Section B · Page 4
---
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, January 19, 2001
Sundance films parrot previous movie success
The Associated Press
PARK CITY, Utah — Some entries in the Sundance Film Festival may sound familiar.
There's a movie about a middle-aged man's relationship with a teen-age girl, but it's not American Beauty. There's a war story about cracking the German U-boat code, only it isn't U-571. There's a tale of a rock journalist profiling a difficult subject, and it's not Almost Famous. And there's Samuel L. Jackson as a trash-talking New Yorker investigating a murder, but his name's not John Shaft.
This year's lineup at Sundance.
industry premiere showcase for independent film, reflects a growing convergence between studio pictures and shoestring movie making.
Just as hits such as *Pulp Fiction* taught studios that indie fare
Jackson: stars in The Caveman's Valentine
could turn a big buck, so independent filmmakers have become less snooty, branching beyond the artsy and edgy to incorporate more commercial, mainstream elements in their movies.
"We're seeing a different range of influences. It's not just Bergman and Fellini and Kurosawa," said festival co-director Geoffrey Gilmore. "The work we have in the festival is all over the place. If you look at the films, they seem to be coming from so many different directions."
The 11-day festival opened yesterday with director Christine Lahti's My First Mister, starring Albert Brooks and Leee Sobieski in an unusual romance about an
uptight store manager and a teenage clerk.
In the wake of U-571 comes Enigma, director Michael Apted's spy caper about Allied efforts to crack the U-boat code. Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott star.
Jackson stars as a bellowing, mentally unbalanced man who lives in a cave in New York City and sets out to solve a murder when a body turns up outside his home in The Caveman's Valentine. Studio and independent flicks have become harder to differentiate.
DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg's blockbuster-minded studio, made American Beauty, which had a relatively modest budget and had the risque feel of an indie feature.
The current hit Traffic started as a big-studio film that was dropped by 20th Century Fox and rescued by independent distributor USA Films. The finished product was a hybrid with big-name talent (Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones) but a smaller budget and a gritty feel more akin to the art house than the mall mega-plex.
"For the past eight or nine years, there's been a blurring of how we would define independent films and major studio films," said Amir Malin, president of Artisan Entertainment, which picked up The Blair Witch Project at Sundance two years ago.
Like Almost Famous, director Allison Anders' Sundance entry Things Behind the Sun follows a music writer on a rock assignment.
Anders said the indie-film world had veered into overdone territory a few years back, "elicited genre stuff like white, middle-class boys making films about gangsters, things they don't know anything about or soft, date movies about twenty-somethings, nameless idiots and their dating problems."
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
Crossword
DOWN
1 Sticky candy
2 Astound
3 Region of Israel
4 Ms. Tanguay
5 Travis and Quaid
1/19/01
ACROSS
1 Gear tooth
4 __ Stanley Gardner
8 Mown strips
14 "Mogambo" star Gardner
15 Colorado resort
16 Instance of reening
17 Trust
19 Prayer beads
20 Swimming
21 Lowered in dignity
23 "Le Moorte d'Athurl" writer
25 Desires
26 Actor McKellen
27 She sheep
28 Nincompoop
29 Poly follower?
31 Lustful looks
33 Concerning
34 "___She Lovey" conferred
42 Martial follower
43 Serengeti sprinter
44 Producer Spelling
45 Computer language
54 Guy's date
54 Minic
55 Jihad or peeke
56 Judah's son
58 Sonnet tinale
58 Marsh plant
63 Rodgers' collaborator
64 Language of Mogadishu
66 Wine from one type of grape
68 Cascade Range state
70 Open a bit
70 Dined
71 Fit in
72 Pronouncements
73 Williams of baseball
© 2001 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
6 Parasites on people
7 Mountaint poem
8 City near the Poconos
9 Full of trees
10 Altair area
11 Fawning sycophants
12 "Ben _ "
13 Barrynyard enclosure
14 Wedding vow
15 Tailing vine
16 Coast file
17 East Coast capte
18 Trawling device
19 Bay of Lake Huron
20 Pel Dove
21 Oxidation
22 Paulo
23 Cigar-smoking comic
24 Merchant's goal
25 Stermard
26 Agile deer
27 Fowling net
Answers to Thursday's crossword
47 Door knock
48 Manage
49 Vexed
51 Doodorant applicator
53 Wrong
57 Stellar blasts
99 " _Loves You "
61 Shakespearean villain
62 Indian prince
62 Shed tears
65 Raw mineral
65 Adresse 15 adresse
VH1 to showcase dark humor series
The Associated Press
The difference, though, is the music.
