Sundance 2007 -- Day 6

I actually had tickets today -- no wait list lines. Before my morning film, I met a literary agent who works with "emerging" writers and writer-directors. She seems real nice and called me honey. Never Forever is written and directed by Gina Kim, stars Vera Farmiga, and is produced by my contrarian friend Andrew Fierberg (who, by the way, I saw up at the Film Music Festival last night and handed him a card). The film is about a woman who secretly gets pregnant with another man to please her suicidal, impotent husband. Yes, of course she falls in love with the other guy. No, this isn't going direct to Lifetime as far as I know. There was a sophistication to the film, especially Farmiga's subtle performance and Michael Nyman's interesting, sparse, and beautiful string music -- and some cool, artsy songs -- a nice change from the ubiquitous use of pop songs in movies.

So I was really involved in the movie, but I also found myself frustrated. I couldn't really buy her actions and motives, her husband was a bad actor, I didn't know why she was married to him, and I didn't know what she saw in her lover except the sex. And the ending was a bit facile. The writer-director is brilliant and said some really interesting things after the film, but I didn't see them on the screen. I got to chat briefly with the composer, though. And when I asked Vera if I could take her photo, she pulled me into the picture with her.

One of the most interesting -- and frustrating -- things about the morning was that senior programmer John Cooper introduced the movie by saying that he left it on the floor of his office for a long time because he didn't recognize the writer-director's name. So much for expecting a fair shake at Sundance. Of course she did get her film in the festival, but ironically it turned out to be pretty mainstream.

Joshua was written by David Gilbert and George Ratliff, directed by Ratliff, and stars my new friend Vera and Sam Rockwell. The simple premise: their son may be evil. Vera goes crazy (what a busy morning for her) and Rockwell is beside himself. Once again, the music was really interesting, simple strings and piano, sort of in Bartok's style. And it was incorporated into the film really well. The boy plays some of the score on the piano, including a really creepy version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. The movie was really suspenseful and sometimes funny, but again, what is such a mainstream type of film doing at Sundance?

Ran into twenty film students from San Anontio and invited them to my screening Friday night. Saw Little Chenier at the Park City Film Music Festival. What a charming and suspenseful little movie by Bethany Ashton, about a young man (Jonathon Schaech) looking out after his mentally disabled brother in Cajun country. It felt so authentically Cajun, and the music was really integrated well. Great surprise. Three excellent musical scores today.