Palm Trees, Celluloid

The flags tell all.

Pinkish flags, sporting strips of celluloid and palm trees have been flapping freely along State Street for the past few weeks. It happens every year around this time, reminding us that film festival time is at hand.

Twelve years ago, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which begins today and runs through March 16, was born of a marriage of commerce and art (palm trees and celluloid). But maybe a film festival was inevitable here. Santa Barbara has always fancied itself a film town at a comfortable distance from Tinseltown, a place where actors and other filmmakers settle down or escape to, and sometimes do location shooting.

This year, an extra day has been added to the festival, which kicks off with tonight’s opening gala. “Rosanna’s Grave,” an American-Italian co-production starring Mercedes Ruehl and Jean Reno, will be this year’s opening film.

The festival, true to the “international” in its title, is a worldly gathering. Austrian entries have been among the strongest in the last few festivals, and the Austrian “Hannah” is a treatise on the dangers of fascism, against the seemingly innocent backdrop of a doll company.

Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos’ “Ulysses’ Gaze” is a three-hour-plus opus in which Harvey Keitel stars, ostensibly wandering through Greece and the strife-torn Balkans. It’s actually an extended existential brood with a hypnotic beauty, like much of Angelopoulos’ work.

A new print of Jacques Demy’s 1961 new-wave classic “Lola,” which preceded the musical “Umbrellas of Cherbourg” both logically and chronologically, is well-worth a look. “Kolya,” nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film, is the sweet Czech tale of a cellist and his latent parental instinct. The fine Australian director Paul Cox (“Vincent”) will be represented with his latest film, “Lust and Revenge.”

There are intriguing documentaries on the schedule, too, including the quirky “Hands on a Hard Body” and the wistful look at train-hopping, “Riding the Rails,” which was a favorite of critics at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

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In a festival that has been known to attract large audiences, getting in can be an art in itself. Individual tickets for films are $7.50, but those patrons are lower in the admission hierarchy than pass-holders. One popular way to do the festival is by purchasing the Eight Greats pass, at $60, offering holders priority seating. There are more lavish options, such as the $225 Full Festival Pass, which gives festival-goers entry to all screenings and selected events, and the $400 Gold Pass, which gives entry to all screenings and events.

Each year, the festival does an admirable job importing participants in the film industry to participate in tributes or seminars, and this year’s roster is especially strong. All the “salute to” events take place at the Fiesta Five and include audience Q&A; sessions after screenings.

Barbara Hershey will be toasted on Friday at 7:30 p.m., with a screening of her 1988 film “A World Apart.” Veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler will be feted on Saturday at 1 p.m., with a screening of John Sayles’ “Matewan.”

A bit of in-house history will be shored up when James Woods returns to the festival with a screening of “Salvador” Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Woods and director Oliver Stone spoke at a screening of the same film at the first festival in 1985.

On a cozier note, Debbie Reynolds will attend a tribute Sunday at 7 p.m., with a screening of Albert Brooks’ “Mother,” in which she co-stars. Wednesday at 7 p.m., Gabriel Byrne will be on hand for a discussion after a screening of the Coen brothers classic “Miller’s Crossing.”

Next weekend, Dennis Hopper will appear Saturday at 9:15 p.m. at the world premiere of his film “The Last Days of Frankie the Fly,” a “Pulp Fiction”-ish saga, also starring Kiefer Sutherland and Daryl Hannah (as a porn star), about the rise and fall of a petty hood.

The festival will also turn its attention to Rob Lowe. At “A Special Evening” with Lowe on March 13, beginning at 7 p.m., his films “American Untitled” and “Bad Influence” will be screened.

Seminars, all held at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, will include “Will the ‘Net Replace TV and the Movies?” Saturday at 2 p.m.; “How to Put Together Feature Films for Under $500,000,” Sunday at 2:30 p.m.; and “Music in Film--Creative and Practical Considerations,” on March 15 at 2 p.m.

The most star-studded affair may well be “It Starts With the Script,” Sunday at 11 a.m. At press time, the panel included Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient”), Billy Bob Thornton (“Sling Blade”) and Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander (“The People vs. Larry Flynt”).

Considering the broad sweep of options, the only thing the festival seems short on is family fare, with only one youth-oriented screening, the Canadian film “Vincent and Me,” Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Fiesta Five.

BE THERE

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is at various venues in Santa Barbara today through March 16. Tickets are $7.50 for individual screenings, and up, for special events. (805) 963-4408. Opening night festivities are tonight, with a reception at 6:30 and screening of “Rosanna’s Grave” at 7:30 at the Arlington Theater, 1317 State St.