08/02/2006

Cinema Paradiso

My week at the Film Festival

By Beth Milligan
Local columnist &
Film Festival blogger

Beth Milligan is writing about the Traverse City Film Festival in her blog, "Cinema Paradiso: My Week at the Film Festival." Milligan is attending a variety of events daily, all week, at the Film Festival and will write about it and post photos at http://blogs.record-eagle.com. Here’s a sampling.

On opening night at the State Theatre: 'Pittsburgh' was great. Really funny, quirky, fast-paced film.

I'd kind of like Jeff Goldblum to be my new best friend, actually. Director Chris Bradley was on hand to do a Q&A after the credits rolled, and spoke engagingly about what was apparently a largely improvised, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants production.

On Tuesday morning's panel discussion at the Opera House:

Especially outspoken was Malcom McDowell, who had the crowd in hysterics with his loud, unabashed opinions about actors ("Tom Hanks is the LAST actor anyone should have ever thought of to play the lead in 'Da Vinci Code''') and directors ("Ron Howard is SUCH a boring director, so Middle America.")