I was once again grateful to get to so many new films from Europe this year. The fest, made of people who are typically used to members being local, was quite accomodating in helping me obtain tickets over the phone when Ticketmaster couldn't figure out how to make it work for a non-local. The people at the Siskel have always been good to me, and it's nice to feel that kind of warmth from the classiest place to see a film in the Chicago area.
I do feel like I hit a few of the wrong films this year; my Reactions here at Filmsweep were sometimes a mere "Blah," and in other places serious contempt (especially toward the two Swedish films, which as a big fan of the country's films I admit I react against harder). But if it weren't for EUFF, I wouldn't have seen Amer and Letters to Father Jacob on the big screen, where they were both riveting in their own ways and larger than life. I also scooped Korkoro and Trust Me, turning in the first English language write-ups available on the web.
I missed two films I had tickets for: a documentary on the French New Wave called Two In the Wave, which just became available on Netflix, and Danish film Applause, starring Paprika Steen as an actor coming out of rehab -- a film which Ebert loved, and one that I was sad to have had to pass up. But you can't hit 'em all, and that is a film that won't escape a future DVD release.
Thanks again to the Siskel Film Center (great pic of their location above). They'll be launching their Asian showcase in April. Meantime, I hope to fill out the month catching recently released foreigns, which of course I'll shout out about here at the blog.
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