LOS ANGELES — In the tradition of Tales From the Crypt and Rod Serling's Night Gallery comes an updated version of twisted tales.
Although most of VHI's recent excursions into television movie production have received lukewarm receptions — too much flash, not enough substance the music channel seems to have finally tapped
VHI's Strange Frequency, airing Wednesday at 8 p.m., combines music morality tales with dark humor, offering four short stories that cover different music genres.
— the music channel seems to have finally tapped into what it does best: short, fun music programs.
Don't look for Strange Frequency to make political statements, debate musical expression or ask which genre is better. Rather, it's simply dark and funny. Best of all, we know people are not.
The stories feature John Taylor of Duran Duran fame and actors Judd Nelson (Suddenly Susan and The Breakfast Club). Eri Palladino (ER) and Eric Roberts (Star 80 and Runaway Train).
"It's a cross between a TV movie and a rock video, and it makes an interesting combination. I liked the idea that it was sort of Twilight Zone with a rock 'n' roll edge," said Taylor, who plays opposite Holland Taylor (The Practice) in a segment titled "Room Service."
Taylor plays Jimmy Blitz, a wild rock star back on the road after a decade's hiatus. He wastes little time reclaiming his reputation, trashing hotel rooms and destroying property.
But Blitz's antics are all in a day's work for maid Marge Crowley, who cleans up after the nightly parties.
Angered by the maid's ability to miraculously clean up his mess, Blitz declares war and sets out trying to best the maid. After all, he laments, what good is a trashed room, if evidence simply vanishes the next day.
Taylor assured he didn't draw on personal experience for the role. "I'm such a momma's boy. I used to think it was rebellious to throw a towel on the floor," he said.
kansan.com
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PIZZA!
- DELIVERS • 10 MINUTE CARRY-OUT SERVICE
• VOLUME DISCOUNTS • CATERING
"NO COUPON SPECIALS"
3-PIZZAS
TWO-FERS
2-PIZZAS
2-TOPPINGS
2-DRINKS
$10.25
842-1212
1601 WEST 23RD
Southern Hills Center
EVERYDAY
THREE-FERS
PARTY "10"
CARRY-OUT
3-PIZZAS
1-TOPPING
3-DRINKS
$13.25
10-PIZZAS
1-TOPPING
CARRIER OUT
1-PIZZA
1-TOPPING
1-DRINK
$4.00
$35.00
841-PLAY
1029 Massachusetts
DELIVERY HOURS
11AM-2AM
11AM-3AM
LUNCH • DINNER • LATE NIGHT
DINE-IN AVAILABLE • WE ACCEPT CHECKS
DELIVERY CHARGES MAY APPLY
SUN-THURS
FRI-SAT
- TRY OUR CHEESESTICKS WITH SAUCE FOR DIPPING!
20 OUNCES ISN'T THE DRINK. IT'S THE BURRITO.
FULL BELLY FOR UNDER FIVE BUCKS.
9TH & MASS
We Buy, Sell & Trade USED & NEW Sports Equipment
Red Lvon Tavern
A touch of Irish in downtown Lawrence 944 Massachusetts 832-8228
ECM Spring Fest
An "Open House" featuring info on spring activities
Women's Space
women's support group Wednesdays 8-9 p.m.
West Side Folk concerts
Coffee Hours
get free admission
Coffee Hours
Weekdays 9:00 - 11:00 am
Donuts, Coffee, etc.
ECM Student Leadership Team spring semester openings
Baker Wetlands Immersion date TBA
ECM Overnight
Mildegard of Bingen
February 10-11, Bethany Place, Topeka, KS
Prairie Chicken Dance date TBA
date TBA
Jubilee Café
-sign up to be a volunteer
Tuesdays and Fridays 6:30-9 a.m
Graduate Student Fellowship
University Forum
Wednesdays noon-1 p.m.
KOINONIA Community
covenant / cooperative living at ECM openings for Fall '01
ECM Saturdays
- a day of silence, study and celebratory meal February 24, March 31 and April 21, noon-7.15 p.m.
Sunday, January 21, 8 p.m. at ECM Center
(across from Yellow Sub)
Alternative Spring Break Informational Meeting Sunday, February 4, 7:30 p.m. at ECM
Abiquiu, New Mexico • Garden City, Kansas New York, NY • Austin, TX
Human Sexuality in
Everyday Life with Dr. Dennis Dailey
Thursdays 6:30-8:30 p.m.
beginning January 25 for 10 sessions
Registration $35 for students,
$45 non-students
Sign-up for this great non-credit class at ECM!
and checkout this photo for more opportunities
Stop by the ECM table at the Information Fair in the KS Union today!