, wrote, starred in and produced ``The Dinner.'' It is about three well-educated, upper-class black men who talk over a dinner about race relations, and oppression. Noting that the screening had many walkouts, Casey said, ``Not as many as I expected. I'm trying to do no less than re-invent the image of the black man on screen. The men pictured here are successful and intelligent. You haven't seen them pictured in movies before.''

Casey, who starred in ``Brian's Song'' and ``Roots - the Next Generation,'' said he put his own money into ``The Dinner,'' but has yet to get a United States distributor for the film.

``I do note, though, that it is one of only two American films chosen for competition,'' he said. He sent greetings to filmmaker Tim Reid, a Norfolk native who is currently making movies at his own studio in Petersburg. He starred for Reid in ``Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored.''

With more than 200 films screened, some 20 were entered in competition. An Iranian film, ``Children of Heaven,'' won ``best film'' honor from the jury, as well as from the public (who chose it ``most popular''). It's about two children, Ali and Zohre, who have one pair of shoes between them. She wears the shoes to attend girls' school in the morning and rushes home in time for him to wear them to boys' school in the afternoon.

In second place, was ``Homer - Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man,'' a joint Swiss-Italian-French film, a film about a blind poet traveling around the world with his beautiful, young companion.

None of the American entries won awards. (Laura Dern, in contrast, was last year's actress winner for ``Citizen Ruth'').

But have you had a look at the preponderance of explosions and non-plots in American movies this summer? A festival, such as this, is a lone hope for unorthodox, and challenging, films to get the backing to make it to our screens. An alternative to the present fare is, indeed, needed. ILLUSTRATION: FILE photo

Despite being heavily guarded, Nicolas Cage had a humorous

confrontation with a lesbian.

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