ICF day 1

by Nancy Borchers

The first day of the Idyllwild Cinema Fest started off at the Rustic Theater which I love.  The seats are comfortable. The lobby is delightful with the historic Belden Pine Craft furniture made right here in Idyllwild from the 1930s to the 1950s.  Historic and current movie posters decorate the walls along with all the DVDs I can look at to contemplate future viewing.

In the morning I talked to Phil Calderone yesterday and we chatted about some of the business in town connecting with some of the films. I’m looking forward to some more information on this since I think that the more connections we all have the more profitable the Festival will be to the whole community. I am so impressed with the amount of work he and his wife Barbara have put into this Festival. He said that after the festival he is going to take a week off and start right in on next year’s festival. So get ready, community, when he calls say yes to anything this hard working man wants.

The first film that Annamarie, Lou, Sallie and I saw was “Privacy”. It was an entertaining engaging film with John Shepherd in the leading role.This actor shows a lot of promise. The Title works graphics before and especially after the film were stunning.

Then we saw “Hawk” which had beautiful visuals but a confusing plot.I wish they had been more careful with the costumes. The grommets on the boy’s costume were way too modern. Sorry about that, but I notice anachronisms and Sallie, who knows the ins and outs of the film industry, has great insight with the quality of acting and overall production details.

We then saw 'Anaphora,' a choppy but thoughtful terrorist/police state/time travel film that, since it was German, made me think about education in Germany and the country’s history.  “Revelations” was unexpectedly funny. I loved the zombies.They were so camp.

We walked over to the Caine Learning Center to see Wolfgang Bodison’s “Broken”. I went back to the Rustic to see “Posey” and got stuck seeing way to much of “Red Road”. Carlos Reynosa is a very talented man and I especially love his flute music, but this film could have done with some more editing. The time lapse background film was stunning. Billy Dermont, the director of “Posey” and all the actors were present so the discussion after was quite a bit of fun.  I went back to the Caine for “The Book Club”, a thoughtful insight into long time friendships.

We all went to dinner at the Lumber Mill and then finished off with “Least Among Saints” the most professional and all around best film we saw all day.  With very few glitches it was the one with a moral: Help others and you help yourself.  This speaks to this community so well. 

When the editor of the Town Crier published the list of local volunteer organizations, I was surprised by the number. I knew there were a lot, but fifty-five is amazing. And that doesn’t include those that don’t have nonprofit status but still donate and work hard for the benefit of the community. This community is wonderful.