Coppola's sprawling cinematic masterpiece is an enigmatic portrayal of the search for mental and psychic equilibrium during the Vietnam War.  Using a massive assault of images, the movie transports viewers up river to discover the ecstasy of danger and the agony of evil.  The mingling of intense acting, musical score, fluid photography, and a script with space for improvisation result in compelling interrogation of the meaning of human life and culture.  Though Coppola is aware that movies are less capable of dealing with abstract ideas, this film is a superb example of their ability to present moods and feelings, a look, and expression.  Apocalypse Now achieves greatness by recreating in characters and images, something of the experience that "war is hell." This film explodes off the big screen.  Viewers are ushered into an altered state to view a different reality and they dare not stay unchanged when they leave.

Directed by:  Francis Ford Coppola.  Cinematography:  Vittorio Storaro.
Written by:  Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius. With:  Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, and Marlon Brando.
 

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (104 min.)

In Woody Allen's 1989 cinematic update of Dostoevski's classic novel, there is no necessary or obvious connection between crime and punishment.  The film raises the specter of a world in which the talented don't necessarily succeed, the evil don't falter, the glib reap the rewards, and the innocent suffer.  This is a wistful, poignant comedy in which Allen plays a struggling, talented filmmaker who is terminally unsuccessful and is condemned to work producing a film about his superficial and extremely successful brother-in-law (played by Alan Alda). In a parallel story Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) plays a successful doctor who desperately wants to end his long-term adulterous affair with Dolores (Mia Farrow).  His desperation leads him to murder and leads the film to ask the question:  Who gets to live happily ever after?  Allen and cinematographer Sven Nykvist use the plush interiors and hard exteriors of Manhattan to create the visual language of this morality tale, with no obvious moral.  This is one of Woody Allen's most ambitious and thought-provoking films.

Directed by:  Woody Allen.  Producer:  Robert Greenhut.  Cinematography:  Sven Nykvist.  Written by:  Woody Allen.  With:  Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Anjelica Huston, Martin Landau.
 

PINNOCHIO (87 min.)

When Walt Disney's Pinnochio was released in 1940, there was no such thing as computer animation.  Every frame of this fully animated, 87-minute feature was painstakingly drawn by hand.  A total of fifteen directors and seven writers received credit.  But no one doubted that the creative genius behind this technical masterpiece was Disney himself.

Based on the story by Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini) Pinnochio is the story of a wooden puppet's search for humanity.  When, at the beginning of the film, Pinnochio sings "I've Got No Strings," we realize that he has been given the means of his own salvation or destruction—a free will.  The Blue Fairy has also given him a conscience, Jiminy Cricket.  When the sly fox, J. Worthington Foulfellow, sings it's "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actors Life for Me)" and leads Pinnochio down the wrong road, Jiminy screams and yells.  But Pinnochio has not yet learned to listen to his conscience.

After many exciting and terrifying misadventures, Pinnochio does learn to tell the truth, to be loyal and brave and, above all, to love.  Because of love he sacrifices his own life to save Geppetto, his creator.  In the end, the Blue Fairy brings Pinnochio to life.  Now he is no longer a wooden puppet but a human being—"a real boy."

Directed by:  Dick Sharpsteen. Written by:  Carlo Lorenzini. Voices:   Dick Jones, Cliff Edwards, Evelyn Venable, Walter Catlett, Frankie Darro, Charles Judels, Don Brodie, Christian Rub.
 

IKIRU (TO LIVE) (143 min.)

A perceptive critic, the late Vernon Young, described Akira Kurosawa as "the most physical director in the history of the movies."  Known for his masterful use of the camera and "bravura editing," Kurosawa remains the best known of all Japanese directors.  The two filmmakers who Kurosawa modestly acknowledges as his "illustrious masters" were Jean Renoir and John Ford.  Yet few directors, if any, have surpassed his accomplishments or the worldwide recognition he has achieved.  His distinguished films include Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Dersu Uzala, Dodes'kaden, Kagemusha, and Ran.

