NORTH BEACH FILM FESTIVAL

Concurrently with the Nantucket Film Festival, the Kitty and I are screening some Hollywood gems on the small screen in our apartment on North Beach. I have tried to keep you apprised of our cinematic selections. We have Netflix and I am sure you know how that works... you get two DVDs, you watch them. mail then back and in a couple of days they send you the next ones on your list. My email tells me that coming in two days will be Avatar, and another, Old Men. Surprisingly we have not seen Avatar in the movies where it has appeared on IMAX but I think we will still be able to appreciate some of the special effects on TV. We watch an average of 5 movies per week but almost no regular TV. I hope we can keep this up because most regular TV, especially in the summer, is drivel.

At the "other" Nantucket Film Festival, they will be showing movies that we would not ordinarily rent at a video store or from Netflix. One of them is "The Extra Man" with Kevin Kline. This was the opening movie at the Sarasota Film Festival and Mr. Kline attended and was well liked by those who met him and listened to his Q and A sessions. I am sure the moviegoers in Nantucket will enjoy this film as much as I did. I am sure it will make a stop at a theatre near you some time. Go see it. Eccentricity well portrayed. The other selections at the NFF are a little too "Indie" for me. My son, would groove on them as he has a different palate for art, movies, and music. For example, he thinks Lou Reed is a god. I think Elvis and the Beatles are gods. He loves Andy Warhol's art, I love Picasso. He would actually rent a movie that never made it to a theater, principally because the masses did not appreciate it. I am among the masses, cinematographically a least. I also enjoy the contribution that editing makes in the movies I see. Some of the films I have seen at film festivals go on and on and on endlessly. After I watched them for 3 1/2 hours I would say "Get an editor involved in that and you will have a great 2 hour movie." It's like when my father used to show travel movies and slides when I was a kid and he would splice in a 4 minute segment where he forgot to take the lens cap off and a room full of people would sit there in the dark yawning. You should pray that the excess footage in these films only lasts 4 minutes but you get the drift.