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08/06/2006
'Eating the films up'Some make a week of seeing one movie after another
Noel Boulter of Ferndale is seeing 13 Stanley Kubrick movies throughout the Traverse City Film Festival. The Ferndale resident watches the director's movies over and over, has studied and read biographies about him and flew to Melbourne, Australia, last year for an exhibition celebrating Kubrick's life and nearly 50-year career. When he learned that the Traverse City Film Festival planned a tribute to one of the 20th century's most influential directors, Boulter jumped at the chance to attend. He'll see all 11 of Kubrick's films this week, including his last, "Eyes Wide Shut," plus documentaries about the director and actor Malcolm McDowell. "His approach to making films is so interesting to me," said Boulter, 36, a theater student at Oakland Community College. "He made his films on his terms and he didn't waste a lot as far as manpower. His films have so much depth — the scores, the lighting, the props. His films are layered with so much art." About 75,000 people were expected to attend the second annual film festival, according to co-founder and director Michael Moore. Like Boulter, many made a week of it, taking vacation or sick time, snatching hours off from work and making up for it later and staying up late night after night to attend parties and midnight screenings and free films at the bay-side Open Space. If they're lucky, they'll also squeeze in a few meals and, if they're out-of-towners, a little shopping and sightseeing. Linda Adelson and her husband, Andrew, took time off from their estate liquidation business to come to Traverse City for the week with daughter Amanda, 19. The Bloomfield family made reservations at a hotel they found through the festival Web site and arrived early Monday morning in time for Amanda's film workshop with Moore and director Terry George. A University of Michigan student majoring in film and English, Amanda was one of 30 aspiring high school and college screenwriters and filmmakers selected for the festival workshop. "It's an opportunity for the three of us to spend the week together," said Linda Adelson. "Earlier in the summer when she came home we were thinking about a trip we could do together. We were thinking about going abroad; we were thinking about going into Canada. Then all of the sudden I opened up the newspaper and read about the film festival. It's something fun we can do together and it's her interest. We all love to watch films; we love northern Michigan. "And when I read about (the films) they looked interesting, not stupid; not like 'You, Me and Dupree.' They had substance, and it seemed like they were chosen well so that kind of clinched the deal." This is the first week the family has spent in Traverse City, though they visit the region every summer, Adelson said. Between 13 films — they were seeing "Little Miss Sunshine" on Linda's 52nd birthday — they planned to drive to Charlevoix, where she and Andrew honeymooned. Along the way, they also hope to try out a new restaurant they read about in a recent Hour Detroit magazine that had Moore on the cover. "I tried to do films that kind of started later in the day so we could spend the day doing whatever we chose — go to the beach, shop, get up to Leelanau," Adelson said. Boulter has been to Traverse City a handful of times and arrived two days early with brother Bret to scope out the downtown area, the parking situation and the four festival venues. The pair are staying with their father, Calvin, a recent transplant to northern Michigan who lives on Old Mission Peninsula. "We're filmies," said Boulter, who also plans to take in some of the free Open Space films on the 60-foot inflatable screen. "We've actually done some home movie-esque stuff of our own." In Ferndale, he said he watches a couple of matinees a week at one of three area art film houses — down from the seven movies a week he used to rent. He chooses his films with care. "I'm pretty picky about it," he said. "I will go see a summer blockbuster movie just to do that. But I like stories about people, documentary styles that are not pretentious but honest, not glamorous but tell about heartfelt, honest people doing extraordinary things." Stuart and Nina Tarr don't go to Hollywood-type movies, saying the "visual spectacles" rarely engage them. "My wife's a real movie hound," said Stuart Tarr, who does freelance editorial work for the University of Illinois. "I'm less of one. I like them, but if they're not very good, I get bored. I'd rather read a book than waste my time watching a bad movie." The couple prefer foreign films, which is why they're especially attracted to the Traverse City Film Festival, he said. "I think seeing foreign films is a good way, an interesting way, to get a sense of a culture and the artistic sensibility of a culture," he said. "So much of what we learn about places through journalism seems to be cartoonish in a number of ways, spun by various people, cliches. You never get a real sense of a people and a culture." Summer residents of Glen Arbor, the Tarrs plan to see 12 films this week at an average of two a day. They'll be joined by Stuart's brother from San Diego and his sister from New York, both of who read about the festival in their local newspapers. "Last year, we didn't see as many as we did this year, but there weren't as many to see," Tarr said. "If (my family) weren't here, we would have gone to more." While he always liked movies, Boulter said he didn't morph into a film buff until a spring 2005 vacation in New Zealand, which happened to be hosting a human rights film festival. "I would come out of one movie and go into another movie and I'd do that for about a week and a half," he said, adding that he saw 30 movies. "I wasn't doing all these touristy things; I wasn't going to see the whales, I wasn't bungee jumping. I was just eating the films up." When a friend told him about the Traverse City Film Festival, he circled it on his calendar. "I missed it last year and I wanted to make a point of seeing it," he said.
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