SFIFF: November
SFist usually experiences a frisson of excitement when we visit the Kabuki Theater, usually from the 38 that nearly hits us every time we cross Geary at Fillmore (apparently, red lights don't apply to busses). But this time our excitement wasn't the brush with death kind, it was the far more pleasant brush with celebrity type, as we were at the Kabuki to take in the red carpet arrival of several of the folks responsible for November,the Festival's Zoom! screening.
There we were with our litle digital camera that seemed so fancy when we bought it at Best Buy, surrounded by big bad shooters. OK, that's kind of a lie, all the photographers there were really nice and made way for our shots, so we were feeling big love for the world when November's director Greg Harrison, screenwriter Benjamin Brand, and producer Danielle Renfrew hit the Kabuki.
It was a really sweet moment when these three former San Franciscans arrived, as they all had fans, friends, and family in the crowd cheering for them like all get out. It was almost anti-climactic when the star power arrived. Almost.
big ups to Tiffany Woolf of the San Francisco Film Society for all the great access SFist has been granted throughout the festival
Shortly after the filmmakers arrived, a tan stretch Mercedes pulled up and Courteney Cox Arquette hopped out and slowly made her way up the Kabuki stairs.
You know how there are always some kind of unusual looking people hanging out by the Kabuki? Well, in another example of how SF is better than New York, absolutely no effort was made to clear those folks out just 'cause we had company coming, and the Kabuki remained its classicly eccentric self.
We wondered how CCA would handle the non-traditionally attractive folks vying for her attention, and she stopped and spoke to several of them on her way up the stairs. We immediately felt horrible shame, as we completely ignored these selfsame people when they approached us as we ascended the stairs earlier that evening, and vowed to make a WWCCAD? bracelet for ourselves at first opportunity.
As CCA posed in front of the SFIFF facade for photos, we shook off our shame and, in a moment that would make Manolo proud, we asked CCA the question that had been nagging at us since she alighted from her limo.
SFist: Hey Courteney, where'd you get your shoes?CCA: My shoes? (Here she did that flippy foot thing all girls do when you ask about their shoes. You know the move.)
SFist: Yeah, I love 'em! (Shut up. We did.)
CCA: Oh, they're Prada!
SFist: Sweet
What did you want us to ask? How's Jen? Give us some credit, folks.
After that, we all went on into Theater One (what happened to the disco ball?) to watch the film. As November is slated to go into wide release later this summer we don't want to give too much away about the film at this point.
We will tell you that the cast (Cox is joined by James LeGros, Nora Dunn, and Anne Archer, among others)is roundly excellent, that the cinematography is gorgeous (we believe it was awarded for this at its Sundance premiere), and, in the words of SFist Matt, it was "a film pregnant with signifigance and meaning, but not a whole heck of a lot of clarity." Showing the obvious influence of David Lynch and Nicholas Roeg, as well as a hint of Groundhog Day, November details the psychological disintegration of a woman who suffers a tramautic loss. We were engrossed and moved by the film, but worry that the style to substance ratio might lean in favor of the former.
In the post-film Q&A, we learned that the film was shot in 15 days for 150K in partnership with production company InDigEnt, who specialized in tight, DV shoots such as November's. Given the time frame and bugetary considerations, we were impressed by the inventiveness (and pragmatism) of director Harrison and producer Renfrew (after hearing her speak we totally want to be a producer when we grow up), who got a lot of bang for their buck. We were also happy to hear that screenwriter Brand used to work at San Francisco's Academy of Art, because some of our favorite people work there and it gives us hope that they too might one day escape.
We're proud of CCA for making what some might perceive as an unusual choice in her post-friends career. We've always enjoyed the level of intelligent intensity she's brought to every role we've seen her in, from Ace Ventura to the Scream trilogy, and now November, and we hope that she, as well as the rest of the November gang, continues to make choices as interesting as this one.