Warsaw Film Festival

This is a bit of a delayed posting, but I thought I'd mention that I got to go to the opening festivities of the Warsaw film festival. There was a lot of press, and I suppose famous people that I have not been previously aware of. Since it wasn't the movie's premiere (which was in Cannes), there was no red carpet. There was, however, a green carpet. *shrug* Go figure.
The festival opened with a movie called "Don't Come Knocking." The director of the movie Wim Wenders (he's German, but the movie was in English) was present, the Minister of Education, and Andrzej Wajda, who I'm told is THE Polish film director. I looked at a list of Wim Wender's previous works, and I'm sad to say the only thing I recognized was the music video for U2s "Best of" Alblum. Below is an adverstising photo from the movie.I won't say too much about the movie...it's not that it was bad...I just don't normally go for artsy movies. There were actors I recognized including Jessica Lange, it was a thoughtful movie, but slightly overdramatic. What's really odd is that I just saw another movie that Jessica Lange was in this year called "Broken Flowers" (don't see it...Bill Murray being serious doesn't make a good movie). The premises were very similar. A washed up father who was a lady-killer in his day goes to look for the grown child he never knew he had. Jessica Lange is the woman he suspects is the mother of the child in both movies.
In the director's opening speech (he's pictured above at this event) he said his movie was about the American West - which never truly belonged to the Americans. First, it belonged to the Native Americans, and then to trappers - French, British, Spanish...Polish - but never American. And he then welcomed the room of Polish viewers to a movie about "our West." Yes, it was a nice introduction, and it was a nice tie-in, but being an American from my West, I had disapprove just a little bit. Although the thought of Polish trappers running around Colorado is so outlandish, I also have to crack a grin.