Ikiru has been described by Donald Richie as "a moral document open to interpretation." Made two years after the director's international success with Rashomon, this film is among Kurosawa's most personal and probing statements.  The central character, facing death, states his final quest with a desperate clarity:  "I want to find out what it is . . . to live!"  Ikiru has been described also as an existentialist film, and while Kurosawa did not see himself in this tradition, Sartre, Camus, and especially Dostoevski, were undoubtedly influences.  The principle of "self-discovery through action" is at the heart of the drama.

Although the film has been criticized for its sentimentality and indulgent construction, Ikiru is an international classic which crosses cultural borders. And the "swing sequence" at the end is justly famous.

Directed by:  Akira Kurosawa.  Cinematography:  Asaichi Nakai. Written by: Akira Kurasawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni. With:  Takashi Shimura, Nabuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki, Miki Odagiri.
 

THE SEVENTH SEAL (96 min.)

In Bergman's films "the search for meaning" almost always takes place against a background marked by the reality of death.  The Seventh Seal, which takes its title from the book of Revelation, tells the story of a knight who returns disillusioned from the Crusades and struggles against the call of Death. To gain a temporary reprieve, the knight proposes the two play a game of chess.  As long as this proceeds, which it does in stages, he has time to explore the mystery of life.  The knight's search for God is counterpointed by his squire's skepticism, the terrible ravages of the plague, and by various encounters he has along the way, for example, with an acting troupe and with a hypocritical seminarian.  Throughout, the film is visually striking, its dialogue compelling, the acting—by an ensemble containing many of Bergman's favorites—first-rate.  In some respects the clearest statement of  this director's credo, this unique masterpiece wrestles with several of the deepest human issues:  the necessity of confronting death to understand life, the role of art in masking and unveiling truth, the significance of love in the search for meaning, and the silence and possibility of God. Though the film has the form of a medieval mystery play, it has enormous contemporary appeal.

Directed by:  Ingmar Bergman.  Cinematography:  Gunnar Fischer. Written by:  Ingmar Bergman.  With:  Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bibi Andersson, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe.
 

THE PLAYER (123 min.)

The logo of this grim comedy is a strip of film forming a noose.  The Player presents a caustic, almost surreal view of Hollywood's lethal logic of success. 

Altman's improvisational style creates a naturalistic atmosphere, with overlapping speech and unexpected moments.  As with his critical successes, M*A*S*H and Nashville, The Player is based on the solid structure of a good screenplay.  Tolkin's pitch-perfect dialogue and equally adroit casting of Tim Robbins as the ultimate Hollywood executive give a firm foundation to the director's sometimes undisciplined approach.

Altman was considered a pioneer (with Coppola and Penn) in the "new Hollywood" of the 1970s, when a more European sensibility became evident in films with unresolved stories and less-defined characters.  He has always had a self-conscious awareness of the gap between film and reality, and much of his work is laced with parody. 

If a "search for meaning" in film is to be authentic, then the makers of films must be relatively free of both creative interference and a self-crippling cynicism.  While The Player's sardonic humor may appear to be cynical, it may also reflect Altman's underlying quixotic idealism.  Or, it might simply be a cry for help.

Directed by:  Robert Altman. Written by:  Michael Tolkin  With:   Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James, Cynthia Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Dean Stockwell, Richard E. Grant, Dina Merrill, Sydney Pollack, Lyle Lovett, Randall Batinkoff, Gina Gerhson.
 

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (139 min.)

