FILMEX BACK WITH A TRIM NEW FORMAT

A new, slimmed-down Filmex is back, after only a seven-month absence. Instead of last year’s surfeit of 180 American and foreign movies, this year’s Los Angeles International Film Exposition will feature about 130 films, divided into five basic sections. The festival will run March 14-28.

It will be easier to see all those movies, too, since Filmex will occupy all three theaters in Mann’s Westwood triplex. Filmex Executive Director Suzanne McCormick said both the condensed schedule and the central location are in response to frequent and vocal criticisms of past editions of Filmex.

“I think it’s a great idea to still have a lot of choices,” McCormick observed of the still-bulky schedule.

“But this year we’re concentrated in one place. You won’t even have to walk in the rain,” Artistic Director Ken Wlaschin added. He joined McCormick in discussing the schedule amid the hectic activity in their manor house offices at the American Film Institute’s Los Feliz campus.

Wlaschin said a decision had been made to structure the often-sprawling festival into five compact sections, with many of the films (about 70% of the total) to be screened during both afternoons and evenings.

“We’re talking about two different audiences in daytime and nighttime,” Wlaschin noted. “All of our foreign visitors and the press will go to the daytime screenings, which will free up more room in the evening screenings for the general public.”

Filmex will cost more this year, with a price of $6 for each evening show and $3 for daytime programs. No series discounts will be available. (Filmex Society members will pay $5 in the evening and $2.50 during the day.) There will be no free programs this year, Wlaschin said. A major studio feature will be announced next week as the opening-night attraction at Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

This year’s edition of Filmex will include a total of 63 independent American features, short films and documentaries, with an independent feature competition and a prize to be awarded by an international jury; 57 international movies from 20 countries; 14 Latin American films from nine countries, primarily Mexico and Argentina, and 14 Asian films, including some from Japan and Korea.

There is also a host of special events planned, including a 50-hour fantasy-movie marathon and a new feature, an all-night champagne screening of light, frothy films, such as “Top Hat” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

The cultural highlight of the festival will probably be the American premiere of what Wlaschin called the longest feature film ever made: the 16 1/2-hour West German movie “Heimat” (“The Homeland”), which will be shown in sections on two consecutive weekend days. (Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 15 1/2-hour “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” which has been shown theatrically, was conceived of as a television miniseries.) “Heimat” will have a separate ticket price, probably around $25.

“It’s not just its length, but what’s done with its length that makes this film special,” Wlaschin said. “This is a kind of personalized history that can only be done on film.” Director Edgar Reitz will accompany “Heimat,” which is based on an original story following the fortunes of a group of villagers from 1912 to 1982.

Several notable foreign film makers will have their work represented, including new films from Czech director Jiri Menzel, Polish film makers Krzystof Zanussi and expatriate Walerian Borowczyk, Hungarian director Miklos Jancso, Spanish director Carlos Saura, Russian poet-turned-film maker Yevgeny Yevtushenko and French actor Gerard Depardieu making his directorial debut in a film version of Moliere’s “La Tartuffe,” in which Depardieu also plays the title role.

McCormick and Wlaschin said that they were particularly proud that Filmex is living up to its promise of programming foreign movies that reflect the ethnic diversity of Los Angeles. “We made a conscious effort to find films from Mexico, Argentina, Japan and Korea, which in particular has a developing cinema,” Wlaschin noted.

Filmex this year will also highlight treasures from the three most prestigious film archives in California: There will be two movies from the UCLA Film Archives, a selection from the Berkeley-based Pacific Film Archives’ large collection of Japanese films and some historic early cinematic efforts from the archives at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The academy and the International Documentary Assn. will also participate in a Filmex screening of all the Oscar-nominated, live-action and animated short films and the feature-length documentaries on the March 23-24 weekend before the Academy Awards ceremonies.

The champagne screenings will typify the light fare and will run from midnight to 7 a.m., with the bubbly served between features. This year’s movie marathon will feature fantasy films, from the work of stop-motion animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen to light comedies such as “Blithe Spirit” and “Topper.”

There will also be several seminars co-sponsored by Filmex, one in conjunction with Women in Film and the other with the Independent Feature Project/West.

Independent films have always been emphasized by Filmex. Wlaschin pointed out that two of the most critically acclaimed independent features this year, “Stranger Than Paradise” and “Blood Simple,” had their American premieres at Filmex last year.

This year’s selection includes new films from directors Paul Morrissey, Rob Nillson, Shirley Clarke, Henry Jaglom and Jan Egelson.

“There’s a growing interest internationally in these films,” Wlaschin said, adding that the purpose of Filmex’s first feature competition will be to highlight independent cinema. A yet-to-be-chosen jury will select three winners: one for best documentary, one for best first feature, and a grand prize winner for best independent film. The competition will be limited to genuine independent films, with budgets under $1 million. Between 14 and 16 films are expected to compete, including feature films and documentaries.

Also scheduled is a special program of short films, which usually were relegated to an introductory role, preceding the main features. “They were generally ignored,” Wlaschin acknowledged. “Now film makers will be able to present their work and discuss it with the audience. There are some people who only come to see the short films.”

McCormick said that Filmex is operating on a year-round budget of a little more than $700,000 and confirmed that with the announcement of plans for an American Cinematheque at Pan Pacific Park, the competition for foundation dollars and film grants will become even more intense, although that is not necessarily a negative situation. Ousted Filmex founder Gary Essert is behind the plans for the cinematheque, but McCormick and Wlaschin emphasized that feelings between the two groups are very cordial.