International film festival rolls into town International film festival rolls into town (April 09, 2004)

Local screenings run April 25-28 at Century Cinemas on Shoreline Blvd.

By Julie O'Shea

With more than 170 big-screen offerings from 52 countries, the San Francisco Film Society promises to take you around the world in 15 days, starting April 15 when its festival honoring international cinema kicks off.

But Peninsula residents won't have to trek up to the city for a piece of the action. For the first time, the San Francisco International Film Festival will hold shows at Century Cinema 16 in Mountain View.

A truncated version of the festival, featuring 10 films, will play at the Shoreline Boulevard movie theater from April 25 through April 28.

The four-day run will include different types of films from a variety of countries, including France, India, Italy, China, Finland, Taiwan, Chile and the Philippines.

"It's sort of a mini festival," said Linda Blackaby, the film society's director of programming.

City officials couldn't be more thrilled.

"I think that's an exciting opportunity here in the city to have the film festival because it's internationally acclaimed, "said Ellis Berns, Mountain View's manager of economic development. "They've always wanted to have more of a presence here on the Peninsula."

Blackaby agreed. "It's part of our outreach program," she said, explaining why the Mountain View venue was chosen. "It's hard for people to make it up to the city."

Following the 2002 closure of the Park Theatre in Menlo Park, where the Peninsula branch of the festival had taken place in the past, the film society considered the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts before being told that the Castro Street theater is booked solid this month.

Starting two weeks from this Saturday, local film aficionados will get a chance to enter the worlds of a 12-year-old Finnish boy struggling with school bullies and an abusive home life in "The Handcuff King," a cross-dressing drama queen, working for a psychiatrist in France in "Chouchou," and a teenage Chilean girl who is abandoned by her family in "B-Happy."

Speaking by phone from New York, "B-Happy" director Gonzalo Justiniano, said he is looking forward to screening his film before American audiences. "B-Happy," a painfully sad drama which has already faced appreciative audiences at film festivals around the world, holds its U.S. premiere in Mountain View on April 28 starting at 7 p.m.

Justiniano said he based the film on the true story of a young waitress he met at a restaurant in Northern Chile. He was taken with the girl's woeful story of family abandonment but he noted that she never seemed down on life and never once cried.

"I found it was incredible and very special," Justiniano said of her story. So moved, he immediately went home and started penning the screenplay.

What makes Justiniano's movie so riveting is the fresh-faced actress he tapped for the lead. Manuela Martelli's eyes are so expressive and intensely sad it's hard to focus on anything other than this petite brunette lighting up the screen in this haunting tale of a damaged childhood.

"I needed a strong face," Justiniano said. Indeed, Martelli never breaks from character -- never once does she cry.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at jshea@mv-voice.com

Information

Regular admission tickets for all shows are $12 general and $9.50 for San Francisco Film Society members. Discounted tickets are available to seniors, persons with disabilities, students, children under the age of 12 and matinee attendees.

A Peninsula Pass, costing $70 for general admission and $60 for film society members, allows access to all shows screening in Mountain View.

For additional information about the films or for a more complete listing of shows times and venues for the 47th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival visit www.sffs.org or call (415) 931-FILM.

Show times

Dates and times for films showing at Century Cinemas 16,
located at 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd.:

April 25: "Burning Dreams," 2 p.m.; "El Alamen: The Line of Fire," 4 p.m.; "After You," 6:30 p.m. and "Chouchou," 9 p.m.

April 26: "Manhole," 6:45 p.m. and "Raghu Romeo," 9 p.m.

April 27: "The Handcuff King," 6:45 p.m. and "Then and Now," 8:45 p.m.

April 28: "B-Happy," 7 p.m. and "Love Me If You Dare," 9 p.m.

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