Stanley Kubrick's landmark sci-fi movie, that dates back to the eve of Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon, remains a truly moving visual experience.  But more than that, 2001: A Space Odyssey continues to raise questions of ultimate human significance:  the origins of intelligent life, the threat of runaway technology enslaving its human creators, the mysteries of outer space, evolution and transcendent future.  The "mythological documentary" as Stanley Kubrick once described it, opens with the "Dawn of Man" prologue, teasing the audience with the thought that even before apes battled for control the plant, intelligent life once existed.  Millions of years later, in the year 2001, an American scientist travels to the moon to investigate the discovery of a monolith similar to the slab that had vexed the apemen at the dawn of human civilization.  A few months later the scene shifts to a spaceship piloted by Keir Dullea (Bowman) and Gary Lockwood (Poole) on its way to Jupiter, seeking evidence relating to the monolith found on the moon.  Also on board are three scientists in the state of hibernation (to conserve resources), and Hal, the computer, that will eventually turn on its creators.  The ensuing struggle between runaway technology and the two human astronauts provides the dramatic backbone of the mythological documentary.  2001: A Space Odyssey reveals Kubrick's faith in the power of images, subtle sound effects, and moving music to engage the viewer.  With no spoken words for the first 30 minutes, the film is a virtual catalog of cinematic special effects of the period.

Directed by:  Stanley Kubrick. Written by:  Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke.   Cinematography:  Geoffrey Unsworth. Special Effects:  Wally Veevers, Douglas Trumbull, Con Pederson, Tom Howard. With:  Keir Dullea, William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter, voice of Hal, Douglas Rain.
 

BABETTE'S FEAST (105 min.)

Isak Dinesen's short story about two devout sisters in coastal Denmark and their French cook captures something essential about life, religion, and feeling.  The story, in brief, concerns two elderly daughters of a Protestant sect leader.  They renounced romantic love in order to serve their father's followers.  One former suitor, a French opera singer, sends them a political refugee named Babette.  A former cook to Parisian elites, she settles into domestic service in humble silence.  But when she wins the French lottery, Babette decides to prepare a lavish feast for the villagers.

Gabriel Axel's film version of this simple story makes palpable the contrast between rural Protestant asceticism and urban Catholic sensuality, using the tools of film to illustrate an obvious but important dichotomy.  But the essential meaning of the story lies not in the illustration of what Babette's feast of turtle soup, quail in a coffin, etc., does for the villagers.  It is, literally, to loosen their tongues, so that a process of talking and, more importantly, of mourning can begin.  The two sisters had lived silently for many years with their memories and secret regret over loves renounced.  Babette herself mourns the life she used to know, as well as the husband and son who died in rebellion against the classes who employed her culinary skills.  In Freudian terms, the lost objects are internalized as food, with the aspect of celebration to mark it as ritual.  The images, colors, and motions of the film give this process another physical dimension, as the eye is fed and the audience joins in the pleasure of viewing.  While specific meanings can be disputed, there's no question that this film discovers a way in which sensory experiences—such as eating and seeing—transmit deep meaning through creative means.

Directed by:   Gabriel Axel. Written by:  Gabriel Axel (from Isak Dinesen novella).   Cinematography:  Henning Kristiansen. With:   Stephane Audran, Bodil Kjer, Brigitte Federspiel, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Jarl Kulle, Bibi Andersson
 

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (125 min.)

In keeping with the theme "The Search for Meaning in Film," the first film of the festival, It's a Wonderful Life is a perfect example of what people are led to believe is important versus what is experienced as important in life.  In the high speed, media-driven, global world of today, people are manipulated, swayed, and cajoled into believing life could be better if . . . 

In It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey has watched everyone around him go on to fulfill their dreams, while he is left behind to mind the store, pick up the pieces, and save the day.  He's frustrated beyond belief.  His dreams have been smashed, his career has been diverted, and he finds himself more deeply entrenched than ever in the small town that he obsessively dreams of leaving.

With the help of Clarence Oddbody, "Angel Second Class," George is forced to observe what his life has been.  He sees how rich he is right in the small town of Bedford Falls.  He has everything a man could want—a loving wife and family, close intimate friends, a successful business, and a community that loves and respects him.

In the scheme of life today, what more could one want than the love and closeness of family, a strong sense of community, an internal knowledge that there is a clear difference between right and wrong, and the confidence that one has made a contribution to the lives of other people.  So everyone can really have . . . "a wonderful life."

Directed by:  Frank Capra, Sr. Written by:  Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Jo Swerling (from Philip Van Doren Stern's "The Greatest Gift")  With:   James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner